Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Assembly Rules Jim Moore follows up the Second Superpower, by begging one heck of a question: In ecology there is a sub-field called Assembly Rules that seeks to understand the combinations of species that are required for a functioning ecosystem.  The field goes farther and looks for the sequences by which a few species can establish a foundation on which others can grow. Aspen trees stabilize nitrogen in the soil, making a place for hardwoods to follow.  Lichens break down volcanic rocks into a primitive soil, mosses and ferns follow. I wonder, what are the assembly rules for emergent democracy? One visible set of assembly rules in such an ecosystem could be open standards as a category of competition-rules.  When a standard is adopted by the ecosystem of vendors and users, it provides a space where absence of competition fosters certain kinds of community development.  RSS, for example, opened the floodgates for different communities to talk to each other.  A potential standard that would further emergent democracy would be vote links. It also enabled vendors to innovate on top of RSS and then engage in competition.  What standards do really well is form a basis of trust for a community to flourish. 3:56:28 PM    comment []

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