Components
Digital services need to have sharing rules so that the resulting governance can bring them to be considered as digital commons.
Instead of giving a set of rules ready to be applied systematically, I split digital services into a set of components and define constraints that frame the type of rules that apply to each of these components. This is a meta-methodology: it is impossible to provide ready-made rules for every situation, but it is possible to determine which constraints these unique rules have to meet so that the resulting governance can qualify as digital common.
I therefore break down digital commons services into the following components, listed by level of abstraction: source code, terms of use, user-generated data, statistics of use, means of communication, brand, and evolution strategy. This analysis grid highlights aspects of digital services that are often considered secondary. However, if one of these components is not shared, this opens up loopholes allowing the re-appropriation of information that is necessary for operating the service over time, medium or long-term.
For example, a digital service which source code is under free software license but which brand can only be used by a single structure cannot be considered as a service under common administration.
Beyond the basic constraints to be applied on the sharing rules to guarantee the sustainability of each of these components, I also define additional constraints for services for which the value depends on the capacity of their community to actively contribute. Indeed, in this case, the contribution capacity is directly correlated to the time invested by its members, and is therefore a competing resource.
These constraints are summarised in the grid below, and are explained and detailed in the following pages.
Community representation in sending the message or distribution of the possibility to send messages to the community
Transparency on available resources and definition of functional priorities by community members
Note that at this stage we have not specified the methods of organisation that will make effective the rules determined on the basis of these constraints. Thus, for these common rules to be fully effective and part of a complete governance, it is also necessary to determine who acts and within what framework in situations of infringement, for example in the case of non-compliance with licenses granted on shared resources. This is the subject of the [next chapter].(../3-roles).
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