CommunityGovernance

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Communities such as wikis, FreeSoftware projects, and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) use various forms of governance.

For wikis, often the founder acts as a leader -- a GodKing or a BenevolentDictator. Sometimes leadership is neglected and the community deteriorates due to AbsentLeaders.

Some leaders try to DevolvePower back to the community.

Somewhere in the middle we find transparency. Leaders use OpenProcess to give people choices -- one of them being the RightToLeave.

Often this is a progression à la WikiLifeCycle: A lonely founder starts attracting followers, who build a community. Different forms of governance apply to different stages. When the community is small, not much democracy is required, and emotional attachment is small, making the RightToLeave a realistic option. As the community grows, and attachment grows as people contribute time and money, more transparency eventually more power is required for contributors.

Sometimes, as associations grow, they lag behind in power devolving. The FreeSoftwareFoundation (FSF), for example, is still headed by RichardStallman without any real constituency. A few people (but not many) have started to challenge this.

One can analyze the changes in corporate governance and management theory as a parallel progression to the changes in the public sphere. However, "non-state" organizations have certain properties that differentiate themselves from states, one being the lack of monopolized control over their membership's lives which results greater flexibility. (*) This flexibility actually reduces the ability of the organizations' memberships to exert pressure on their management as they can always ask (force) you to exercise your RightToLeave. Consequently, organizations resist democratization heavily, and only DevolvePower when forced (e.g. unions, employee shortages). This may explain why the FSF remains tightly controlled despite the seeming contradiction to its ideaology. Contrast with MeatBall, though we'll leave conclusions to the reader.

: (*) Although, we can certainly see trends suggesting that companies are moving towards statehood for some of their employees. Already U.S. companies provide GatedCommunity housing and even campus housing for employees moving in from out of area, a practice normally restricted to compounds in war torn countries. (Maybe America is a war torn country?)

CommunityGovernance

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