Discipl Whitepaper Moving towards a society that works for everyone
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Whitepaper Discipl Moving towards a society that works for everyone Authors Bas Kaptijn - Youetta de Jager Co-author Giulietta Marani January 2021
2 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Contents
Part 1 - Working attrust together 4
Discipl: working at trust together 5
Compassion by Design 8
Anonymous Transparency 15
Part 2 - A society that works for everyone 19
Discipl, principles fora society that worksfor everyone 20
From competitive markets towards quadruple helix collaboration 33
Discipl, for everyone in the global society 353 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
… Ivy is traversing a ‘Herenboer farm’ in
Nieuw-Zuidhorn. By means of her non-invasive
OpenNeurolink*, she is mentally scrolling through
the latest posts about growing sweet raspberries
in a robotised greenhouse during winter. She is
reading that a solution has been provided for a
still outstanding and complicated issue regarding
the disease called Botrytis Cinerea. A solution
everyone can concur with. A solution, moreover,
that has already been tested and has proven
to be safe. Thus, it will not be long before the
local farm near her will get wind of that update
too. Wow, finally, it will be possible to grow her
favourite fruit locally. Ivy will be able to use fresh
raspberries in all her favourite recipes. No more
artificial raspberry flavouring from her frequently
replicated cake-bakery-bot …
*A fictitious open source human-brain interface that does not need to be implanted, as is the
case with Neuralink.4 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Part 1
Working at
trust together5 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Discipl: working at
trust together
In the wake of the publication of the paper ‘Blockchain;
a new way of thinking’ in 2016, the ‘Discipl’ (Distributed
Collaborative Information PLatform) programme, which
was initiated by ICTU in 2017, has studied how this
mindshift underlying the “Blockchain” trend might impact
on society. And what that means for government and
government services.
To this end, Discipl comprises a supporting Discipl is no ‘Blockchain’ or ‘AI’, or project. It
open platform: an ecosystem consisting does not deal with disjointed technological
of various explorations, changes and trends or subjects such as digitisation, data,
interventions. Together, they build on the sharing information, bias, privacy. Melanie
same connective vision, architecture and Swan, Blockchain philosopher at Singularity
infrastructure to enable innovation across University, might describe it as follows:
government boundaries. Three years later, we Discipl is a vision on service provision in an
find that the ecosystem goes beyond what economy of the future where the focus shifts
we could conceive at the time. In order to from survival to fulfilment, from scarcity
realise the innovations that help us to better to abundance and from central control to
understand and resolve complex issues – also decentralisation. A distributed self-organisation
known as wicked problems – we observe that within society, partly facilitated by increasingly
boundaries are blurring both those between accelerating technology.
private and public and those between
countries. In this collaboration, government is
one of the actors that, through its pursuit of
value freedom and independence, can strike
a balance between the various forces in our
society, and maintain that balance.6 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Network Economies of Abundance
A transformational philosophy of economics
Traditional Economies Network Economies Network Economies of Abundance
A post-economy liberation economics:
Self-determined economic participations
1) Paradigms Traditional Economies Network Economies of Abundance
Organizing parameters: Scarcity, control Abundance, access, availability, yes-and collaboration
Measurement: GDP Fulfillment (actualization, connection, purpose, meaning)
Definition of Economics: Production and consumption Discovery and exchange, interaction, acknowledgement, creation
2) Evolving Positions in Network Economies of Abundance
Features Network economy Resource grid economy Crypto-economy Needs-based economy
Information flows Ubiquitous on-demand Post-scarcity All persons matter
resource grids
Access not ownership (URGs): communi- Basic Income All needs matter
Interactable content cations, logistics, Automation Needs freely met
energy, water, roads, through willingness
Peer-produced convenience stores, Emergent self-de-
commons goods delivery, digital goods termined economies Universal needs:
(Etsy), transportation connection, contribution,
Gift economy, Sharing Community token understanding,
(Uber), fresh produce,
economy (Uber, mattering
micro-coaching Personal cryptocur-
Airbnb), crowdsourcing,
(Piano++), ‘social rencies
eLance, time banks, Human-technology
interaction (Meetup),
freemium, QS Demurrage entity collaboration
dating/sex (Tinder),
programmable in blockchain-based
Multi-currency society: emotional support
redistributable smartnetwork
reputation, authority, (empathy buddies),
currencies cloudminds
attention, intention, oxytocin flows (healing
time, ideas, creativity, touch) Smart property, smart
health, presence, assets, smart contracts
Economic model
empathy
plurality: hierarchical, Dapps, DAOs, DACs,
decentralized, hybrid datt.co
Automation economy Smartnetwork
Big data era (Hadoop, R) consensus
Trust based on Identity Reputation Smartnetwork consensus Capacity
Proponents • Yochai Benkler • Kevin Kelly • Friedrich Hayek • Miki Kashtan
• Traditional: Smith
Marx, Keynes • Don Tapscott • Jeremy Rifkin • Jacques Derrida • John Kinyon
• Elinor Ostrom • Paul Mason • Rika Preiser • Gandhi/Buddha
Figure 1: changes in economic paradigms according to Melanie Swan.
