Factor e Farm Governance

by Marcin Jakubowski, last updated May 12. 2012

It is difficult to characterize the governance-decision-making-responsibility-rules of the game process of Factor e Farm because it it an iconoclastic, creative, hybrid experiment that attemps to take best-practices of known organizational models and builds upon them for creating the Open Source Economy and Distributive Enterprise. Our experiment, in its entirety - is without precedent. Since we are innovating in many areas (see OSE Innovation Model), no single word communicates the operating principles. Moreover, many words such as 'governance', 'authority', 'hierarchy,' 'power dynamics', 'collective,' 'egalitarian,' 'democracy', 'meritocracy,' 'sociocracy,' 'committee', 'free enterprise', 'welfare', 'economy of affection' - are politically-charged words, and should be defined clearly in discussing. Moreover, these words have to be defined not in vaccuum - but in a particular context of people, situations, environment. Since this context is ever evolving, and FeF + OSE is a learning organization, the context is ever-shifting - and if not handled carefully - much misunderstanding can arise regarding how Factor e Farm works. This is compounded by cultural indoctrination in the general populace which tends to impose certain assumptions on how Factor e Farm works - assumptions which are frequently inaccurate if one has not studied our developments from the perspective of neutral, scientific observation. In practice, I have seen a number of people come through Factor e Farm without really understanding the philosphical underpinnings - or without the courage to live and implement the philosophy - and as such - were a distraction from the overall mission of OSE.

Moreover, Factor e Farm is a complex environment that mixes life and work, and is in itself an integrated experiment in creating a small civilization with modern comforts based on local resources. That is a simple yet charged problem statement - pushing the limits of human experience. It's an experiment for the pioneer - with the caveat that the early pioneers are dedicated to demonstrating an operating model that can be replicated by the common person. The stakes are high in this experiment, and the project is gaining significant momentum.

It is the intent of this page to clarify operating distinctions on - technically speaking:

Who has what specific responsibility, authority, and control over what resources, decisions, and conversations.

I will go through several operating assumptions that are found at FeF and then describe their execution.