Recursivity in digital collaboration platforms

Abstract

This article investigates conditions of the reproduction of the techno-social component of recursivity with collective collaboration in the development and use of network information technologies. For this purpose, this article uses two cases that give a prototype of the institution of “governability without interference.” In the concept of the “recursive public” that underlies the first case, accessibility and changeability of the subject of its activity are important. Such conditions take place in the social environment of programmers who create and develop freely available software. In its scheme, passive and active recursive processes are distinguished. The first case is “consumption” of software by external stakeholders, while the second is about active participation of community members in its creation. Close to this concept are the ideas of “recursive organization,” “recursive citizenship,” and “recursive democracy” in a networked society. These are revealed in the second case using the example of the Decidim project. A distinctive feature of the digital political network that is being formed is the desire to meet basic requirements of radical democracy. It is shown that this orientation is largely associated with the ideas and experience of the social movement 15-M. Project participants, collaborating with each other, can consistently control the functioning of its digital platform and data, as well as modify other elements, including internal code and interface part. In the activities of the community that has developed in the project, the recursive process of creating organizational structures and their influence on the formation of the “action space” is highlighted. As in the first case, we can specify active and passive forms of recursion in the project. The understanding of technopolitical democratization, including the recursion mechanism, is disclosed. The process is presented in the form of an ontology schema. The results obtained concretize the understanding of recursivity and its impact on the development of digital collaboration platforms.