Ethnography Using Computational Methods in the Field of Web3 — By Kelsie Nabben (RMIT / BlockScience), Michael Zargham (BlockScience), & Ellie Rennie (RMIT University) February, 2023 This post discusses a concept that builds on existing ethnographic approaches, that we call ‘Computer-Aided Ethnography’ (CAE). Our ethnographic research on Web3 uses some of the same software tools that define ‘Web3’ (referring to…

Kelsie Nabben December, 2022 Originally published via Mirror. Suggested citation: Nabben, K. 2022. “Decentralised Technologies as “Self infrastructuring”. Mirror.xyz. Available online: https://kelsiemvn.mirror.xyz/Obs11rquCCp20XB1nUiMTBU7bKWslThbfpF4Hf7n7Rg. TLDR: Decentralised technologies are resilient when a phenomenon that I term ‘self-infrastructuring’ occurs. ‘Self-infrastructuring’ is when people are able to participate in designing, owning, operating, governing, and/or maintaining…

As Friends With Benefits DAO continues to scale, how will it incorporate decentralized governance principles and processes into its next phase of growth? If I was part of any DAO, I would want it to be “Friends With Benefits.” It is just so darn cool. As a vortex of creative…

De-mystifying algorithmic systems BY KELSIE NABBEN & MICHAEL ZARGHAM. The purpose of this post is share an outline of a forthcoming piece on “The Ethnography of a DAO”. This piece is being shared as a paper for the industry ethnographer conference “EPIC”, as part of the 2022 conference theme “Resilience”. The link the…

(First published via Mirror.xyz) What follows in an excerpt from a forthcoming special collection initiative called “Defining Web3: An Off-Chain Collective Research Project”. Thank you to the editors for the invitation. I had such a ball writing this piece (and a good few years researching it). The secret of change…

First published via Mirror. The following post offers an excerpt of a methodology has been developed in the course of my research to conduct ethnography in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). These questions, first identified in this post on ‘DAO Design Patterns’, have becoming a seminal starting point for engagement with…

Components that constitute “Decentralized Autonomous Organizations” — Kelsie Nabben May 2022 “Decentralized Autonomous Organizations” (DAOs) are everywhere, yet it is unclear what a DAO is (or isn’t), and what design elements constitute a DAO. Already, DAOs are diverse. DAOs have helped to shift early blockchain community debates from “one blockchain to rule them all” to a “pluriverse”…

Towards a Policy Position Kelsie Nabben 9 May, 2022 This piece presents the concept of “Metaverse Cities”, as an exploration of how “crypto cities” and “crypto states” are melding with the physical infrastructure of cities to offer new potentialities in how people organise, work, rest, and play. …

Kelsie Nabben & Michael Zargham April 19, 2022 Introduction This post highlights an excerpt from Zargham, M. & Nabben, K. (2022). “Aligning ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’ to Precedents in Cybernetics”. Stafford Beer articulated the “Viable System Model” (VSM) in his 1972 book ‘Brain of the Firm’ as a management tool to…