Reference: Swan, M. (2015). Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy. O’Reilly Media. Chart revised: 091115.7 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Innovating in the The importance of trust
ecosystem
Therefore, focussing on facilitating
As a result of these shifts, topical, complex collaboration, not just within government,
social issues can no longer be resolved in the but particularly within all of society, has
time-honoured ways. Concerns about a become a key objective within Discipl. Thus,
pandemic, privacy, the surveillance state, we strive for value freedom by means of
racism, about an exponentially technologised balance and inclusion, even if every topic
future, the workings of democracy, education, implies ideological values. It so happens that
healthcare or government as a whole: tensions this yields the kind of trust that people need.
are increasingly visible and tangible. The trust we need to absorb knowledge and
acquire complex skills. Cognitive scientists
What will help us find a way out together? The Györgi Gergely and Gergely Csibra call this
key lies in innovating in an ecosystem, in phenomenon epistemic trust. They argue
collaborating within a society (Rutger that, in the course of evolution, a special
Bregman: Humankind) in which government channel developed in the brain enabling
finds back its purpose and role in relation to faster transmission of cultural information.
citizens, businesses and knowledge This formed the basis for acquiring complex
institutions. Through the creation of joint skills. That measure of trust is a type of social
value that government cannot realise on its cohesion that is sorely needed but cannot
own. The thing is, issues are becoming be forced. This is a totally different type
increasingly hard to size up, which is why they of trust from the distributed trust, or trust
require this concerted action of government, through identity management we often hear
knowledge institutions, citizens and businesses about, which are based on technology and
in what we call an ecosystem. In that maintaining control.
concerted action, various – possibly conflicting
– interests are at play. If we are able to
facilitate effective collaboration, we can
prevent or manage conflicts so that new
solutions come into view. Solutions that we
previously deemed impossible or even
completely overlooked.
At the base of the ecosystem lies mutual trust.
For that reason, it is worth exploring what can
be achieved off the beaten track. In order to
better align with a continuously changing
reality. To pivot on collaboration and building
trust by government. Or, to loosely translate
what the former Estonian minister Karu said
at an ICTU Café in February 2020: “A govern-
ment should not control things so much as
facilitate them, too.”8 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Compassion by Design
The question is how we can optimally facilitate the
collaboration between people in a society. Within Discipl,
this has been explored since 2017. During our explorations,
we have dwelled on the work of experts such as Melanie
Swan, Miki Kashtan, Wolfgang Hoeschele, Elinor Ostrom,
Rik Maes and Christopher Allen
Their body of ideas confirms the mindset that Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR)
ecosystems need collaboration and a different illustrates this reflection. It pleads for a
governance style to help resolve complex realistic rather than a rational approach,
issues. None of the parties in the ‘quadruple acknowledging that people all have their own
helix’ – government, businesses, knowledge living environment and that we, designers,
institutions and citizens – can do this had better not make assumptions about their
independently, on account of the creativity real needs at any moment. It appears more
and wisdom that are needed to obtain a clear appropriate to have the continuous
picture of both the issue and the solution realignment to needs form part of the very
and rule out bias. One single party can no system that is to be designed. We call that
longer size this up. The involvement and putting people first.
experience of all the people concerned, and
thus meeting with their needs, is essential in
this respect. That explains why social diversity Putting people’s
is so important (Creativiteit krijg je niet voor experience first
niks: De psychologie van creativiteit in werk
en wetenschap, Carsten de Dreu, Daniel Sligte, Aligning to the individual needs of people is
2016). also reflected in thinking in terms of UX – user
experience –, or in adopting the perspective
From domains such as ethnography, of the user of, for instance, an app or a
anthropology and sociology, we know that website. Developments such as data-driven
every design and every system as an artefact research to take stock of (consumer) needs
comprise implicit social and cultural values. are consistent with this line of thinking.
Thus, a design or system reflects the world as However, putting people first goes much
we understand and know it, while defining further. Other methods, such as Myrna Lewis’s
people’s behavioural frameworks. As a result, deep democracy, the more recent frame
it may unintentionally exclude groups of innovation by Kees Dorst, or imagineering
people or individuals. The 2017 report ’Why by Diane Nijs emphasise thinking from the
knowing what to do is not enough’ by the perspective of people during the preliminary9 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
phase of problem definition, also known as people involved. This we realise by facilitating
the ‘empathy phase’. With Discipl, we aim to non-violent communication and collaboration
go one step further still. We see that ‘design at the level of non-controversial needs, such
thinking’ is applied more and more broadly, as the need in the context of security or
but that the main focus is on the speed with joy. Here, you express what you need and
which services and products can be marketed. why you need it at a level that any person
This line of though is still strongly influenced can recognise in somebody else, enabling
by business plans, or by user-friendliness everyone to participate and encouraging
at best. In practice, the people it ultimately people to grow towards common objectives
concerns are hardly involved, or not at all. on the basis of a sound starting point (Actor
That may even result in us not having a clear Network Theory). In this decentralised
view of the issue and the need, let alone of world vision, every human being matters,
the solution. and everyone is entitled to be heard at any
moment without being judged. Within Discipl,
Discipl elaborates on that line of thinking and this is known as ‘Compassion by Design’. It
moves beyond the instrumental approach. forms the basis for aiming at inclusion, value
We focus on a world containing systems freedom and the corresponding principles.
