PeerLibrary governance

PeerLibrary has not yet been around long enough for a real governance to emerge. Currently team is small enough and can meet in person so all questions can be addressed directly and efficiently. The team is currently homogeneous enough so some big issues have not yet emerged.

What I would like to see is that we would be organized in a non-hierarchical community where common decisions are made consensually through constructive debate and arguments, but where in the case of equivalent arguments, we favor arguments of those who are more actively participating in PeerLibrary. Of course, those should pay attention to not overuse this favoring carelessly because the dissatisfied can in any moment decide not to participate anymore. That way, the whole project would be at loss.

I call this catalyzed consensus. The idea is that those with more experience can have enough knowledge, experience and imagination to be able to create and argument new proposals for solutions which would everybody in the community agree with, or at least accept. This process is not an easy one, and creative solutions often cannot emerge without a conscious effort, often facilitated by a moderator who is actively creating new proposals. This is a way of building upon the collective intelligence of the community. Until there is no solution the community agrees on or accepts, additional input into the solution is needed. By processing this input in a creative way to address all input we get to a solution which is the best one the community can produce.

It is important to remember that the solution is not just pure solution, but equal part reasoning for this solution. So sometimes it is just necessary to properly explain the solution and reasons for it in context of the project. This part of the process helps everybody better understand the issue, because by explaining the issue and proposed solution you are improving your own understanding as well, growing space for possible another iteration of the proposal. So discussion is equal part of the process of finding a solution than the solution itself is.