NEW WAYS OF ORGANIZING · SHORTS 09

A new concise insight into how we can improve our collective action through new forms of collaboration, governance, ownership, and value distribution. While decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) can be part of this, we adopt a broader perspective on collective action with this initiative.

The art of representation and community support

Representation is a good way to save time for community members. Through representation, decision-making is left to someone with the right knowledge, skills, and time.

But how do you keep as a representative a two-way connection with your base? And how do you as a community member take care of good representation? Granting a ‘blanco’ mandate every four years might perhaps work for national elections and solving national issues, but it often falls short when solving local issues.

Representation should result in high-quality decisions (decisions that meet the needs of community). High-quality decisions require high-quality input. High-quality input comes from members of the community. They often know the circumstances that caused a problem. They have experienced the problem firsthand. And community members have a stake in the local issues and feel it when a solution succeeds or fails. And for high-quality decisions to be successfully implemented, community support is necessary.

But not every community-member has the time, knowledge or skills to participate in decision-making. This is why representation as a construction for decision-making is implemented in the first place.

So, given a representation construct, how can you still collect high-quality input from community members and how do you get their support to implement a chosen solution? 

The goal is to create (emotional) joint ownership that make members want to invest some of their time. Time-saving participation, accessibility to data and short learning loops are the way. Tools offer the means.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) - Mechanisms/tools

DAO-mechanisms/tools can define roles: who is the representative and who are the eligible members. DAO-mechanisms/tools offer community members the opportunity to vote from home, from the couch. DAO-mechanisms/tools offer representatives channels to communicate with their constituency. See for more info https://v0-how-to-dao-it-website-with-wiki.vercel.app.

Want to exchange ideas or need information or help?

Contact us at +31 6 53 42 42 93 or info@newwaysoforganizing.com. Follow New Ways of Organizing on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/new-ways-of-organizing

#DAO #Collaboration #Governance #Organizing #Trust #Tools
#Ownership #Professionalism

Street art as an example of a (digital) common

Human artists create street art in public spaces—free for anyone who encounters it.

By Manolo Mesa, Acquapendente, Italy