User:Average/Adhocracy
Adhocracy, or government on the spot, is a type of ideal found in many hackerspaces who are experimenting with overcoming the glaring limitations of hierarchical forms of management.
But adhocracy has raised other problems, mostly organizational entropy: the dissipation of psychological (a space's raison d'etre) and monetary assets. The problem is a lot like handling resources in a multi-user computer system -- eventually processes crash into each other because there is no central point of organization to synchronize and manage it all. In traditional business organizations this is obviously handled by a "boss" who exerts authority from above. But this is not an acceptable solution for hackerspaces.
So what would a solution from below look like? The bottom-up solution is gamification. By drawing on the natural proclivities of human beings, "meta-"processes can be created to assist a space to self-organize using a concept called organizational memory. This can be as simple as posting instructions on each individual station, where you are gaming against the human tendency to lose focus. Further, one can post donation boxes at points where expenses are incurred, listing the average costs (per hour of energy or per toner cartridge, etc.) at each station. Post also on the way out the door so that users can insert the appropriate value to them. Money inserted here become like game coins in Super Mario: each time users donate, the space wins.
One space had an interesting solution that exploits hackers' desire NOT to be commanded by higher authorities: make a robot mother that tells people to empty the trash at scheduled intervals (or donate, clean the kitchen, etc).
Adhocracy are greatly served by coming together to write a Statement of Purpose. Through doing so, they either help form leaders or see who is holding tacit leadership ability over the space.
See also governance.