that continue to move people towards joint An approach of head, heart and hands
objectives and motivations on the basis of the (Nyenrode Next talk show ‘Ontketen radicale
‘Why?’ question rather than fast forwarding to innovatie’ (‘Unchain radical innovation’),
‘How?’ or ’What?’. We delegate the design of Annemieke Roobeek on business ecosystems
services to the implementation and the very (Nyenrode, 2020)).10 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Facilitating effective values is likewise widely accepted. Technology
communication and systems are never value-free.). Bias can
result in a society where, for instance, racism
What we call effective communication and sexism are institutionalised and where
is pivotal to efficient collaboration with autonomous devices make decisions that
compassion. In the case of effective, and thus have far-reaching consequences for large
inherently inclusive communication, everyone groups of people. There is growing concern
speaks from the perspective of their own on that score, as we can conclude from,
needs; you listen and reflect without passing for instance, developments and research in
judgment and create room to process. the field of facial recognition (Forbes and
MIT). This concern regarding inclusiveness
We find that, especially in large communities, has everything to do with complex issues
such communication is not easy. It requires (so-called wicked problems) and the impact
self-knowledge and compassion. Our motive of bias. One single party can no longer keep
derives from an approach that is grounded track of this. It also explains why diversity is
in nonviolent communication, also known as so important for collaboration (Creativiteit
compassionate communication. krijg je niet voor niks: De psychologie van
creativiteit in werk en wetenschap/Carsten
We can do much more to bring about effective de Dreu, Daniel Sligte, 2016): this forms the
communication – to which end we can also basis for maximum creativity, the opportunity
make use of technology. However, simple for learning from each other and co-creation
digitisation will not automatically render the that emerges from the aforementioned
communication between people effective. You epistemic trust. People inability to listen to
cannot enforce effective communication by each other and understand each other curbs
just using monitoring tools, such as identity the creativity that we need to fully reveal
tools and consent management. More is issues, tap into a wider range of solutions
needed. and innovate. Still, creativity is not always
conditional to the ability to transform. It
is possible to cleverly reapply an existing
Don’t just digitise, but idea, which, in turn, requires knowledge and
transform too experience. Listening closely to each other,
gaining insight into the nature of a complex
We do digitise, but we transform insufficiently. issue and being able to jointly envision original
And to us, the latter seems necessary to solutions requires a working method that
maintain a liveable and inclusive future. After focusses more on compassion, on listening
all, each design does not merely implicitly without passing judgment and room for
contain values and norms, but also bias (See processing. You do so on the basis of a
also Edgar Schein, organisational science, willingness to inquire and explore.
about artifacts. In anthropology, sociology
and ethnology, the starting point that every
artefact implicitly contains social and cultural11 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Impact of efficient systems, equity and governance. Like Maes,
collaboration on an he provides a number of principles with
regard to governance, which are based on
organisation Ostrom’s generally known principles for the
Next, the question is how collaboration from Commons. Wolfgang Hoeschele presents a
that perspective impacts on an organisation vision on an abundance economy in his book,
and on governance. We found quite a few in which there is plenty of room for the market
examples, some of which are highlighted function, and describes how society can
below. work with it. A decision tree (See Figure 8.1
‘Resource use and property rights to minimize
Rik Maes, professor of information scarcity’, The economics of abundance,
management at the University of Amsterdam W. Hoeschele, Routledge 2016) makes clear
and creator of the Amsterdam Information which type of governance is appropriate under
Management Model, also known as the 9 which circumstances. For example, Hoeschele
Cells Model, makes a number of suggestions. generally states that it is best to make things
Firstly, he stresses the importance of like knowledge freely available along with
transitioning from digital to digital-first, incentives to extend them further, while
as well as from a service provider-client they are safeguarded from destructive uses.
relationship to an ecosystem strategy. Rather However, most organisations can be private
than merely providing services to clients, and competitive, as long as monopolies are
Maes proposes a shift in people’s life course prevented.
towards partnering, and a shift from ‘having
to’ collaborate towards the desire to be a
partner. Moreover, one of his suggestions is to
The principle for the
transition from working plan-driven to working liveable, digitally
Agilely, and to switch from ad-hoc projects connected society
to building organisational competence.
Christopher Allen published an article on Discipl focusses on inclusive communities of
a taxonomy of participation in practice, individuals rather than on organisations from
in which, for instance, self-governance the perspective of a business mindset. On top
(collaboration) and co-governance (autonomy) of the principles developed by Maes, Allen,
play a role. Participatory organisations have Ostrom and Hoeschele, Discipl positions the
a common objective and openly share results fundamental design principle for a liveable,
among themselves. Allen also worked for the digitally connected society: compassion.
‘Rebooting Web of Trust’ (RWOT) community. Discipl facilitates collaboration in fulfilling
This is a community from which, among individual or collective needs. Where those
others, the new W3C Verifiable Credential needs clash, Discipl provides mediation
and DID standard have evolved. He argues through the encouragement of effective
that distinguishing patterns provides more communication. This type of communication is
flexibility than distinguishing processes aimed at solutions that everyone is willing to
and instruments – what works well in one embrace.
case may cause problems in another. Allen
divides the field into three main areas:12 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Governance is a variable here – as part of a However useful they may be, these monitoring
solution that is dependent on needs and on tools are still contained within solutions for
how conflicts are generally resolved. sub-problems, and therefore they may not
bring out the hoped-for change.
One example of how you can organise this
from local up to global level is described by, This practice is resulting more and more
among others, Miki Kashtan in a contribution evidently in a destructive and, at the very
to a contest administered by the so-called least, inefficient society. The question is
Global Challenges Foundation in 2017. Her whether we had not better focus on signalling
idea outlines what global governance might and registering non-controversial needs,
look like in a needs-based economy. The idea such as food, care, housing, education and
did not win, if only because it did not involve social contact. Thus, you can effectively look
a financial and/or technical plan, as with after needs relative to each other without
cryptocurrencies, the latest hype at the time. first passing judgment, seeking control or
expecting considerations in return. The aim
is to make it easier for the stakeholders
Monitoring tools and experts to participate in effective
With regard to governance, societies tend communication at the earliest possible stage,
to focus too quickly on primary monitoring also when a decision is due. And to arrive at a
mechanisms such as money to steer sub- real solution, even in case of conflicting needs.
problems. Even a technical grassroot To achieve this, we make use of established
movement such as the RWOT community methods for decision-making, conflict
still focusses mainly on monitoring identities. management and design thinking.
