Contribution

Definition

A contribution is an addition to a value stream of something to which we attribute value.

The NRP-CAS records activity of network affiliates in different types of processes, in a context of work (a venture or a project). The recording is done through a process called logging. Logs are claims for contributions, which are used in benefit redistribution algorithms, providing access to benefits. A log becomes a contribution only under certain conditions. A log can be rejected for being a lousy or lossy use of time or resources, or simply for being fraudulent. This is how abuse or gaming is avoided.

Kurt proposed the following principle: A log of activity in the NRP-CAS is considered a contribution if it increases the probability to create something valuable.

We need to distinguish contribution from mere participation or attention (lesser modes of involvement).

Contribution vs exchange

In a collaborative process we can have contributions and exchanges. Working for a company, in a traditional setting, means that labor is exchanged for wages, thus the products of labor belong to the company. Working within an OVN means that labor is seen as part of a co-creation process, risk is shared, giving rights to future benefits (including revenue) generated for the lifetime of the venture or product.

Contributions map individual assets. The main idea behind the OVN model is to allow individuals to contribute with whatever they have, thus reducing the dependency on financial assets. This is the essence of commons-based peer production. Another way to see it, is that an OVN uses an IT infrastructure (OVNi) that integrates crowdsourcing functionality, including crowdfunding. We can say that almost everything is crowdesourced in the context of an OVN.

Basic principles that govern the validation of claims

Kurt proposed the following principle: A log of activity in the NRP-CAS is considered a contribution if it increases the probability to create something valuable.

From this general principles we infer some best practices when formulating a log.

• make sure that you describe how your contribution increases the probability to create something valuable. Be as specific as you can. You may want to refer to a specific process, planning, need, etc.
• make sure that the efforts that you describe (time you spent working on something, money you spent for something, etc.) match reality.
• try to be refer to the level and scope of your contribution (see below).
• whenever possible, name one or more affiliates that can back you claim for contribution. This may come handy in case someone red flags your log.

A transferable contribution is something that can be shared and others can build upon.

See also Contributions log and Validation.

Contribution scope

from Yasir

There are three types of contributions: venture / project-contribution, network-contribution, and commons-contribution. Venture and project-contributions are those contributions that are applicable to the scope of the venture or project; the governance of these contributions is defined at the venture level. For instance, perishable or consumable materials could only be a part of the venture. Network-contributions are those contributions that are applicable to the scope of the network; the governance of these contributions is defined at the network level. For instance: a physical tool can be shared across ventures. Commons-contributions are those contributions that are applicable across networks; the governance of these contributions is defined at the global governance level. For instance: use of standards, legal framework and knowledge.

See more in Open Value Network: A framework for many-to-many innovation

Contribution at the venture level

The aim of a venture can be of a different type:

• create exchange value: a product or a service, addressed to the market
• create use value: a tool that network affiliates can use (or anyone else even outside of the network), which becomes a shared asset within the network
• create social value: help the unemployed, help with environmental issues, etc.

These contributions are activities that increase the probability to create something valuable (see Kurt's principle above), in the context of the venture.

• improve capacity: make available the pool of resources and skills, as well as the infrastructure required to fulfill the mission and goals of the venture
• improve the process: work on the process through which the the mission and goals of the venture are achieved, related to methods, governance, tools, culture, etc.
• improve the deliverable: move the deliverable closer to maturity (move the lifecycle), improve or extend the solution/deliverable
• improve packaging / wrapping up: create a complete package of deliverable and documentation required for its fabrication, dissemination, safe use and maintenance, as well as end-of-life
• improve dissemination: work on the value proposition, desirability, dissemination channels, partnerships, ecosystem services, with the goal to improve reach, adoption, use, volume.
• improve capturing mechanisms: work on mechanisms to capture benefits from the ecosystem (even the market) for the venture.

These contributions can be of different types, defined by operations like development, office work, outreach (marketing), sales, service, etc..

NOTE: capacity, process, deliverable, packaging, dissemination and capturing mechanisms are related to Sensorica venture architecture. More here.

