Skip to content

Plurality in Practice: Case File

Framework Rich McDowell, Martin Benedikt Busch
researcher academic
Download →

This case file examines plural voting mechanisms that weight voter preferences based on identity and expertise relationships to reward diverse group consensus, questioning whether such systems reduce powerful voting blocs or merely shift the nature of power concentration. The authors identify a central tension: while plural mechanisms aim to increase plurality, their successful implementation requires substantial top-down calibration that can introduce new biases and remain vulnerable to capture without careful design.

Related resources

Talk

Salon II: ARC Regenerative Communities - 2024 Protocol Symposium

Kalia Young and Day present research on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a regenerative standards development organization, examining how its protocols and social structures enable long-term innovation and maintenance of the internet as digital public infrastructure. They argue that the IETF's decentralized, generative approach to protocol creation represents a model for pro-social technical communities seeking to build and sustain digital commons.

digital-commons governance internet-engineering-task-force-ietf

Kalia Young, Day

Paper

Capital Enclosure for Software Commons

Van Epps argues that entities extracting profits from software commons like Linux and Ethereum have the greatest incentive and capacity to co-opt them, analyzing how common-pool resources operate according to internal logics distinct from capital accumulation. The paper examines the structural tension between the anti-rival nature of digital goods and the enclosure mechanisms through which commercial actors capture value from collaborative software ecosystems.

economics governance protocols

Trent Van Epps

Talk

Nathan Schneider: Contributions to a Glossary of Protocol

Nathan Schneider, professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, presents his research on protocol studies and shares a glossary project documenting the intellectual history of protocols across disciplines. He traces how the term 'protocol' appears across online economies, blockchains, crypto, and social networks, and discusses his oral history initiative interviewing protocol practitioners worldwide.

governance online-economies oral-history-of-protocols

Nathan Schneider

Topics

coordination governance protocols research