The Blockchain community usually focusses
on distributed monetary systems containing
various incentives or other monitoring
mechanisms.13 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Decision-making and Then there are two approaches for
conflict management responsible use of technology in society. Peter-
Paul Verbeek and Daniël Tijink developed
on the basis of design mentoring ethics. Moreover, there is design
thinking for values by Jeroen van den Hoven, which
translates basic human rights into context-
Design thinking is a collective name for what dependent design requirements, falling back
is by now a wide range of design approaches on principles for value sensitive design and
that are often applied in combination with participatory design.
Agile, Scrum and Lean. Thus, improvement
of the design conditions is sought in various
ways, by means of involving stakeholders,
Convergent facilitation
critical appraisal of the working tools and Discipl has selected convergent facilitation as
use of storytelling and visual thinking. Every the primary method to tackle those issues that
design process has an empathy stage, during cannot simply be dealt with through an advice
which designers set out to test stakeholders’ process. Moreover Miki Kashtan’s new book
values and gain insight into the nature of the The Highest Common Denominator: Using
issue at hand. By now, we are conversant Convergent Facilitation to reach breakthrough
with a number of approaches that are worth collaborative decisions is due in January 2021.
exploring in the context of Discipl. It is possible that interests are too divergent
or even juxtaposed. Or that projects and
For inclusive facilitation and conflict solutions again and again fall short of the
management, there is Myrna Lewis’s desired results. Convergent facilitation stands
approach: deep democracy. This approach a better chance of being understood on its
actively seeks the input of all parties involved own account and apparently, it is easy to
to arrive at decision-making. Also, there deploy digitally.
is convergent facilitation by Rosenberg
and Kashtan, which involves mentoring The needs that Discipl focusses on with
nonviolent communication on the basis of regard to convergent facilitation don’t relate
non-controversial needs to arrive at decision- to obvious things you might want directly,
making. This is an alternative to majority but rather concern the underlying reason(s)
voting and, if properly supervised, also why you might want something. At that
eliminates peer pressure. Theory U, developed level of needs, the way a child needs to play,
by MIT, is a method that focusses on the controversies do not exist. That is why they
co-creation on the basis of an emergent are called non-controversial needs.
strategy and future.
In short, convergent facilitation works as
Frame innovation by Kees Dorst is interesting follows: once all non-controversial needs of
for analysing complex issues: the nature of an all possible stakeholders with respect to a
issue is further elaborated by ‘enhancing the particular problem have been charted, you
problem’. As a result of subsequent reframing can share them among those involved. You
the issue new solutions emerge. Diane Nijs’s can ask them what possible solutions fulfil
imagineering also explores stakeholders’ all those needs. When these solutions have
perceptions and perspectives. been conceived, you can have stakeholders14 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
test them, by means of a simple score per
need – does this solution really fulfil this need? In the context of conflict prevention
If no solution does fulfil all needs almost and conflict management, Discipl was
unanimously, you pass through the steps taking part in a Conflict Prevention
again and adjust the solutions until at least Challenge during the 2020 Odyssey
one does. Momentum together with the Dutch
Ministry of Defence and the Business
Convergent facilitation is proving to be Plan for Peace.
an effective method to achieve consensus
relatively quickly in case of controversy or To this end, we are making use of a
disagreement among large groups of people. combination of Convergent Facilitation
It can also be combined with other methods and Theory U in the background.
– once the group has formulated a joint
objective that looks after all non-controversial
needs, other methods can help find creative
solutions regarding that objective. Also,
convergent facilitation can function as
a decision-making process within deep
democracy, as needed.
Discipl does not only facilitate these methods
for the benefit of designing the Discipl building
blocks themselves, but (accessibly) integrated
in Discipl, too. And thus, for the benefit of
all solutions that are fully based on them or
have been realised by means of them. Thus, it
facilitates the effective communication needed
to actually resolve issues.15 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Anonymous
Transparency
The frameworks of existing conflict solutions in the shape
of laws and regulations at the one side of the spectrum,
and convergent facilitation – supplemented with other
design thinking methods – in order to achieve those
solutions at the other side, reveal what aspects of an issue
have been charted and what needs there are.
Complex problems, with a high degree of societal needs relative to each other. Involving
uncertainty and unpredictability, usually society must be integrated accessibly.
demand a divergent approach. The outcomes Otherwise, people will not understand the
are harder to predict, so that you need to increasingly complex monitoring systems,
pay close attention. This varies from zooming and that may come at the expense of trust.
in on other, often less obvious perspectives Moreover, it is already proving impossible to
surrounding an issue to continuously and give such black box systems a legal basis,
dynamically facilitating non-controversial especially in the EU (Why Fairness can not be
needs. General topics with regard to identity, automated. Sandra Wachter). Alternatively,
privacy, bias, inclusion, accessibility, ethics, consider the existing EU legislation regarding
security and trust cannot be ignored and must the protection of personal data, or its anti-
be tackled together. discrimination legislation. In many cases,
it still falls short (Affinity, Profiling and
Discrimination by Association in Online
Black box Behavioural Advertising, Sandra Wachter).
Many problems are and continue to be
For instance, take the idea of automating systemic, and you cannot repair that using
aspects such as bias and ethics by means of repression without any transformation in the
ethical AI systems. Assuming that, as a black shape of a systemic solution.
box algorithm, they would always make the
right decision on the basis of knowledge about Anonymity by design seems an obvious
alleged universal ethics is an illusion. Reality systemic solution. It actually involves a type of
is too complex to guarantee that. It remains properly applied data minimisation – already
to be seen whether ‘the’ truth exists. At any named as an objective in the AVG (the Dutch
rate, a system is only ethical if it involves an implementation of the GDPR). This means that
entire society as integral part and looks after you only ask for data if it is essential for the16 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
non-controversial need you aim to look after. and unconditionally monitor those needs or
Within Discipl, the latter is always the only arrange for systems that do – taking into
justified objective. Data that you do require account the circumstances the law already
for that objective is to be stored as briefly as provides for. These are circumstances that
possible, and locally. However, choosing what have already been agreed on and that have
is and what is not essential proves hard. The been brought about by earlier effective
fact is that allowing people to find solutions communication.
for looking after their own needs relative to
someone else’s is simplified by transparency Systems may be provided that match
about the non-controversial needs. That needs and facilitate that people and
complicates keeping this information really systems help each other in a private and
anonymous. Then again, it is not impossible. secure environment. It is not necessary to
communicate about anything else than the
anonymous needs and the solutions to them.
