I am archiving this project because it became way too conceptually bloated for what I really wanted to do: present a third way between majority and consensus. It became too difficult to try and reform it, so I'll start afresh with more stringent requirements. Cheers, Doug. 2018-01-04

Foreword

Genesis

Many excellent things have been done and can only be done when people manage to constructively work together. Like building pyramids, making smart-phones, throwing festivals or eradicating nasty diseases. However many of these excellent things were/are done in a way not so excellent for all the people involved, often fundamentally - or directly - involving force whether physical, economic or social. Not so good.

Can people arrange themselves to do the things we want with less wasted energy, time and resources and more equality, autonomy and joy? You better believe it, many groups are already on their way. In order for groups without force to collaborate they must be able to cooperate which in turn means they must be able to coordinate. A universal and central concept in coordination is the Decision.

Purpose

The purpose of this text is to help people make great group decisions; by examining the very meaning of 'group decisions', theory regarding groups and conflict, existing techniques, the Systemic Consensus framework, the design of complete decision making systems and some wild predictions about the future and maybe more.

Limitations

This text is written more descriptively than prescriptively; it won't solve your problems and wake you up with a cup of tea in the morning. Hopefully you will get some nice ideas to play with though. Another limitation is that this text currently has one writer thus everything is filtered through the singular perspective of a young, white-ish, European, male scientist (who is also not a lawyer).

Scope

Decision making affects every individual and groups of every size, so there is something for everyone. That said, it is definitely geared towards groups of a more voluntary nature and has a focus on scalability. By focussing on decision making, a lot of other important stuff regarding to group work and dynamics will not be covered in detail, if at all.

This text is in active development. Want to collaborate?

Licensed with CC0 1.0 Universal - Take it, use it - don't even ask.