DoocraticAccountability

This page documents some ways to have Do-ocratic software systems broadly construct that are resilient to abuse and vandalism through accountability. These techniques can be used for many different different kinds of Do-ocratically managed pieces of software, from fun toys to critical financial operations.

Accountability through Transparent Logging

One really useful technique is transparent logging of all critical actions. Every action that needs to be done do-ocratically is logged in some public fashion, together with some mechanism for identifying the person who performed the action.

Examples

File:SMT Logging.png

SMT

Noisebridge's SocialMediaTool allows anyone in the community to post to our social media accounts through a Slack integration. Because the integration can get the username of the person who used it, we're able to log the action to a dedicated #smt-accountability which anyone can join.

File:Noisebytes Moderation.png

Noisebytes

Noisebytes allows anyone to upload videos to our YouTube channel's Noisebytes playlist by going through a web interface. Because web interfaces have no way of allowing us to identify the uploader without creating a whole log in system, we instead keep the video private. We then log that the video was uploaded to the #noisebytes channel in our Slack, and allow any Slack user to approve it or trash it using a Slack integration. These actions are then logged, with the username of the person performing them, in that channel.

Beyond Budgeting at Statoil (Norway's national oil co.)

Statoil abolished budgeting and normal financial management, replacing it entirely by giving every single employee, from CEO down to janitors, a company checkbook. The constraints on usage were 1) use it like its your own money, 2) every purchase was viewable by everyone in the company.

https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/videos/beyond-budgeting-an-agile-management-model-for-new-business-and-people-realities-the-statoil-implementation-journey/