Say it with your app This may result in a shift from monitoring
systems to (autonomous) production systems
Most people find it hard to imagine a world and systems that meet information needs. If,
that mainly centres around anonymous non- subsequently, we dare somewhat relax the
controversial needs. However, it need not notion of direct equivalent reciprocity, we do
differ so much from our current lifestyle. not need to arrange much more, and value
People can simply publish their non- can continue to move more freely from where
controversial needs, for instance through an it is collected to where it is needed.
app on their phone that helps them express
what they really need. An app that ultimately
proposes the solutions, rather than making
you search through a jungle of information
on the basis of keywords, while you are being
manipulated as a result of being shown
selective results. And there may be people in
organisations or institutions who voluntarily17 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Discipl Architectural More and more, this also spontaneously
Pattern comes up in this community. What matters at
this level is not so much what trust there is in
At first sight, that may seem impracticable, somebody’s identity or bank balance. Rather,
but it may be to everyone’s advantage if, at it is about the trust infused in everything
an early stage, people collaborate as much as that is contributed by means of effective
possible to come up with solutions and tackle communication (anonymous and transparent)
conflicts. Especially where the big challenges about non-controversial needs, how this
are concerned, such as climate, poverty, or a interrelates and the known solutions for it.
pandemic. This is conditional on the parties And it is about the trust with which this may
involved being prepared to discuss solutions, then be followed-up. In the first instance, the
which may only be achieved if there is enough specific identity is not all that important.
trust. That is why Discipl wants to take things
one step further by continuing to reduce the Discipl focusses on a continuous alignment of
distance between participants on the basis all stakeholders’ needs in a transparent way.
of non-controversial needs and by looking for We centre on finding solutions that satisfy
solutions to both small and big challenges everyone. It is not entirely coincidental that
together. We call this the Discipl Architectural this is also at the crux of ISO 42010-2011 (the
Pattern. standard for architectural descriptions), but
with us, it is continuously geared to reality.
Then, if we consider what the RWOT We put people first, and compassion is the
community has produced to this day, we see compass by which we steer. That is Discipl’s
that, apart from using verifiable credentials main architectural principle. The only human
to check identities, the proposed technology right that can comprise all other principles.
likewise forms an excellent start for providing
a cost-free open standard for verifiable
communication – regardless of time and
distance between people.18 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
From a technological silo mentality towards a
‘society architecture’
It is time that we have more meetings and Essentially, we do not aim for a society
discussions about how organisations and that is run according to rigid systems, like
technology can help us live together in the ones we have seen arise up to now.
a good way and with less friction, rather Instead, we want to support ‘our’ society
than approaching technological topics as by means of flexible and adaptive systems
if they were silos. That is the focus of a that address people’s needs. In our view,
so-called society architecture. a government forms part of society. This
requires more facilitating systems than
Taking ISO 42010-2011 as our guide, such we know now, with a different focus.
a society architecture might describe the Doubtlessly, other projects can be found
following: outside Discipl that distinguish a similar
focus – for instance, the Venus Project
• An architecture for society as a dynamic and the Nonviolent Global Liberation
system of interests community. However, these are relatively
tiny communities compared to the
• How the system continuously identifies societies in which they exist, and thus,
the needs of all people and autonomous inadvertently, they fail to take the diversity
systems (stakeholder concerns) in in a and functioning of larger societies as their
society starting point. Discipl does intend to do
this.
• How the system continuously helps
people and autonomous systems to meet
these needsPart 2 A society that works for everyone
20 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Discipl, principles for
a society that works
for everyone
The vision underlying Discipl Anonymous Transparency that all software published
as it has been explained in Data minimisation under the conditions of a
Part 1 results in an easy-to- We minimise the use and copyleft licence such as GPL3
remember set of principles: sharing of personal data and and that all non-personal
we don’t surrender personal knowledge is made available
Compassion By Design data or our control over it to as creative joint ownership
Meeting all needs others. (creative commons such as,
We put people and their non- for instance, CC-BY-SA).
controversial needs first and Open and free knowledge
monitor this in a way that We encourage and maximise Nature 2.0
works for everyone. the publication of everything We encourage the adoption
as open and free knowledge, of technology to automate
Non-violent society as long as this does not advancing needs through
We stimulate methods and concern personal data, autonomous systems as
practices for collaboration in or can be traced back to much as possible. This can
which compassion between personal data in combination only be done sustainably, in
stakeholders is a leading with other public data. a way that does not harm,
principle and no further Thus: not only statistics, but rather enriches man and
monitoring is needed. but also Free Open Source nature in the long run.