Some activities don’t leave material/tangible traces. For example, if someone spends time reading a book, he/she gets all the benefit, even if the book is related to work activities, unless he/she produces a summary and shares it with others. So the act of reading the book in itself should NOT constitute a contribution to a venture. Some can argue that by increasing ones knowledge one can become more efficient and will be able to add more value to the network. Hence, this activity should be rewarded within the network. Therefore, the act of reading should constitute a contribution. But in that case, the gain in knowledge one gets from reading will pay off later when this knowledge will be turned into a concrete contribution, which would lead to double a reward. What if this individual ceases to participate in the network immediately after reading the book? If this someone decides to write a summary and shares it with others he/she provides real benefit to the network. Someone can save time absorbing the essential from the book by reading this summary. Thus, the summary is clearly valuable, because it allows others to absorb the same knowledge faster and to turn it into productive work for the network. Another example would be a literature review on a particular subject. A documented synthesis of all the material read is valuable for the network. But if nothing is shared by the individual who performed the literature review no contribution can be claimed, because others cannot build on this work. The same applies to information mining.

Contributions at the network level

These are network support contributions to sustain the network

• improve/maintain infrastructure and internal processes,
• improve the image and the visibility of the network (branding, communication) and its power of attraction
• support other processes: administration, accounting, ...
• add others.

From the contribution accounting system perspective, network support contributions should be rewarded from all ventures that use the OVN infrastructure, including the physical and virtual infrastructure, the OVN brand name, etc. Sensorica has practices the 5% rule.

Contributions with respect to venture cycle

Tibi proposed a way to structure contributions with respect to venture cycles during the launch with Daniel of the FabMobile project of Sensorica. The example below was applied in the case of a service, which doesn't require R&D or large sunk costs.

• Startup contributions
  • Contribution with $ or materials to allow the initiation of the venture.
  • Contributions in time to set up the venture. Example, work done by all on website, initial outreach, etc..

{The results of startup contributions will be recycled in the life course of the venture.}

• Support contributions
  • Time and expense throughout the life time of the venture that helps the venture continue. These contributions are not specific to sales/exchange cycles. Examples: general outreach, administration, accounting, etc..
• Rolling contributions
  • Time spent to enable every sales/exchange cycle.
  • Spending in $ and materials for each sales cycle. Example: consumables and equipment to manufacture and deliver a product or a service.

At the benefit redistribution level, startup contributions can be transformed into "debt", i.e. the venture will pay the equivalent market value of the work plus a % to cover the risk. The payment would be made gradually, throughout multiple sales cycles, until the total amount is paid. See more on Examples of Past looking value equation

Support and Rolling contributions would be rewarded from every sales/exchange cycle, depending on the contribution.

NOTE: a similar structure can be proposed for research intensive ventures, where R&D activities give fluid equity and are part of Startup contribution.

Properties of contributions

Continuity

Continuous

Definition: Daily, regular work that can be divided into tasks and sub-tasks, which piles up over time. Have no clear deliverable, or a deliverable is far into the future. Ex. doing office work.

Continuous contributions are evaluated at a later time, after some accumulation, in the context of a venture.

Discrete

Definition: A tangible contribution that can be easily recognized by others as valuable and can be evaluated at the time when it is made, based on apriori knowledge. Ex. a design, a piece of software, cash (money), some material, tool or equipment that is used in a process, etc.

Materiality

Tangible

Definition: something that can identified and evaluated using some sort of metrics.

Time: using ones skills in a process. Time contributions can be described by

• timestamp: the date and time when the contribution was made
• duration: amount of time spent doing something
• type of activities: ex. reading, writing, transporting, doing manual labor, doing R&D, programming...
• associated venture: the venture is the context in which the activities are performed, and some ventures have a path to market, which relates to potential revenue.
• description: information giving more details on activities, in order to allow subjective evaluation in context.

Financial: providing cash or purchasing something useful in a process in a ventures (paying rent for a space, insurance, etc..). It can be described by:

• timestamp: the date and time when the contribution was made
• amount: face value
• currency: currency type, ex. USD, CAD, EURO...
• associated venture: the venture is the context in which the spending is made, and some ventures have a path to market, which relates to potential revenue.
• description: information giving more details on the spending.

Material: make available materials that are used in ventures. This type of contribution can be described by:

• timestamp: the date and time when the contribution was made
• amount: in the first implementation of the value system this contribution is quantified by using the market value (price) of the material contribution.
• currency: currency type, ex. USD, CAD, EURO...
• type: tool/instrument, equipment, consumable materials, etc.
• associated venture: the venture is the context in which the spending is made, and some ventures have a path to market, which relates to potential revenue.
• description: information giving more details on the spending.

Agents can make material contributions by renouncing ownership. The material in question can becomes part of the pool of shareables or nondominium. The agent can also decide to share the material, for a limited time, under specific conditions, retaining ownership.

Space: Some agents share a physical space, to be used for ventures as part of the physical infrastructure. Sharing a section of a website for outreach efforts for distribution of products is an example of a contribution with a virtual space.

