Knowledge Management Processes and Design Principles for Self-Governing Socio-Technical Systems

This paper addresses a fundamental dilemma in the design of self-governing socio-technical systems which allow potentially unrestricted self-modification of a set of conventional rules. On one hand, the system must be sufficiently unrestricted (resilient, flexible), to enable a group of people with a shared set of congruent values to achieve their joint purpose(s) in collective actions situations. On the other hand, the system must be sufficiently restricted (stable, robust), to prevent a subset of the group from exploiting this openness `against itself', by usurping control of the system and running it to serve their own (un-shared) interests. The solution proposed here layers open and transparent knowledge management processes inspired by classical Athenian democracy on top of institutional approaches to sustainable common-pool resource management. To address some ``knowledge pathologies" potentially introduced by new technology, we identify some strategic mechanisms and propose eight knowledge management process design principles. We argue that this can provide the foundations for sustainable democratic self-governance in socio-technical systems.