(FOS) solutions. That means
In order to be able to meet needs in this way, forms. They can vary extensively with respect
we must first know them and relate them to to, for instance, the persistence and visibility
others. Moreover, we must be able to relate of data, but always take the shape of ver-
conflicts to established solutions and be able ifiable claims on the basis of Discipl core
to facilitate effective communication about libraries. That is how we build on new W3C
this. In such a way that it helps change the verifiable credentials and related standards.
needs, so that the conflicts disappear, or result
in other solutions for these conflicts. • We facilitate the revealing and signalling of
needs in a non-controversial way. We use
That is why, at Discipl, we currently bring about this as our main organising principle, particu-
the following: larly when matching with specific solutions
• We facilitate attaching effective communi- and recognising conflicts. This results in a
cation about a hybrid set to supporting plat- standard that we have named Open Needs21 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Nature 2.0
It is by now acknowledged that people by merging into a singularity, while in
are not the only ones to have needs. another stream we go back to nature like
For instance, New Zealand has granted a new type of hunter-gatherer in order to
a mountain the same legal rights as a prevent extinction, and technology is of
person. All living creatures, and even the minor importance.
natural environment, have needs. Rather
than addressing controls and calculating By way of illustration, there are ideas that
mechanisms with respect to CO2 emissions, devices, robots with AI (Narrow Artificial
the effectiveness of which in terms of Intelligence) and, in future, AGI (Artificial
climatic health is subject to some doubt, General Intelligence) should also be
we initially focus on involving people in an treated as living creatures with needs. One
effective conversation on this topic. That example is that a robot Sophia, has been
takes place on the basis of needs in an granted citizenship, although that appears
integral and wider context, in which the to be a PR stunt more than anything else.
need is pivotal rather than the problem. Another example is the rise of a discipline
Especially in the case of complex problems, like artificial psychology (Wang, Z. (2007).
this appears to be a more meaningful Artificial Psychology. HCI).
approach than the old working methods.
While such worldviews prove to be
When problems continue to exist and, to important during collaboration, Discipl
us, appear to be ‘persistent’, this is often does not merely focus on one of these
a sign that we should look at them from streams, but rather on merging streams.
another perspective. We aim to realise this as well as possible.
A paper by Philips Design (Brand, Reon. More than anything else, the merging
(2019). Co-Emerging Futures A model for of these streams resembles what the
reflecting on streams of future change) so-called Nature 2.0 community [22 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Focussed Artifact Standard (ONFAS), applied Discipl core
within so-called ‘abundance services’.
The Discipl pattern is based on continuous
• We facilitate resolving conflicts with existing alignment between all possible stakeholders,
solutions as they have been laid down in which is pretty much everyone. We facilitate
law and regulations through, for instance, this by intentionally adopting the new
CALCULEMUS. These methods and tech- W3C credential standard W3C credential
niques render specific phrases from nat- standaard. The standard addresses a ‘web
ural texts with legal references identifiable of trust’, focussing mainly on verifying
as act, fact or duty. Also, they facilitate (online) identity. While we believe that it
improved interpretability of those texts and takes other and more things to build trust,
help trace back their application in systems the standard itself is a good starting point
to the original legislative texts. to further develop the Discipl focus. To this
end, we mainly use linked data and the new
• We aim at effective communication about verifiable credential wallet concepts to be able
conflicting needs for which there are no to support communication between actors
existing solutions through decision-making through so-called verifiable claims in a hybrid
and conflict management in the shape of, situation – i.e., on and between a wide range
for instance, convergent facilitation. of platforms.
• We facilitate people with so-called reference
‘request apps’ to use all of the above in ful- Verifiable Claims
filling their needs.
Discipl core is now a JavaScript (ES6) client
This results in an architectural pattern side API, allowing storage and searching of
that can be modelled as depicted in the sets of linked verifiable claims across various
Architectural Pattern figure on the next page. systems.
At the top, you find the Discipl Architectural
Pattern, below are the application and In the W3C-standard, a verifiable credential
infrastructure layers used to realise the is defined as a cryptographically signed
pattern. We will gradually realise and refine set of verifiable claims. A verifiable claim
this architecture by means of projects that is simply a cryptographically signed linked
deal with real use cases. data triple. Apart from the signature it is
therefore mostly a piece of information
consisting of three parts: a subject, a
predicate and an object. That linked data
triple constitutes the claim. For example:
“Piet”, ”lives in”: “Haarlem”. A so-called
attestation is a verifiable claim with one or
more other (verifiable) claims as the object.
Therefore, it is a claim about a claim. For
example: “MunicipalityofHaarlem”,”confirms”,
(“Piet”,”lives in”,“Haarlem”).23
Architectural pattern
1
People with needs ...
6
... publish solutions for
2 ... create abundance conflicting needs as law,
services attending to policy and or contracts.
needs
5
3
... that match and fulfill
needs using known solutions
to prevent conflicts ... ... by mediating conflicts
to solutions that work for
everyone ...
4
... and genuinely attend to solving
the conflicting/unfulfilled needs
that people still will have ...
Software stack Request App and AI Advisor (Blue Fairy)
Discipl law and regulation (FLINT interpreter) Discipl convergent facilitation
Discipl abundance service
Discipl core and core connectors
Verifiable credential wallets. Permissioned and permissionless Legacy and analytics systems.
public distributed ledgers.24 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Of course, no reference will be made to In Discipl, a verifiable claim is always made
a certain “Piet” but rather to some other directly or indirectly by the actor to whom the
identifying reference, and within the new subject of a claim actually refers. To this day,
standard, the Decentralised Identifier (DID) we deviate slightly from the W3C verifiable
standard [25 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
As a result, subjects who make
claims are characterised by DIDs.
Depending on the platform that is
being used, the Discipl API allows actor service
automated actor
the creation of new accounts on a
platform that thus issues the DIDs verifiable claim platform
with which these accounts can be
referred to. SSID-Alice : need hello
Subsequently, an actor with such Wow, SVC
an account may make claims. As in says hello!
