As the ecosystem diagram illustrates, onecommons.org, the entity responsible for governance, is envisioned as a not-for-profit organization devoted to fulfilling the OneCommons’ mission and vision that is run by an independent board elected by OneCommons’ users.
Its core operating principle is one of minimalism and devolution – for it to have no more authority and influence than is necessary.
It is limited in its mandate and authority and is independent of the entities that receive material gain from building and running the platform. This design stems from the need for governance mechanisms that foster the core principles and defining characteristics of the platform (for example, and perhaps most notably, those that are resistant to capture by self-interested groups) without placing unnecessary constraints that inhibit its evolution and growth.
OneCommons.org is responsible for:
As a general rule, OneCommons.org avoids setting policies that involve direct conflict of interests between entities, for example, pricing or how subscription fees are allocated – instead individual entities can choose those themselves, enabling market forces between them. For example, individual projects can decide how the CommonCents tokens they are receive are allocated to their contributors – see Pricing.
The other entities in the ecosystem are expected to pursue their own self-interests and can be for-profit – as long as they can fulfill their contractual obligations (e.g. for privacy and security) there should be no barriers to joining the ecosystem. The goal is a platform that can span jurisdictions, cultures, and ideologies as long as it is fulfilling its core mission of helping to create an Internet that guarantees privacy, transparency, and control over your data and contributions.