Red flag

A process part of OVN governance that signals a strong disagreement with an initiative and triggers a process for debate and consensus building. It can halt a process.

Redflaging is a manifestation of strong disagreement with an initiative or a process within the OVN or concerning the OVN that has been proposed or undertaken by an affiliate. Raising a red flag halts the initiative or the process and can even lead to the termination of that initiative or the process.

Redflaging can only be used if the initiative or process presents serious issues such as: transgression of the OVN’s ethos, values, rules or norms, or it causes serious problems for the OVN, to a venture, to an affiliate or to people in general. Redflaging should be taken very seriously and should not be abused. Abusing Redflaging can lead to a Reputation Case.

Redflaginig must be supported by an explanation, clearly demonstrating that the initiative presents serious issues as mentioned above. It also must be accompanied by an alternative, a prescription of at least one remedy that eliminates the serious issues presented by the initiative or the process. The redflaging action triggers the halt of the initiative or the process and a consensus building process, which might result in voting for go/nogo of the initiative. Any affiliate can redflag any initiative or process proposed or conducted by any other affiliate.

All initiatives or processes (projects, funding, events, etc) in OVNs must be recorded in some Registry, they must be conducted transparently (anyone can see how they develop), and they must be conducted openly (they evolve within a digital space, such as a web page, a document, etc., which provides easy access to any other affiliate, if not to the public.

Procedure

1. Announce and propose alternative
   1. Send an email to the OVN’s Main Communication Channel with the subject ‘’IMPORTANT Redflag [initiative name]” clearly stating your intention to redflag an initiative or a process, detailing your reasons for doing it, demonstrating that the initiative presents serious issues [The burden of proof is on your side!], and proposing at least one remedy to the situation.
2. The initiative or the process in cause must halt immediately. Failure to do so leads to a Reputation Case for the affiliate(s) who has(ve) initiated the initiative or who stewards the process, even exclusion from the OVN.
3. Trigger a consensus building process to find an alternative satisfactory orientation of the initiative or the process in cause.
4. If a remedy becomes consensual, follow with a Lazy Democracy process to officialize it and force its implementation. If accepted, the initiative continues and the remedy must be implemented in a maximum of 2 weeks. The remediation time can be shortened based on the initiative’s time dependency, the initiators of the initiative can ask the community for a speedy process, which can be granted or not.
5. If no remedy is found, follow with a Lazy Democracy process to officialize the result and force the stop of the initiative or the process. In this case, the decision is passed to the Custodian who is obliged to retract all its services to the initiative or the process, starving it of resources. All the initiative’s assets held by the Custodian are returned to their original owners.