OpenCivics Collaborative Initiative – Specification Template 2.0

The Collaborative Initiative Specification Template 2.0 provides a structured framework for organizing and executing collaborative projects. It includes key sections like the project’s purpose, scope, stakeholders, governance models, decision-making processes, and success metrics. The template emphasizes clarity and accountability, ensuring that all participants understand their roles and contributions while promoting transparent and decentralized collaboration.

This concept is similar to the SuperBenefit meme of group state.

---

Collaborative Initiative Proposal Template

The purpose of this proposal template is to provision a minimum viable coordination scaffolding for ephemeral collaborative groups who seek to align efforts towards a mutually consented and aspired collective action. The Context templates encourages collaborative initiatives to consider their alignment around a shared systemic outcome. The Agreements templates encourage consensual fields of peer accountability and collective intelligence that can function as a coherent stigmergic swarm of shared agency.

This template is offered free and open-source while simultaneously serving as an open protocol for the OpenCivics Consortium Initiatives Program. It is intended to function best with support from the OpenCivics Knowledge Commons and Open Protocol Library which offer modular components that can be utilized to operationalize each field of agreement.

Within the OpenCivics Network, Collaborative Initiatives are autonomous DAOs which may elect to enter into a fiscal hosting relationship with the OpenCivics Foundation should they be deemed within the scope of tax deductible activities for which the OpenCivics Foundation maintains a fiduciary and reporting responsibility.

Learn more about Collaborative Initiatives.

---

Introduction

Set the context of the collaborative initiative with relevant details of how it came to be and what it broadly hopes to achieve.

Context

Problem Statement

Describe the problem(s) that the collaborative initiative aims to solve.

Current System Dynamics

Describe the current system dynamics that contribute to the problem.

Future System Equilibrium

Describe the future system equilibrium that the initiative hopes to achieve.

Proposed Initiatives

Write description here

Related Initiatives

Current initiatives being led by network members with the aim of achieving the objectives of the collaborative initiative.

Agreements

These agreements form the basis of our collective practice of being and moving together. Principles of commons governance are encouraged to pursue a healthy, self-organizing field capable of self-monitoring and self-enforced graduated sanctions for broken agreements.

Membranes

• What are the boundary conditions of the group?
  • How are members added?
  • How are members removed?
  • What cultural agreements form the basis of collective agency?
    • What is your shared Vision, Mission, and Purpose?
    • What are your shared Values?
    • What are your shared Practices and Rituals?
      • How will conflicts be mediated or arbitrated?
      • How will we each hold each other accountable to these agreements?
• How does the group membrane relate to a wider ecosystem of membrane relationships?
• How do internal membranes relate to the group?
• How will members exit the group if they are unable to resolve a dispute?
• How will the group fork into or merge with other groups?

Coordination

• What are the necessary specialized roles or sub-groups for this initiative and how will they work together?
• Where and how will collaboration take place?
• Where and how will the initiative communicate internally and externally?

Decision Making

• What types of decisions will be made by whom?
• What types of decision require consent, majority threshold, or consensus?
• How will decisions be made?
• What is the agreed upon dialogue process to inform decisions?

Resource Allocation

• How will contributions be tracked and rewarded?
• How will the initiative receive or distribute resources?
• At what rate, timeline, or thresholds will resources be allocated?

Learning

• Where and how will learnings be shared internally and externally?
• How will the initiative compost its learnings at the end of its lifecycle?

---

Appendices

Social Organism Ontology

Agency

• Agents: Individual actors who initiate actions, make decisions, hold roles and responsibilities, have needs and skills, and influence outcomes within the social [system|organism], contributing as a component part to a social organism’s overall adaptive and dynamic processes.
• Agencies: Groups of agents that collectively initiate actions, influence outcomes, and produce outputs based utilizing participatory governance patterns to coordinate collective agency towards a mutually shared mission, vision, and purpose.

Membranes

• Nesting: Membranes contain and are contained by other membranes. Internally, membranes refer to component parts within the social organism. Externally, membranes refer to the nested holons within which the membrane is located.
• Peer Relations: Membranes also define the lateral relationships within peer groups. These relationships, internal or external, reference the flows across parts and wholes.
• Threshold Conditions: Semipermeable membranes maintain structural integrity by determining what types of agency and flows are permitted to cross into the social organism. Clearly defined membranes support healthy reciprocal flows.

Roles

• Role Type: Role types may include standard functions or customized functions. Social organisms may set as a membrane condition that each membrane contains a certain number of specific role types (ie facilitators or knowledge managers) for the healthy functioning of that membrane.
• Role Description: Role descriptions are summaries of responsibilities and permissions for each role. Written in natural language, they are effectively a mission, vision, and purpose statement for each agent or agency within a social organism. These statements provide a baseline rubric for the evaluation of the role filler’s functions.
• Role Responsibilities: Responsibilities are specific functions that a role filler fulfills through their agency.
• Role Permissions: Permissions define the scope of agency for each role. Permissions may address various contexts of agency with the goal of clearly defined boundaries between collective agency and individual empowerment.

Functions

• Sensemaking: The process of interpreting and understanding complex information to create a shared perspective and meaning within a social organism.
• Mapping: The identification and visualization of the relationships, structures, and dynamics to better understand components of a holistic system and their interactions.
• Decision Making: The evaluation of options and selection of courses of action to guide the social organism toward its goals.
• Allocating: The distribution of resources and roles to optimize [the social organism’s] functioning.
• Coordinating: The synchronization and alignment of activities, processes, and efforts among different parts of the social organism to ensure effective collaboration and efficiency.
• Learning: The acquisition, assimilation, and application of insights to improve the social organism’s adaptability, resilience, and functioning.

