CNA Design

This is the CNA design "template". This template is to be used for individual groups to draw from when establishing their own, specific designs, i.e. sets of rules, i.e. org constitutions. Since a given CNA's rules will be published, its rules and content may be publicly judged in tandem.

The CNA

A Cooperative Network Assembly, or CNA, is an informational organization focused upon a particular topic or group, where its membership applies checks and balances in the process of authoring, validating and publishing its own informational product. A standardized CNA would use all of the powers and checks upon power listed in the table of Primary Powers and Protections (see below).

It should be understood that a "topic" is herein approached, not as a thing by which to espouse any particular point of view, but as a place within which related facts are compiled. A CNA's associated member community may vote on, and publish, fact-based theories, and editorial papers may be written and cataloged in their own space. External authors may also reference CNAs as iron-clad sources in their expository writings.

Decentralization: A Landscape of CNAs

The Internet implements a decentralized model, at the level of digital communications networking. A landscape of CNAs is based upon this as well; it is decentralized at the informational level. Each CNA may establish its own rules on the breadth of its topic, the size of its membership, and/or the size of its material content, before, by its rules, divestiture into two or more CNAs must occur. It is also expected, that each CNA will have a completeness and depth of information in an open and competitive landscape. This may bear a natural check; as a matter of topic, don't bite off more than you can chew.

A given CNA's rules may be more-so public, private, dictatorial or democratic in nature. A given CNA may prefer more checks where others prefer less bureaucracy. There may be ongoing struggles between the status quo in informational organizations and public pressures. To be available to anyone, any of the available checks and balances may or may not, by rule, be kept. This architecture provides for thousands of CNAs in a landscape where individual organizations may fail by way of their own leadership or policies. Existing organizations are not being asked to change, rather, change may more naturally accompany new organizations, where all organizations then coexist on a single, universally touted landscape. CNA software may also save existing organizations money in their IT departments, by way of the free services it offers. Don't research organizations already apply something like the branches and layers defined herein?

Individual CNAs may be created by topic or by group. Multiple CNAs may overlap on the same topic or sub-topic(s).

Decentralization localizes concern and intensity. Each CNA implements a list of cut-and-dried rules to maintain as a set of promises to the general public. Where situations arise that have not been dealt with by the printed rules, a high council or voting body (for example) may dispense with the matter ad hoc, creating a record of how, specifically, it has been handled.

Information Types

There are different ways of saying what a site or page is actually trying to do. This could be fact or fiction. Information could be simply stated, it could be argued, or it could be known. Put another way, it could be hypothesis, theory, or fact. And so, based upon what we are saying that it is, we know whether or not information is of the type that it says that it is. A CNA should say what type of information it is at the site level, and may also call for doing so at the page or section level.

Since anyone could add opinions or hypothesis', there will no doubt have to be checks involved. A given CNA could rule that one or more of its leaders, or a certain number of general members be required in order to allow for such types of information to be added.

Constitution and Crest

Each CNA has its own rules. The CNA Constitution Form provides entries for all possible CNA configuration options. When a CNA's founders have completed this form, they has produced their own constitution. This form will also participate in generating the CNA's crest, which briefly renders its twelve Primary Powers and Protections, and its statements of content and site ownership and administration.

For each element in the constitution form, open space is also available for use by CNAs to add any number of unique rules, and which the org will publish and enforce without the assistance of standard CNA software.

Brief, standardized notes for each of the thirteen items below will convey the type of the organization a given CNA is. A published charter of principle members, where they exist, may also be helpful (to the public). The purpose of the crest is to conform to a terse, standardized and publicly recognized list of primary power and protections.

Level powers may have any depth of requirements in order to be exercised, such as by way of three branches of approval, by vote or by council.

Record-keeping is not overridden for any power or level power that is exercised (unless record-keeping is specified as not public for a given CNA, such as in a private organization). Records of all changes to members, content and rules provide the public with the information they need to externally review a CNA. It is to be generally expected that there will be no level of membership that defies pre-stated record-keeping rules.

Structural Elements (Branches, Levels and Decorations)

Branches

Any number of branches may exist in a given organization, as it sees fit.

In the chart below, each person in a CNA's general membership may fall primarily into one of the these three standard branch capacities: Validations, Framing and Editorial.

In Validations, fictional material, quotations, and factual references are identified, and all sources are either validated (confirmed) or rejected. This branch sees to it that all necessary references to sources are present and have been witnessed.

