Re: Digital Bazaar corporate position on upcoming election

I swear you all are lucky I have a soft spot in my heart for your extreme
weirdness. This is not at all how I thought voting would go down.

But yes, if in the future the community decides on a Rajneesh
cult/cheese-making/electoral college/blockchain voting system, then
goddammit I will help make that happen.


On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 2:16 PM Moses Ma <moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com>
wrote:

> First, I wanted to thank Manu and Digital Bazaar for hosting the meeting
> system for so many years. It was a significant contribution!
>
> Second, about voting and governance... a simple one member/one vote model
> is fine for now, and we only need something more exotic if there's a chance
> that a bad actor wishes to subvert things by leveraging the "hope for the
> best" voting rules. The best example I've heard of, for what a bad actor
> can do to an optimistic collective, is what the Rajneesh cult did to a
> church in Laguna Beach California. They moved a large number of cult
> members to that area, posed as Christians and infiltrated the membership.
> Eventually, it voted out the board and turned the church into an ashram.
> Obviously, lawsuits followed.
>
> If the chairs feel that it would be wise to install a safeguard – for
> example, using the UN model with a "security council" that can veto things,
> installing a poison pill into the charter, or establishing a "separation of
> powers" system like the US government. However, the model I like the best
> for decentralized management of the commons is based on Elinor Ostrom's
> work (https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Ostrom.html).
>
> One of the best pieces of work on public choice was done by Elinor Ostrom
> of Indiana University, *Governing the Commons*. Her best example is the
> Swiss alpine cheese makers. They had a commons problem. They live very
> high, and they have a grazing commons for their cattle. They solved that
> problem in the year 1200 A.D. They have a simple rule*: If you’ve got
> three cows, you can pasture those three cows in the commons if you carried
> them over from last winter.* But you can’t bring new cows in just for the
> summer. It’s very costly to carry cows over to the winter—they need to be
> in barns and be heated, they have to be fed. [The cheese makers] tie the
> right to the commons to a private property right with the cows.
>
> In this case, what we can do is provide a "proof of work" staking process,
> by requiring voters to have actually attended one workshop and/or have
> contributed a minimal number of comments on the discussion forum. Or
> whatever else the chairs and membership decide.
>
> Moses
>
>
>
>
>
> On 6/10/20 10:55 AM, Manu Sporny wrote:
>
> Dear W3C Credentials Community Group,
>
> I'm sending this email as a representative of Digital Bazaar based on
> our concerns related to allowing multiple individuals per company to
> vote. As some of you know, W3C Member voting polls (a different process)
> limit voting to one vote per company. This ensures that organizations
> cannot pack a room with employees and skew the outcome of a vote. The
> CCG has chosen to do individual votes, which we believe is a fitting way
> for a community group to pick its leaders.
>
> This triggered an internal ethics discussion at our company, which we
> are sharing in the spirit of being transparent about the guidance that
> we've given our employees.
>
> The question raised in the company was whether or not we were voting on
> our personal behalf or on behalf of the needs of our company. We
> explored voluntarily restricting our organization to one vote, which
> almost immediately led to concerns around vote suppression among
> employees. We explored voluntarily restricting our organization to only
> the people that are actively involved in the work here, which led to
> concerns around inclusion.
>
> Ultimately, we decided that the only choice aligned with the morals of
> our corporate culture is to publicly state that Digital Bazaar (the
> corporation) will not be participating in casting a vote in this
> election. Our employees and contractors, however, are urged to make
> their own decision on whether or not to vote and, if they choose to
> vote, to do so according to their personal conscience, with no direction
> from Digital Bazaar.
>
> We are stating this on this mailing list to ensure that it is in the
> public record. I realize that this may come across as being overly
> concerned about a simple community vote. Nevertheless, this vote is
> setting a precedent and we want to make sure that we are being
> upstanding citizens in all communities in which we are involved. We also
> recognize that other corporations in this group may not choose to do
> this, and that is their choice.
>
> On behalf of Digital Bazaar in my capacity as CEO,
>
> -- manu
>
>
> --
>
> *Moses Ma | Managing Partner*
>
> moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com | moses@futurelab.ventures |
> moses@ngenven.com
>
> v+1.415.568.1068 | skype mosesma | *linktr.ee/moses.tao*
> <http://linktr.ee/moses.tao>
>
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>
>
> Or whet your appetite by reading *Agile Innovation*
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> | *Quantum Design Sprint*
> <https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Design-Sprint-Application-Disruptive/dp/1799143864>
> | my blog at *psychologytoday.com*
> <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-tao-innovation>.
>
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