SSID-SVC : hello
linked data, we need a way to refer
to these verifiable claims as well. SSID-Alice : solved
To this end, we again reuse the
W3C Decentralised Identifier (DID)
standard. Where a DID is used to
indicate a subject, be it an actor
or an object about which we aim
to make a claim, Discipl core uses the concept In a nutshell, this is what Discipl core
of a decentralised link with a syntax. A syntax facilitates. You might simply visualise this in a
that is similar to a DID, in order to be able to kind of UML sequence diagram, what we call
refer to a single verifiable claim or a set of Verifiable Claims Sequence Diagrams.
claims. Do bear in mind that for some types
of platforms these links are dependent on It enables you to store and search verifiable
the context or that they deliberately have not claims from various underlying platforms, be
been implemented for the benefit of privacy. they verifiable credential wallets, distributed
Moreover, links contain the direct or indirect ledgers or a legacy system. As long as a
proof with which the claim they refer to can be connector is provided, you can use these
verified. But that only applies to some verifi- platforms in a uniform, hybrid way.
able credentials that are or are not attested.
Thus, Discipl core forms a clear-cut, Discipl
In Discipl core, all verifiable claims with the befitting interface to various types of
same subject implicitly form a so-called ‘verifi- platforms. Everyone may feel free to add a
able claim channel’ that allows you to monitor connection by means of a so-called Discipl
them. You can see this as a sort of implicit, core connector. It is essential that we build
personal service bus, or as comparable to an with open standards, while everyone remains
IOTA MAM channel – in case you are familiar free to choose their own solutions that still
with it. However, it is not necessarily stored get along with each other. In other words,
in a distributed ledger, and depending on the Discipl builds on hybrid use of many types of
platform used it has or has not been shared platforms.
with others and it has or has not been stored
at all.26 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Among other things, at the moment of For example: if you are using the Discipl core,
publication, we are working towards the you can connect a verifiable claim from a
following connections: presented wallet of a certain type to a claim
on a (presented and available) permissioned
• Ephemeral ledger A, which is connected to a channel on a
• IPV8 (presented and available) public permissioned
• NLX ledger B. The latter is thus connected to all
• Paper Wallet the claims in that channel that are connected
• Rabobank Universal Ledger Agent through an identical DID that the channel has
• IRMA created. Usually, you would link them from
• DigitalMe private to public claims rather than vice versa.
• Sovrin
• uPort We expect that the market will adopt the
• Solid concept of interconnection between several
• BTCR platforms by means of verifiable claims, as
• IOTA we see already happened with Hyperledger
• IPLD (IPFS) Aries RFC, which is a matter of trust over
• Atomspace IP. We shall link the Discipl core to these
• ElasticSearch developments as needed.
For us, the focus is more on what can
We render these platforms usable relative subsequently be done at a more global level,
to each other. Every platform has its own by means of linked verifiable credentials.
characteristics and implications as to how
and where these claims are recorded and
stored. Many claims should never be stored
in a public ledger, while for other claims it is
obvious to do so. The Discipl core does not by
itself prevent private information from being
stored publicly. That is something to be fixed
by solutions supported by Discipl core.27 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) with Discipl Core
Starting from the W3C verifiable credential Netherlands National Office for Identity
standard, Discipl also optimally ties in with Data (RvIG) and IDEMIA in developing
developments in the field of Self Sovereign a new passport grade SSI oplossing. A
Identity (SSI). Three pillars of SSI provides modular solution that can support the use
a good explanation of what exactly of other platforms with trust in physical
makes an identity system self-sovereign. identity. This will not be the only SSI
It is ’just’ a matter of safe peer-to-peer solution we want to and should be able
connections (private data exchange), to support. However, with Discipl we are
verifiable connections and data verifiable working towards a situation where this
through watermarks in combination with a measure of certainty will be considered
publicly trusted key register that cannot be important less often. A where a person
adjusted. may be offered optimum guarantees that
personally identifiable biometric data
Discipl core can even make it possible to remain with the source; with the person
use a handy mix of these ingredients, for involved. Moreover, any identification
instance through the Universal Ledger problems should remain easy to resolve.
Agent (ULA). developed by Rabobank Unfortunately, there have been many
and published as open source. They are examples where this type of biometric
usually bundled in specific platforms, monitoring systems resulted in serious
such as Sovrin or IRMA. So far, ULA has exclusions, due to obvious technical
likewise been built on Ethereum only. problems for which no user-friendly
Discipl core enables combining the use of process was provided.
these various platforms with other types of
(legacy) systems. By means of the existing Paradoxically, it looks as if, in this field,
PKIoverheid (X.509 certificaten) register Discipl is still mainly working on monitoring
APIs can be questioned, for instance systems rather than on support for looking
through NLX. Thus, Discipl core can after needs. But even if this is the case:
connect the old world with the new. Discipl particularly focusses on the data
portability within a strong legal and ethical
For the top security level, it may sometimes context, as was recently advocated, rather
be required that verifiable credential than on what is being sold under the
holders can be physically identified as well. misleading and even polarising concept of
In 2020, we are supporting TU Delft, the “Self-Sovereign Identity”.28 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Abundance services health and food, or a combination: healthy
food. In human sciences, an artefact is also
Discipl core constitutes the interface of the a product of a mindset and world view,
storage layer where processes that take place and thus, they can also be defined context-
according to the Architectural Pattern are dependently. In that case, artefacts are
tracked. Ultimately, these processes simply atomic. A platform such as Atomspace may
concern the transactions agreed on in a well be the ideal tool to match them by means
verifiable conversation through verifiable of new techniques.
claims in which specific (non-controversial)
needs are met and any conflicts are resolved. Our Waardepapieren solution, is a first
interpretation of the ‘abundance service’
Discipl comprises a small software library concept. It renders cost-free official extract
that implements an API to follow a universal services possible. In an abundance economy,
transaction pattern based on the universal these products can be provided at zero
transaction pattern in DEMO modelling, in marginal cost or even without a direct
the shape of a conversation through verifiable compensation. An abundance service will
claims. Within this Discipl abundance service, especially come into its own, when the full
API the universal transaction pattern is Discipl concept is further developed.