Agents can decide to renounce ownership to their estate. In this case, the space becomes part of the pool of shareables, part of the physical infrastructure. The agent can also decide to share the space, for a limited time, under specific conditions, retaining ownership.

Intangible

Conceptual: contribute informally with new concepts, ideas, opinions... These contributions can come as a punctual advice, in a timely manner, related to specific ventures, or related to the network in general.

Social capital: using social influence to propagate or connect the OVN with other networks, individuals that will in turn create new opportunities or benefits for the network.

Information propagation: propagate information about activities through social networks.

Cultural: intervene in the preservation of values and norms.

Governance: intervene in conflict resolution for example.

Propose others...

Intangible contributions can be recognized by network affiliates, which can propose to reward the individual in some ways, either through the benefit redistribution algorithm or otherwise. The economic rationale is that you want to incentivise individuals that have a positive contribution to the network to stay and contribute more, even if their contributions are not capture by a contribution accounting system.

Transferability

Transferable contributions

A contribution that leaves something tangible (physical or digital) behind that can be shared and that can can be used by someone else.

Non-transferable contributions

A contribution that increases the capacity of a venture/product, by creating latent capacity, which can manifest itself into a more stimulating environment, better and larger network, etc.

Contribution modulators

Temporal aspects

It is important to understand how different aspects of the temporal distributions of contributions, extracted from the contributions log, can influence production activity in the network. If a given aspect is found to influence a process, we then need to design a set of incentives to favor the proper behavior.

On Mars 23, 2012 Tibi sent an email to Sensorica proposing to extract 3 parameters from the temporal distribution of contributions, and add them as modulators of the benefit redistribution algorithm: seniority, regularity and commitment. This proposition generated a discussion and we realized that further analysis was needed.

Kurt proposed to change the name of seniority to render the concept more explicit [added by Tibi August 26, 2012]. He proposed to define seniority as "continuous membership". He also pointed to a problem: “...people contributing early then taking off being credited with seniority”

The seniority factor was first advocated by Francois. Ivan was also in favor of it. Tibi was against it in the beginning, advancing the argument that seniority is naturally favorable to members (no need to formally take it into consideration), because the more time one spends within the network the higher the reputation, the greater the capacity to influence, which translates into a greater ability to generate capacity and advance the mission, gaining access to more benefits. The concepts of regularity and commitment were most probably introduced by Kurt.

We are now exploring:

• earliness (related to the level of risk taken by contributing early or later in a venture),
• homogeneity (a measure of consistency of contributions over time),
• regularity (related to a stable pattern of contributions over time),
• commitment (a measure of the density of contributions over time),
• etc.

See more on benefit redistribution algorithm

Contributions and access

The OVN model prescribes openness, which means free access to participation (to processes of an open venture). This is also called permissionless collaboration. Hybrid models also exist, cording to different types of ventures.

Participation doesn't mean contribution. A log only becomes a contribution is it represents an increase in the probability of a valuable addition to the venture, and if it is not red flagged by another affiliate.

Ideas for development

See article https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzrQyEif2HItbzczRFZmc1pieXc/edit

Praxis

In the web2 NRP-CAS used in the past by Sensorica, a contribution is modeled as an Economic event. See Valueflows language.

See discussion about how to further structure contributions in Loomio.

From contribution to energizing

Moving away from the Marxist view on economic activity as labor / work.

We understand contributions as work in the traditional mind frame.

We can look at people's activities within a holon, which is the locus of activity as energizing a flow of co-creation. The holon is the minimum organizational framework, it is impermanent.

Adopting this view, changes people's perspective on their activity, it's a mind shift, a different way to see the co-creative dynamics. Activities are not seen as work / labor, in the Marxist sense.

Within this mind frame activities and compensation are not linked through a metric (number of hours worked).

We are moving towards the conception of creation, co-creation. Artists see their activity this way, not as work or labor. One cannot apply the Marxist theory of value, to put a price on a painting based on the labor that the artist put into the painting.

Vini calls this peer energy.

People are not automata. We allow ourselves to be programmed, we have that plasticity, but we also have the capability to modulate our plasticity. We are able to drive our own interactions. There is this idea that people are constantly changing, but they are afraid of change, we resist change or better, ignore the change, which is paradoxical. The framework of the industrial evolution wants to standardize humans, mold them into a set of skills, which can be commodified.

• • • Complete with Douglas Rushkoff analysis of our relation with time.

With respect to benefits, within this new mind frame you are not getting paid for work, you are accessing what you need. There is no metric that links benefits to activities. In TaoDAO people evaluate their own activities as E2C tokens, which are issued.

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