Within this branch, there may be callings for additional reviewing stations, based upon specialized verification skills. For example, a CNA may want a historical audio or video clip to be verified as to whether or not it has been doctored. That CNA may, by rule, require that such a specialized task be conducted internally. It may alternately require that a reference be made to an external agency that has been confirmed to have conducted such an act of validation.

Before further work, it may be decided between a Validations branch member and the material author as to whether or not enough work on the author's part has been done to be able to expect reference checks.

Framing oversees site and page layouts, and any indirect (or redundant) links (or names) to direct content. This branch evaluates content from the standpoint of the organization itself, and either places submitted material in the site, or rejects it as irrelevant.

Framing includes overseeing catalog systems and reference capabilities.

Editorial identifies the language or type of expression (information type), evaluates the content itself in terms of language/format usage, and applies content censorship rules.

Editorial performs content evaluation. In this capacity it evaluates plagiarism.

CNA Layers: Levels of Membership

Listed below are the standard major levels of membership in a CNA, all of which are optional. Additional major levels may also be implemented. Task queues may only occur at non-zero numbered levels. If there is a principle level (P), then it is not numbered and it does not have to pull items off of task queues. Where a principle level exists, it is the highest rank in the organization.

Each level above is a major CNA membership ranking. CNAs may also legislate for and apply minor rankings within major ones by way of org-specific constitutional rules, to provide for a greater hierarchical variety. These minor rankings can be applied by way of "decorations" (next).

Decorations

In a CNA, a "decoration" is a tool by which a power is given to a member. For whatever collection of powers there are in a given organization, there will be a corresponding collection of decorations. Each CNA defines its own decorations and applies them in conjunction with its own rules. For example, the power to author material for review, or to review authored material in specific branch/layer capacities may have (and require) specific decorations.

There may be primary or crested decorations requirements for becoming a member, such as for meeting prerequisite, external group membership or accreditation requirements before being able to join.

One decoration may contain one or more other decorations, making it possible for CNAs to have rich collections of decorations for organizing their various powers.

Sponsorship Protocol: Editing CNA Content

Sponsorship Protocol is the framework within which a CNA's content is modified or produced, in a process where material is authored, sponsored, and incorporated into published product.

[ NOTE: More recently, this terminology appears to need to be reorganized.  "Authoring" may be changed to "sponsoring", and "sponsoring" to "reviewing". ]

Authoring Content Submissions

A content submission is a body of material, whether text, graphic, streaming video, or otherwise, and he or she who submits this material for CNA processing is designated as its author. A content submission may also involve the demarking of existing, published content for editing, but that will be discussed under edit sessions (below).

As a primary or crested concern, a CNA may require a certain level of membership or member decoration in order to act as the author of a material submission.

Edit Sessions

Once a CNA's authoring requirements are met, a newly authored submission is used as the starting material for a live, on-going "edit session". This session may have members from various branches and levels entering into it, in succession, to perform their particular reviewing tasks, before the session may be closed and its content published.

An edit session demarks the points within existing, published product where the new material is to be placed.

Sponsorship: Content Review

Sponsorship, as conducted by CNA members, is the act of performing reviewing tasks upon submitted material. As a primary, crested concern, each CNA has its own rules on the number and type (branch/level) of reviewing tasks that must be performed before the new material can be published. Also as a primary, crested concern, reviewing tasks may be routed to members by way of random selection, or to specific members. When a submission has been accepted at each required task stop along the way, the editing session ends and the material is incorporated into the published product.

A content submission may involve multiple authors, and when the content is reviewed, it may involve multiple sponsors at each point of review along the way. Each member that is involved demarks the segment of the total submission that they will be responsible for. This can assist with large submissions, by breaking them down into quicker, more manageable tasks.

It is expected that all of the work will be performed at the general level, where final reviewings may then occur at a higher level. This will assist with the workload presented to a small representative body by a large general membership.

Parallel reviewing Structures

A given CNA may wish to use a peer-review protocol for all or some of its content as opposed to branched review, or each of the two structures in parallel, where the type of material is first assessed, and then dispatched according to type.  Here are two spaces in one org.  The one on the right is 2-peers review.  It is also expected that relevant professionals occupy the peer review part.  Farther below, there are "namespaces" for creating more than one information space within a single org.

Principle Intercepts

A CNA may, by its rules, allow for principle members to intercept edit sessions prior to publication, in either performing an existing branch/layer task or adding their own level of reviewing task to the overall process. This also means that the given submissions may go any way a submission can, at that point.