extended (Enterprise Ontology, Dietz, Jan
L.G., Springer 2006). The fact is, that it is By now, Waardepapieren has been developed
usually preceded by a fitting pattern where for and by Dutch municipalities for some
the stakeholder makes a request but does not time. Under the direction of the Union of
yet know with whom the transaction will take Netherlands Municipalities (VNG), this VNG
place. Meanwhile, others want to respond to Common Ground project makes use of Discipl
requests, but do not yet know who is making Core and NLX. These will probably be the first
the request. abundance services to be rolled out. However,
they are not yet directly related to legislation,
Thus, the needs of actors must be matched non-controversial needs or conflict solutions
before they can engage in such transactions. as meant in the following chapters. They
The Discipl abundance service API supports will provide for authentication of data from
this matching functionality in addition to a registers such as the Netherlands Key Register
universal transaction pattern with a focus of Persons (BRP).
on non-controversial needs. This takes place
thanks to what we call ONFAS (Open Needs Already, this Waardenpapieren service can
Focussed Artifact Standard). The idea behind cater for online and direct requests for and
this is that everything can be related to a supply of digital extracts on the basis of
relatively limited set of non-controversial verifiable credentials. The costs are negligible,
needs, be they personal needs or possible as opposed to the usual costs of 13.40 euros
solutions to conflicting needs. Solutions in this per extract. It is still possible to obtain a
respect are the artefacts that, in turn, consist printed extract at the service desk of one’s
of artefacts (partial solutions). Artefacts can municipality. Rather than travelling to the
be both physical and non-physical. They can townhall or waiting for mail, which may take
also be non-controversial needs, such as several days, you can request the extract29 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Extended Universal Transaction Pattern
The abundance service API allows you that you meet a need and want to start
to open a verifiable claim channel for a conversation about that. A requesting
a simple non-controversial need. Also, actor can wait for this type of offer and
depending upon the platform you use, accept if there is a match, following which
you may assume an anonymous identity, a universal transaction pattern is followed
which can be referred to by an individual through a private channel (possibly on
DID that is not related to other DIDs. I.e., another platform). This is achieved by
a disposable identity. You can still link simply communicating to each other the
DIDs later on, and normally, you register decisions you may take according to the
these links between DIDs in a storage DEMO universal transaction pattern about
under your own direction, on behalf of a process that pattern is following. This
linkabillity issues you might otherwise is how the universal attending pattern
experience in relation to maintaining originates, which – with the exception of
your privacy. The API also enables you conflict management – forms the basis of
to monitor specific requests and to claim the Discipl Architectural Pattern.
need attendTo
request app service
Universal Attending Pattern, an extension on the universal transaction pattern (DEMO)
directly. For now, identification takes place by way of the
civil servant at the service desk, through the existing DigiD
provisions with municipalities, or by way of submitting a
proof of identity at the moment of authentication through an
app for verification parties.
This makes it easier for, among others, judges and solicitors
to request details, while the subject can be left in control.
Waardepapieren is GDPR- and EIDAS -compliant.30 ICTU - Whitepaper Discipl
Compliance by design: It means interpreting the solutions these
law as code via FLINT texts provide in a declarative manner, while
preserving their intentional ambiguity, rather
Many of the abundance services will be partly than reprogramming them in an imperative
or completely automated. Actors that have language. Thus, the intentionally applied
needs, or actors that fulfil needs, can be ambiguity is not forcibly removed, which
better facilitated if they know what solutions may sometimes result in misinterpretations.
exist and how they relate to other people’s That ambiguity is required if context-
needs. These solutions are laws, policies, dependent assessments need to be made
contracts, agreements and jurisprudence. per case, possibly by a human actor, since
It turns out that such textual solution reality is too complex to be put in text. This
descriptions can be modelled in so-called has the advantage that white noise with
FLINT (Formal Language for the Interpretation regard to the interpretation of legislation is
of Normative Theories) models: sets of actions, prevented and is shifted back to the users.
facts and duties that all mainly concern literal As a result, there is better alignment to the
and referrable quotes. legal system. Thus, Discipl uses Law As Code
rather than Code As Law, a concept that is
The discipl-law-reg library is the first to often named as a selling point in respect to
implement a FLINT interpreter, which makes smart contracts. Where an exact algorithm
it possible to inform you about the facts that is contained in a regulation as a solution, it is
apply, what actions may be undertaken, and usually phrased in natural legal text equally
what obligations must be fulfilled to meet a well. This, however, takes place in concert
need. This is directly related to paragraphs in with the legislator rather than in retrospect
legal texts and policies in natural language in an imperative programming language by a
in which official legal references may be programmer who may not have legal training.
used. So far, FLINT models are still created by
hand and may be seen as smart contracts in A formal CALCULEMUS method has been
Discipl style. Mostly, the modelling is about further defined with respect to how you can
labelling natural language in legislation. progress from a legislative text to a FLINT
Scheme check
In spring 2020, together with Discipl and not restricted to Blockchain). Given these
in partnership with TNO, ICTU developed models, users can submit their Chamber
an corona scheme check for businesses of Commerce number to be advised on the
and self-employed workers without staff schemes they qualify for and on how they
on the basis of FLINT models of relevant can apply for them. Since it is a standard
regulations. This scheme check was application, it can deal with other FLINT
developed at the behest of the Dutch models of arrangements and legislation
Blockchain Coalition (which, like Odyssey just as well.
– the former Dutchchain – increasingly isYou can also read
