Platform roadmap

The platform is a technology that can be used by individuals and community-scale organisations to share knowledge and coordinate projects, to trade with each other and govern themselves.

A platform is set up using packaged free software and easy to follow instructions, it creates a direct connection between all the people using it. People who are members of this network can connect with other member for purposes of communication, work or trade. Their common interests can organically give rise to numerous projects, products and services.

As more platforms are set up and more people join the network, a wider range of projects can gain critical mass and economy of scale allows more services and products to be created within the network. Therefore all members are interested in helping others discover and use this technology.

Values

Underlying the platform is a set of values that have guided the development and support its continued evolution.

• Learning Organisation: To provide methods and tools which facilitate the widespread creation of learning organisations, for productive and harmonious group work.
• Independence: To develop and maintain the resources and knowledge required to maximise local independence and freedom, through the promotion of community developed and owned software and organisational templates.
• Resilience: To strengthen community resilience in the face of change, by developing robust organisational procedures and software systems which are resource-efficient and self-contained where possible.
• Reuse: To reuse existing knowledge where ever possible, by aggregating and connecting existing knowledge and expertise and working to open standards, rather than developing proprietary solutions.
• Utilisation: To aid in the effective utilisation of existing resources, minimising waste and work wherever possible, by fostering the mapping and connecting of all kinds of resources into a connected organisational framework, to increase the wealth of all.

Technical Structure

Platforms consist of the following core aspects:

• Content management system
• Documentation including procedures and best practices
• Research & Education material such as Wikipedia, legal glossary and documentaries
• Record administration for managing projects, resources, contacts, accounts and other information
• Linux distro for managing IT infrastructure
• Legal framework for setting up independently of the system
• Financial framework of trading together and funding projects

Financial & Business Structure

We need to create a good default (and eventually a set of defaults) business structure which is optimised for minimal tax legally. This could involve something along the lines of following a procedure that results in members setting up an global business entity as a "non-territorial out-post" of the network. Members then perform work for their instance of the global organisation, their travel and expenses are paid. Members can then apply group discussion and decision-making methods to allocating any surplus funds to members, resources and work.

It's important that the model be completely legal in its method of allowing members to opt-out of the current government systems. The five and six flag methods are very solid in this respect.

Current state as of April 2010 - prototype phase

We currently have a functional system that we've been using for our own organisation and project management. It still has some critical elements from the above list missing, and it's currently based built within a MediaWiki framework which is very good for us as a kind prototype which allows us to develop and refine the content and structure of the environment. Ideally we'd prefer the system to lean more strongly toward Javascript for the interface than it does now, and to be using robust Internet-independent P2P network layer rather than the current web-oriented way.