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DHO Journey

DHO Journey

DHO is not a "solution for a problem"  is an evolution of our collective ways of organising.

There is a journey one need to engage in before the unfolding of DHO Possibilites.

DHO Journey Start

Initiation & Discovery

This step is key for any DHO adventurer willing to start a DHO. This would allow a good understunding of both the journey at front and the preconditions to start.

Activation Stage

DHO underlies the need for a collective. This collective needs to be fully committed to the Journey in all its dimension. Different DHO types will require different activation processes with different complexities. 

The decision forward off the future DHO collecive needs to be common. 

Pilot Stage

The Pilot Stage includes the exploration of both the readiness for a DHO Journey and clarifies its effective need. 

"Building the ship while sailing" is an expression applicable to DHOs. Exploring DHO evolutionary possibilites is an "action research" activity, we learn by doing.

DHO Archetypes

DHO Archetypes explores the different type of contexts where DHOs can operate. Contexts effluence key aspects of the DHO and are important to consider. 

DHO Archetypes defined bellow are an exploration of possibilites and not a complete set. Archetypes are sorted according to their increasing complexity.

Organisation DHO

Organisation DHO supports the will of an organisation adopt the DHO technology and its practices and principles. 

There are important criteria's to consider before starting:

    1. The organisation is Decentralised or is committed to become decentralised?
    2. There is a clear collective decision to adopt the DHO principles?
    3. The dimension of the organisation justifies a DHO adoption efforts and its "costs"? 
    4. For new Organisations, there is already a solid sense of a common action?

There is no dimension criteria at this stage, nonetheless, a team of less the 10 or 15 members can organize themselfs as a DHO without the technology efforts.

Ecovillage DHO

The relevant aspect of an Ecovillages from a DHO point of view is being a village where all its members conscientiously decide to be part of. This aspect allows a distinction between an Ecovillage and a Village DHO.

The following aspects are not yet informed by any concert real life application.

Inicial Clarifying criteria's:

    1. The Ecovillage governance is Decentralised or is committed to become decentralised?
    2. There is a clear collective decision to adopt the DHO principles?
    3. Which aspects of the Ecovillage will be governed by the DHO?
    4. In what stage is the Ecovillage implementation?
    5. What is the definition of membership?

The 3rd question is critical to determine the DHO Governance Scope. An Ecovillage can be a complex system of many organisations with different governance and members. Ecovillages might have different spaces, assets and value flow dynamics.

The 4th question determines the "applicability" of a Ecovillage DHO and also the aspects to consider. A Ecovillage can start with an "organisation DHO" to support the project team unfolding the Ecovillage project. 

The 5th aspect determines who as voice in the decisions. This element alludes to the membrane of the Ecovillage. An Eccovillage membrane can be extended to include in its decisions local communities, visitors, temporary residents, etc. 

The 5th aspect can also be guided by economic decisions. Example, the DHO transactional token result in a "inner economy" or a open economy.

Community DHO

A community DHO can have multi-flavours as many as community types one can consider. But there are several characteristics that are important for a Community DHO to sustain the decision of a Community DHO.

Communities are frequently loosely couple structures. Meaning aspects such as membership, belonging, common action, relationships, interactions and others can be minimal or inexistent and still one can consider the existent of a community. As an exemple: if we would define the wikipedia community we would need to include any form and volume of participation, and it would be debatable if anyone using Wikipedia in a given time is part of the community or not.

For a community to become a DHO community some of these aspects need to become solid and   effective.

Inicial criteria:

  • Need for Governance: The community agrees on decentralise Governance, has the need for an account system and forces the establishment of common value flows.
  • Economic Dimension: Need for visible Value Flow, community is active and willing to exchange value flows using the DHO Tokens.
  • The sense of belonging is defined: Participation is not loose but defined.
  • Community dimension and dynamics justifies a DHO.

The community can be seen as an intermediary step to the Village or Bioregion DHOs.

Village (or City) DHO

Bringing a DHO to an existent Village is another big step in the complexity of DHOs.

A village is a complex social arrangement of many organisations, power structures and individuals.

One should consider the following guide Line Questions.

Inicial Conditions:

    • The initiators have legitimacy to unfold a Village DHO (are they members of the village)
    • The decision was participatory and was the participation representative?

Governance:

    • DHO represent the Village (or just a small fraction)? 
    • How does the DHO includes the existent Power Structures (Government, existent Organisations, Social dynamics)?

Economics:

    • The DHO economics are relevant for the community (percentage of participants)

Legitimacy and Sense of Place:

A village DHO takes care of the all Village

    • A Village DHO should hold together a sense care for the village
    • It should be the space giving voice to a participatory, multi generational vision for the village
    • Consequently, the villagers must recognise its legitimacy

The risk is that there is not a coherent movement of legitimacy and more than one DHOs are representing the Village. 

Bioregional (or Ecoregional) DHO

A Bioregion (also true for an ecoregion) can include various human settlements (organisations, ecovillages, villages, cities) and therefor, its complexity is necessarily higher.

The definition of an bioregion is very recent and still evolving (example https://www.oneearth.org/bioregions/).

Bioreginal understanding and term usage needs to be grounded and respectful of its importance. 

Legitimacy is there for of crucial importance.

Initiators Legitimacy:

  • Sense of Place: are initiators from the place?
  • Sense of Bioregion: what do they care for ? Does it include all the Bioregion?
  • Representation: the initiators have recognised legitimacy to represent the bioregion?

The above should not demotivate the Initiators, hopefully they constitute a good set of guidelines for someone in the Bioregional DHO Journey.

 

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