Flows

• Inputs: Inputs are the [information, resources, and energy | resources, information, energy, and stimuli] that are introduced into the social [system | organism]. These inputs are essential for [initiating processes, driving activities, and enabling interactions] that sustain and develop the organism’s [functions and goals].
• Outputs: Outputs are the tangible and intangible results produced by the activities, processes, and interactions within the social [ system | organism ]. These outputs include [products, services, knowledge, decisions, and actions] that contribute to the organism’s [goals, enhance its functioning, and influence its environment].
• Value Accounting: Value accounting is the systematic tracking, measuring, and evaluating of [contributions, resources, and benefits] within the social [system | organism]. This process ensures that the value created [by individuals and groups] is [recognized, quantified, and fairly distributed], fostering [transparency, equity, and mutual support] among the participants in the organism.

Culture

• Vision, Mission, and Purpose: By providing a guiding north star for the collective agency of the social organism, it is clear to participants why they may want or not want to align through collective agency. While approaches may differ throughout the maturation of the social organism, a shared sense of the organism’s ultimate purpose provides an evaluative mechanism for the organism to reflect upon its own successes or failures.
• Values: Values are effectively priorities that further help to guide the process and outputs of a social organism. Whereas the mission and purpose of the organism describe the desired outcomes, values further identify the qualities of the process and outcome that participants desire.
• Practices and Rituals: Practices and rituals are social mechanisms for establishing and maintaining group coherence or to support restorative processes when ruptures occur. Ranging from daily group practices like brief meditations or check ins to quarterly in-person retreats or ceremonies, group practices are essential to ensure the social organism’s culture is intact and effective.
• Agreements: Agreements refer to a broad range of different types of social constructs related to the relational qualities of the social organism. Agreements can establish mutually determined behavioral norms, participatory processes, or communication patterns.
  • The following are examples of collaborative agreements that may be made between participants in a collaborative initiative:
    • Open communication: Participants agree to keep each other informed about progress, challenges, and opportunities related to the initiative.
    • Shared decision-making: Participants agree to work together to make decisions that affect the initiative, taking into account the needs and perspectives of all stakeholders.
    • Mutual accountability: Participants agree to hold each other accountable for meeting agreed-upon objectives and timelines.
    • Resource sharing: Participants agree to share resources, including personnel, funding, and expertise, as needed to achieve the initiative’s goals.
    • Intellectual property: Participants agree to establish clear guidelines for intellectual property ownership and use, including any patents, copyrights, or trademarks that may arise from the initiative.
    • Conflict resolution: Participants agree to establish a process for resolving conflicts that may arise during the course of the initiative, including mediation or other dispute resolution mechanisms.
    • Non-competition: Participants agree to avoid competing with each other or with other initiatives that may be working toward similar goals, and to seek opportunities for collaboration and partnership whenever possible.

Living Systems Grammar

Conception

Conception is the initial phase of generating and formulating new ideas, visions, or plans. This stage emanates from the felt sensing of an individual or group of agents related to a critical social need. This inspiration may take the form of a key insight to a missing social service or function or a curiosity around an alternative method for improving the provisioning of that core civilizational need. At the conception stage of a social organism’s lifecycle, individual agents are responsible for instigating the seed of a social organism’s DNA, the underlying framework of mission, vision, and values as well as an initial set of cultural agreements. While these patterns will likely evolve as the organism forms and develops, they represent the first membrane of the social organism and provide a participatory pathway for agents to consensually cross the threshold if they align with the initial vision and wish to step forward to help shape its further development and maturation.

Gestation

Gestation is the period during which ideas, plans, or initiatives are developed, refined, and prepared for implementation. This stage involves nurturing, organizing, and iterating on the initial concept, ensuring it matures and evolves into a viable and actionable form that can contribute effectively to the social ecology. The gestation process involves further sensemaking and mapping of community needs, testing the hypothesis of the initial conception period, and developing the internal membranes, roles, and flows necessary for the organism to begin to fulfill its ecological purpose. As roles are defined and additional agents are included in the development process, governance mechanisms are needed to support initial decision making processes and establish the nested functions and flows that will support the organism in achieving its purpose as it matures.

Maturation

Maturation is the phase of development in which the social organism is fully fulfilling its ecological purpose. In this stage, internal membranes, roles, functions, culture and flows are well established and can begin generating value as an output to their ecology. Arriving at a state of maturity, the organism is effectively able to metabolize inputs into outputs while nourishing and sustaining itself. While this stage is primarily defined by the contribution the organism is making to its ecology, it is also an important phase for internal development, mutually reinforcing behavioral and cultural patterns and processes, as well as the internal flows of information and resources between the internal functional membranes. A mature organism also begins to consider its own reproduction and begin the transition process into a rising generation of emerging leaders. The maturation process can

Decomposition

Once the social organism has reached the peak of its maturity, it begins the process of decomposition and death. This phase of the lifecycle is focused on integrating the evolutionary learnings of the dying generation into the core DNA of the rising one. The decomposition process includes contributing the constituent parts of the organism back to the commons where they can be re-composed into new life as well as the evolutionary process of maintaining whatever aspect of the organism’s iterative experimentation was life-affirming. This process of natural selection, applied to social organisms, supports the ongoing evolutionary feedback process of iterative development, improvement, and refinement.