Principle member powers, as discussed farther below, are modeled after the power structures of many Internet-based organizations today.  They equate to "site administrators", under which there are "moderators", under which there are "general members".  Any act performed by principle members may, by rule, exercise seemingly fantastic power, but will also, by rule, be kept transparent, and will be of very high public visibility.  What principle members may be given is the power to stop attacks of any order of magnitude.

Session Results

For each reviewing task that is performed, the reviewing member may accept the material as it is, return the material to the author as in need of further revision, or they may, by rule, be able to reject the material as a violation of branch or org requirements. Specific reviewing powers may be required, by rule, to reject a material submission, such as by way of collaboration, council, or vote.

Material authors must also approve of any modifications to submitted material, and may have the power to withdraw their submission at any point in the reviewing process, in the event that the author(s) and reviewer(s) cannot come to terms.

Session Records

By primary or crested content records requirements, submission content before and after every reviewing task and every action taken may be documented in content records.

Membership

CNA membership is a primary power. Each CNA specifies the protections it applies to check that power. The primary or crested forms of protection are two-fold. One is the depth of inquiry taken to verify a member's identity, and the other is the given CNA's primary joining policy.

Verification of ID

A CNA may require a person's identity be verified by any of three different agencies; electronically, in-person, or via a trusted third party. In the case of a third party, both the applicant and the org would have to agree to trust the third party in question, or any one agency in a CNA's list of third party options.

Examples of the primary or crested degree to which a given CNA requires a person's identity be checked may include; anonymous moniker, debit/credit card, one or two forms of ID, or by biological verification, such as with retina or fingerprint scan.

Joining Policy

A given CNA may stipulate additional primary, crested joining requirements for new members. It may require that new members have decorations, such as degrees or accreditations, or that they be members of some existing, external organization before they can join the CNA. A CNA may specify that applicants simply join, or it may specify that they apply and be accepted.

The "front doors" joining policy of a CNA may also expose it directly to the Internet's MZ, or militarized zone. A small CNA of 1,000 members could suddenly be joined by 10,000 members from another organization and be democratically overrun. For this, a CNA may rule that only so many members of any one other organization at a time be allowed membership.

Another way a CNA could handle this consideration would be to include a quarantine period, where new members exist at level zero (L0) membership until some number of tasks or submissions have been performed, before entering general (L1) membership.

Lastly, when a CNA is first created, it may wish to give its founding members high impunity, to be capable of defending itself against being democratically overrun by new members. This could be accompanied by a stated policy of withdrawing from such a level of impunity when the number of members reaches a certain amount.

Member Changes: Promotions and Demotions

A CNA can be configured so that general members vote for representative members, or so that representatives or principal members do the same. A CNA may also specify decorations that individuals must have for representative positions to be attained. All methods of promotion and demotion are org-specific.

Member Records

As a primary, crested concern, every addition, deletion, promotion and demotion to any CNA member may be recorded in member records. Members may also be given their own bit of storage space for both private and public files, such as private material, private and public contact information and a public bio page.

Content and Tasks

Content Review: Task Stops

As a primary or crested check upon content authoring, each CNA stipulates the number and type (branch/layer) of content reviewing tasks that must be performed upon all submitted material. For example, a CNA may, by rule, require that content be reviewed at the general level in each branch, followed by a single stop and review at the representative level. This would translate into a mandatory minimum requirement of four task stops for all submitted material, with three stops at the general level followed by one stop at the representative level.

For each task or task stop, a member has to perform a review upon each iota of the submitted material, in the specific branch and layer capacity which defines the task (see branches and layers). There are three possible outcomes of the material review. The material may be accepted as it is, it may be returned to the author as in need of further revision, or it may be rejected.

Each CNA has to have its own policies on how material can be rejected, and who is ultimately needed to do so. There is further discussion of this in later sections (see appeals and collaboration).

Higher level members may be allowed to perform in general member capacities to assist with that work, so long as each member is confined to the performance of a single task in the given CNA's list of required tasks.

The key to understanding a task stop is in understanding that a minimum of one, unique member is required in order to perform the (reviewing) task. Once this requirement is met, many variations can occur, such as what is discussed under collaboration, and some of the things discussed under Framing.

Content and Task Records

As a primary, crested concern, every version of content, such as both prior to and after edit sessions, may be maintained in content records. Also as a primary, crested concern, the content before and after every task performed may be maintained in these same records.

For whatever judgment is rendered at a given task stop (accept, return or reject), the reviewing member may also be required to render a statement, in their own words, of the action that they have performed.

