This uses the Facilitator’s Catechism to define the project itself. There is a related catechism for writing the associated paper.
What is the nature of the situation or problem the team is being formed to address?
Our epistemic commons, civil governance, and even human survival are under threat. In the face of that, human emergent coordination is massively underperforming.
Are there known causes?
Humans of good will and intention are numerous (e.g. the Regen Movement), but have little agency to effect a positive future. This is largely attributable to:
Is the situation novel?
Humanity is at an inflection point and we need to get really good at global coordination fast.
If so, if there are traditional methods which would normally be used to address similar situations or problems, what are their limitations and why are they inadequate?
Traditional is not really relevant because this is new technology. But if Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are 'traditional', their limitations are that their social graphs are 1-bit (friend, connection,...) and use of them is driven only by profit. We need rich, multi-dimensional connections (e.g. expertise by domain) as an open data commons.
What will happen if this situation is not addressed?
Dystopia
To digitally manifest our collective knowledge of each other as self-organizing, self-governing, self-owning open social graphs capable of new superorganism behavior.
For each potential or for the current approach: What tools, techniques, or expertise, alone or in combination, would be required or provide opportunities?
Multi-part approach: