Talk given at Refactor Camp, May 2018

1. Distributed Control for Inclusion
Just a lil bit bout me...

2. The challenge of being inclusive
Despite efforts by
activists and
policymakers, inclusion
remains a hard problem
for activists on the left,
often due to distances

4. Some political frameworks for inclusivity
Human Rights-Rawls,Nussbaum/Sen
A set of claims to social goods or protection that are universal to all
people
Most effective when used by people whose rights are violated
Less effective when invoked by authority figures
Intersectionality
-Kimberle Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, Combahee River Collective
Framework to address social complexities by focusing on overlapping
power dynamics across dimensions(e.g race and gender)
Must be taken all the way to be effective
Subalternity- Gramsi, Spivak
Emphasizes the way in which certain peoples are excluded from

5. Inlcusion in social movements
Movements acknowledge their
diversity over time
Civil Rights Movement – BLM or 2
nd
wave to 3
rd
wave feminism
Figureheads acknowledged and
allowed activists to rest in the
mainstream
marginalized activists that held

6. Networks
Connected, collective, and participatory
Good abstract model for complex relationships
Context agnostic
Easiest to be influenced, easier to speak, harder to be
heard

8. Protocols
Maintain order in a decentralized space-(loosely drawn
from Alexander Galloway)
Includes technical web foundations(e.g HTTP)
Social protocols can dictate how communities relate, as
they can in networks(e.g trigger warnings, voting
procedures )

9. Community
A more clearly defined network
Tied by:
blood/home(family)
location(town, state, nation)
interests(hobby groups, shared ideology)
experience(trauma, identity)

10. Shared narrative and community building
Marshall Ganz-Public Narrative Framework
Sense of purpose and values communicated through our
stories
Starts personal, expands to be communal/political
Rooted in the present

11. A distributed community history book
Speculative attempt at social-technical protocol
Allows for transparent community driven storytelling
Sharing history possible between groups
Divergent narratives without censorship also possible
Contexts made clear!

12. Why?
Shared narratives organize groups
More clearly defined groups can better advocate for
themselves
Clear historical divergences in the book can make
deliberation easier
I am skeptical of a single version of history anyway

13. Privacy, protection, and identity
Those with the least power need privacy the most
Visibility must be collective, not individual
Identity may best be communally defined, one way or
another

14. Communal consensus and membership
Who gets to contribute to a communal chain?
Do we favor people being voted in by existing community members?
Do people self identify?
Does the existence of cliques require more cliques?
Is there a quantifiable transition point where we can
define rough consensus?-(e.g 70%)
How do we prevent communities from trying to bring
people in for the sake of overwhelming other groups?

15. Forking
Copying data for individual projects, breaking away from
others-(in our case)
Bailout of community conflicts, consensus ultimately
unnecessary
Can be done by anyone, at any scale
Soft -coercive(requires deliberation)
Hard-successionary(ends attempts at deliberation)

16. Blockchain governance parameters
Cryptoeconomics?(Depends on trust)
Common knowledge
Proceedural fairness
Communal legitimacy(for stakeholders/communities)
Requires trust in the overarching system
In strong communities, there is a reasonable degree of
trust between individual members, or mediated(e.g a child
grows to trust their aunt/uncle because their parent does)

17. Beloved Community
Popularized by Martin Luther King Jr.
Ultimately requires groups one disagrees with
Speaks to an overarching, timeless strategy rather than
specific tactics
Not utopian and takes messiness head on

18. A beloved community protocol
Altruistic by design, designed by necessity
Modifies nonviolent, creative energy for digital spaces
When another community(i.e fork) is referenced in a new
history entry, community members must look at shared
history
If communities see space for dialogue, they can create a
new shared chain or entry

19. Lingering Questions
How do we allow forks without accusations of being
divisive?
How do I work with hard v soft forks?
Or how do I have a unified history where divergent
narratives converge?

20. Now for your questions and/or comments!