Framing and Session Routing

The stuff of submissions must be framed into the site's published output. This will include demarking existing published content for re-editing as well as for fitting in new material to be added. During the period of the edit session, the framed region of published output is also locked out against access by any other edit sessions, and the session and the tasks it includes may be given timers which will expire and un-lock the locked portions of the published material, so that the session itself is not able to permanently lock any published parts out.

Task Queues

Each task stop has a corresponding queue, where incoming submissions are accumulated until they are pulled off by reviewers to process. As a primary, crested concern on how these queues order their items, a given CNA stipulates one of the following methods for how items are pulled off of queues.

Queuing Records

As a primary, crested concern, each CNA may require that the queue ordering for submissions at each queue be recorded.

Level Powers and Change Records

As primary, crested concerns, each CNA mandates requirements for the ability to make changes to its existing membership, content and/or rules. A given CNA may require that an individual with certain decorated powers perform a given change, that a council of members within a layer of membership be required to come to such a decision, that all members within a layer of membership be required, or that all members of the organization be required, such as by majority vote, to approve the given change.

As a matter of primary, crested concerns, records policies exist for the degree of transparency in a given organization. Where level powers are exercised, records policies are expected to be fully enforced to maintain this transparency.

Additional Elements

This section includes more-so standard albeit optional elements which may be ruled for and applied within a CNA.

Multi-Branch Capable Members

A CNA may also give its individual members access to acquiring multiple branch capacities. Multi-branch-capable members may be allowed for, to be more diversely capable of assisting with CNA workloads. To be in keeping with system checks, they may still only function in one branch capacity at a time.

A dispatcher would be an example of a kind of CNA sergeant, possessing the power to perform in all three branch capacities. This may also be an added semi-stop along the way in a given CNA's sponsorship protocol. As such, the dispatcher would be the first type of member to pull a new submission off of a work queue. That member may either select which branch capacity in which they wish to perform a reviewing task, or they may select which branch to pass the item off to as the first branch to conduct review. In the latter example, a dispatcher would be able to process a larger volume of submissions.

Collaboration: Cross-Branch and In-Branch

When performing a task upon submitted material, a general member may wish to discuss the material they are reviewing with a higher-level member of their branch, perhaps to ask questions about how to handle their task, or with a general member of another branch, out of co-operative concern for needs that appear to be presented by the submission in another branch capacity.

Collaboration will be no different in task queuing than it already is as ruled. Collaboration adds the ability for sponsors from different branches to interact while processing the same material. With collaboration, the submission is sent off to its next appointed stop, and when a member gets the item, as normally queued, they will also receive any request to enter a collaborative link.

Re-opening a link to a previous task performer to collaborate on double-checking their work may also be allowed.

Voting and Elections

There may be unscheduled and/or scheduled voting within a given CNA.

In the case of scheduled voting, everyone knows in advance when the voting will occur and what it will be for. This type of voting is typified by scheduled elections.

In the case of unscheduled voting, no one knows in advance when the voting will occur, or what it will be for. This type of voting is typified by democratic referendums.

Rejections and Appeals

A given CNA may wish to provide rules for an appeals process, for the re-submission of material submissions which have been rejected on review.

Firstly, where there is a provision made for an appeals process, one must ask, "how it is possible that the rejection process did not apply the necessary checks to say that all of the needed checks had not been applied?"

Secondly, where it is desired to be able to appeal rejections, a provision may be made for the resubmission of rejected material (a specific number of times). This would simply put the material through the Assembly again, where different reviewers would be pulling the submission off of reviewing queues.

Namespaces

All of the published content of a CNA is a "namespace". This is what gives the content context; any CNA content is also identified by the CNA it is within.

A CNA may wish to create another namespace inside of itself, such as to have two or more of these. Each namespace gets its own name. This may be desired to prepare for future divestiture, where the organization is planning on growing and dividing into multiple organizations.

A CNA may also wish to divide its content into multiple namespaces due to skills requirements occurring at different levels in the total body of material. Some part of the membership may process material that occurs at the lay level, where another part of the membership processes material that occurs at a professional level.

Where the membership is divided into separate namespaces based upon decorations (from different skill levels), it will still be necessary to apply all of the same checks and balances within each namespace. There will need to be a sufficient number of members to implement the CNA's reviewing protocols in each namespace.

Projects

The idea of a CNA project is the idea of a very large material submission that will develop over an extended period of time. At some point, the project is to demark and lock off specific sections of published output, where the project submission will be framed in for addition to published output.

Additional Understanding

Joining Policies in the MZ

Accountability, in life, is required in order to experience "upward mobility" as an individual. Any action performed by an individual whose identity has been verified will in this world be bound to that person's identity (for life).

Ultimately, the final protection against corrupted activities on the part of any member is that of truth itself. In a given organization, any member who is corrupted in their work also faces that organization's total set of checks and balances against the member powers exercised therein.

Facts Versus Alternative Material

Published CNA material will generally be comprised of sourced facts, but there may also be other types of material.

As one example, higher-level members may which to write papers in editorial capacities. These papers can simply be maintained in their own space, and links to them provided where they may be taken as relevant. So long as statements of opinion are noted as such, and the authors of such statements are clearly specified, the requirements of validations will be met.

As another example, based upon a body of factual material, a CNA may wish to have its members, or a portion thereof, to conduct a vote as to what (fact-based) theories it wishes to publish pages on. For validations purposes, the same requirements as above (editorializing) simply need to be met.

Disloyalty in a CNA

Primary disloyalty on the part of a CNA member may occur in the form of products of false work or products of false identity, or where the stated rules are not being followed. A given CNA may establish procedures for dealing with these violations, such as by pre-stated rule or by council or general vote.

In the case of products of false work, the content of the member's work is not true, such that it can be shown that the member was aware of the falsity of the work.

In the case of products of false identity, the member's work is not actually performed by that member; rather, it is work bound to that member's identity, knowingly performed by another person under their name.

In the case of stated rules not being followed, it is found that the rules are not being adhered to, such that a member is aware that such a discrepancy has existed.

A Range of CNA Types

Here are a few examples of the general character any given CNA might wish to have.

Democracy: "Open doors" joining policies; no supreme principle powers. Voting by the general membership, inclusive of requiring high percentages to win. Rules that are very difficult to change - possibly including one or two absolute rules, or rules that can never be changed without dissolving the organization and possibly creating a new one.

Republic: A locus of democracy and principality. The republic gains its strength by way of a common set of pre-stated rules, with central representatives who are voted into their positions and who act, collectively, as the conduit for change within the organization.

Principality: Principally controlled joining and members with supreme principal powers. Principle members are able to maintain their organizations with supreme power and controlled joining policies.

Layers of Defense

Above is a picture of how CNA layers of defense are designed to work. At left, there are unchecked edit submissions and newly joining members. These are defended against by the general membership. Next, the general membership is defended against by representative members. Principle members then defend the CNA as a unit, and lastly, a decentralized landscape of thousands of CNAs defends against the principle leadership of each individual organization.

Above is a picture of layers of defense put differently. Each branch adds a defense layer, followed by layers of the organization, CNA records, and lastly, external review. External review is strengthened by a publicly enforced decentralization of CNAs; to exist as a larger number of smaller organizations.

A Lack of Branches at the Top

The branches are obviously implemented as a check against power. Now, let us consider the possibility of breaking down essential systems functions into branches as well. Under these circumstances, where any one branch has power over an essential function, that one branch will have the power to bring the entire organization, functionally, to a halt.

It is recommended that multi-branch capabilities exist at the highest level of membership, to bring ultimate control in a given CNA to a central body. The check upon a CNA's central, leading body is a landscape of thousands of CNAs.

Mutiny or Voting Out in a CNA

A ruled provision for mutiny would specify a percentage of the total membership by which one of the following may be removed; one or more (leading) members, one or more rules, or specific, published content. In combination with a relatively uninhibited joining policy, this could prove disastrous to the defending leaders. The required percentage of the total membership should be set high, in order to back such an act, e.g. 4/5ths of members.

There may also be a ruled provision for conducting voting on an item from the list above, such as by way of a percentage that would back voting on it, e.g. at least 300, or at least 1/3rd.

Stated policies on content and site ownership and administration come into play here. There will be the legal matter of who owns the copyright for published material in the event that the organization is dissolved, or if a mutiny occurs.

A World of CNAs

In a complex world of information, there may be tens of thousands of CNAs, each on their own, specific topic. In such a complex informational landscape, the general population will have virtually no familiarity or immediate basis of trust for each of thousands of organizations that are foreign to them. This will probably create a calling for CNAs that make it their business to watch and report upon large numbers of other CNAs. Below is a list of five examples of capacities in which this review upon other CNAs might occur.

Reviewing organizations may also make it their business to "watch the watchers". In addition to reviewing CNAs, they may also review other CNA-reviewing organizations, and other reviewing organizations may also review them. It will no doubt be of interest to any CNA to be able to say that they are being reviewed by someone (well).