We can certainly talk through the community values and see if we can strengthen them. Lets lay out some background first as these values were added when necessity needed them during the operation of our community over the years.
The details in our values are much more important than in a normal company so we do need more. This is because we’re building a decentralised reputation based community here so there won’t be a traditional governance structure here in the near future. If there is a disagreement on the direction the community should go int he future members will need to refer to the community values statement we all agreed to abide by when joining this community.
Essentially, this document will guide us forwards far more than say Googles ‘Don’t do evil’. Even Toyota’s famous Precepts will be insufficient for our purposes
Introduced in 1935, the Toyoda Precepts (in Japanese, above) consist of five tenets: 1. Be contributive to the development and welfare of the country by working together, regardless of position, in faithfully fulfilling your duties; 2. Be at the vanguard of the times through endless creativity, inquisitiveness and pursuit of improvement; 3. Be practical and avoid frivolity; 4. Be kind and generous, strive to create a warm, homelike atmosphere; and 5. Be reverent, and show gratitude for things great and small in thought and deed
A more effective model for our Community Values on would be Burning Man’s 10 Principals as that formed organically and guided a successful community to maintain its initial vision regardless of who is in the current leadership team
Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
Although in the past few years these also have come up short among much criticism over the commercialisation of the event, especailly the ever increasing VIP section where the wealthy can pay to be in a safe space away from everyone else and just pop in to take their Instagram snaps when the custom spa gets boring.
So, we need to go one further than that. In leaving a strong Community Values document which will maintain the initial vision and culture regardless of whether i am here or not. Backing this up will be the Token Whitepaper which covers many social topics as well as technical ones.