Governance: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:21, 9 December 2022

Governance
Part Of	Mastodon, Mastodon/Bootstrapping
Contributors	Jonny Saunders
Completion Status	In Progress
Active Status	Active
Approval Status	Provisional

Up to Mastodon

Neuromatch.social is a cooperatively governed instance that is operated with shared control over financial, labor, and structural decisions. Membership is not passive - members that make use of the instance are expected to make contributions to running the instance according to their ability and the need of the instance.

Overview

Most of the everyday work of the instance is done by working groups, but their structure and the rest of the operations of the instance are decided by the membership.
Changes to the instance are made with #Proposals, which can be made by any member or working group
Proposals are typically preceded with #Discussions, where a member consults a relevant working group or refines their language before proposing
Proposals follow some expected pattern of consensusmaking with a specific duration and threshold for consensus, depending on what type of proposal it is (see #Administrative Objects).

Administrative Objects

What kinds of things exist in the governance system of neuromatch.social

See Category:Administrative_Object

The instance is governed by several different types of Administrative Objects, each of which is operationalized as a wiki page with a particular category, which in turn has a page schema^[1].

Bylaws

	Bylaw
Description	A basic operating principle of neuromatch.social. Should be general enough to allow refinement by policies.
Voting Period	14 Days2 Weeks <br />
Block Threshold	0.1

The bylaws determine the basic structure of the instance: what its purpose is, how it is to be run, and what its relationship is with its parent, Neuromatch. Bylaws require a higher vote threshold (or, fewer blocks are allowed) in order to change, since changes could dramatically change the instance. As a result they should be written generally enough to not micromanage the unpredictable policies that are needed to enact them.

Policies

	Policy
Description	A collective decision that structures the operation of neuromatch.social. Must be consistent with any existing bylaws.
Voting Period	7 Days1 Weeks <br />
Block Threshold	0.2

Policies operationalize the bylaws, and set core rules for how the instance is to be run. Policies should be consistent with bylaws. Members of the instance are expected to contribute to, know, and follow the policies. Each member is able to modify and create policies, so if they are missing or don't fit the needs of the membership, they should be changed :).

Norms

	Norm
Description	Nonbinding statements about the way that things are usually done, or suggested behavior on neuromatch.social. Sometimes norms can be akin to guides. Norms are intended to be fluid and reflect the current practices of the membership. Norms are not intended to be logically complete or settled, and can contain multiple conflicting perspectives or variants.
Voting Period	3 Days0.429 Weeks <br />
Block Threshold	0.5

Norms are useful for suggesting the "vibe" of the instance and supporting new members understand how things work. Norms offer suggested ways to do things, how members typically expect things to happen, and so depending on the content of the norm members might be encouraged, but are not required to abide by norms. Since each norm could have potentially multiple conflicting viewpoints, it is possible to approve multiple versions and amendments to norms without necessarily needing to make them consistent with previous norms.

Actions

What kind of things can be done by a member of neuromatch.social

Process

Any member can make a proposal for the instance to take some action or change some structure.

Proposals should start with a discussion

Reasons why a proposal might not need a discussion:

Discussions

discussion structure

Proposals

proposal structure

Emergency Proposal

sometimes a WG needs to do something for a time-sensitive reason, eg. in Conflict Resolution or

Working Groups

Bounded Discretion

Access Policy

Creating a working group

Voting

See also: Consensus

Neuromatch.social decisions are made with a modified form of consensus for large asynchronous groups.

Voting in a Consensus system is not like voting in a majoritarian system: rather than voting for the thing that would be best for you, you are voting for

elaborate...

consensus thresholds....

@@ Line 68: / Line 68: @@
 ''What kind of things can be done by a member of neuromatch.social''
-Any member can make a '''proposal''' for the instance to take some action or change some structure.
+=== Process ===
+<graphviz format="svg" scale=0.5>
+digraph {
+//   splines="ortho"
+  // items
+//   idea[
+//       label="Idea!!!",
+//       shape=box3d
+//   ]
+  wgchat[
+      label="WG Discussion",
+      shape=box3d
+  ]
+  loomio_disc[
+      label="Loomio Discussion",
+      shape=box3d
+  ]
+  proposal[
+      label="Proposal",
+      shape=box3d
+  ]
+  //   decisions
+  discussion_required[
+      label="Discussion\n Required?",
+      style="dashed"
+  ]
+  iswg[
+      label="Related to\nWorking\nGroup?",
+      style="dashed"
+  ]
+//   wg_discretion[
+//       label="Within\nDiscretion\nof Working\nGroup?",
+//       style="dashed"
+//   ]
+//   passes[
+//       label="Proposal Passes?",
+//       style="dashed"
+//   ]
+  iswg2[
+      label="Responsibility\nof Working\nGroup?"
+      style="dashed"
+  ]
+  // outcomes
+  wg_does[
+      label="Working Group Does It",
+      style="filled, rounded",
+      shape=box
+  ]
+  volunteers_do[
+      label="Volunteers Organize Labor",
+      style="filled, rounded",
+      shape=box
+  ]
+//   idea -> discussion_required
+  discussion_required -> proposal[label=" No"]
+  discussion_required -> iswg[label="Yes"]
+  iswg -> wgchat[label="Yes"]
+  iswg -> loomio_disc[label="No"]
+//   wgchat -> wg_discretion
+  wgchat -> loomio_disc
+  wgchat -> wg_does[label="Within\nour\ndiscretion"]
+//   wg_discretion -> wg_does[label="Yes"]
+//   wg_discretion -> loomio_disc[label="No"]
+  loomio_disc -> proposal[label="Refine Idea"]
+//   proposal -> passes
+  proposal -> iswg2
+//   passes -> iswg2[label="Yes"]
+//   passes -> idea[label="Re-evaluate"]
+  iswg2 -> wg_does[label="Yes"]
+  iswg2 -> volunteers_do[label="No"]
+}
+</graphviz>
+Any member can make a '''proposal''' for the instance to take some action or change some structure.
+Proposals should start with a discussion
+'''Reasons why a proposal might not need a discussion:'''
+*
 === Discussions ===
@@ Line 77: / Line 163: @@
 ''proposal structure''
+=== Emergency Proposal ===
+sometimes a WG needs to do something for a time-sensitive reason, eg. in [[Conflict Resolution]] or
 == Working Groups ==
 === Bounded Discretion ===
+* [[Depends On::Access Policy]]
+=== Creating a working group ===
 == Voting ==