Commoning is a good way to solve coordination problems
*planted: 29/12/2021last tended: 29/12/2021
Flancian asked:
- wdyt about commons/commoning as a possible solution to solving coordination problems?
- it seems like adding to the value of a commons, and thus unlocking further (e.g. integration) value for one and others, might be an actual incentive to agree on coordination points
I replied:
- Oh interesting! Yes I think commoning is a fantastic way of solving coordination problems.
- Peer Governance is one of the main spheres of commoning.
- Commoning feels in a nutshell like agreeing that a shared goal/resource is important, then figuring out the rules needed to keep that shared goal from being lost.
- Rules and activities
- I guess the counterargument is the Tragedy of the Commons. Which feels pretty much like a prime example of failure in a coordination problem.
- Of course that's what Ostrom and other scholars debunked so thoroughly.
- I suppose, and I don't know how this is approached usually in a game theoretical sense, is the problem in a coordination problem the question of how do you actually communicate in the first place that you have a shared goal?
- Like in the prisoner's dilemma is the problem that people just don't have a means to communicate a shared goal to each other? Or is it the assumption that even with a clearly communicated shared goal a rational individual would still choose selfishness.
- Another thing to add is that B&H describe commons as complex systems, so I think not something that could easily be modelled to 'prove' it could solve a given problem.
I suppose, and I don't know how this is approached usually in a game theoretical sense, is the problem in a coordination problem the question of how do you actually communicate in the first place that you have a shared goal?
- ^ Re: this question, I feel that commoning kicks in once you have a shared goal. I don't know how much commoning helps to actually define the shared goal in the first place… need to look in to that.
- Heh one of the patterns is called Cultivate Shared Purpose and Values so maybe it does help in that regard too.
- Anarchist Cybernetics had a lot to say about communication of shared goals too.
1. Epistemic status
- Type
- notion
- Gut feeling
- 8
- Confidence
- 5
Confidence middling because I haven't researched what a coordination problem is formally defined as. So I'm not sure how much a coordination problem revolves around deciding what to coordinate on, or doing the coordinating once you've decided that. But gut feeling high, because coordination seems to be a core principle of successful commoning.
2. Elsewhere
2.1. In my garden
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