The GainForest Framework

How do we coordinate together to solve the climate crisis?

GainForest proposes to design sociotechnical intelligent systems that preserve or enhance social capital, trust and agency while scaling governance capabilities.

• “Sociotechnical” acknowledges that pure technological or social solutions alone are insufficient

• “Intelligent systems” emphasizes the focus on data-driven intelligent infrastructure

• “Preserve or enhance social capital” ensures we don’t sacrifice community bonds for efficiency

• “Trust and agency” maintains Ostrom’s emphasis on local autonomy and self-governance

• “Scaling governance capabilities” targets our core challenge of extending effective governance beyond local contexts

The SISL framework consists of five key stages that work together in a continuous cycle:

1. Gather, collaborate & govern: Communities engage in direct digital governance and collaboration

2. Improve data: These interactions and local data collection help improve our infrastructure and understanding

3. Improve tools: Better data enables the development of more effective tools and systems

4. Capacity-building: Enhanced tools support capacity building

5. Utility feedback: Throughout each cycle, provide rapid feedback on measured utility to all stakeholders

Throughout this cycle, there’s a constant process of reflection, alignment, and improvement that feeds back into each stage. The ultimate goal is to generate increasing utility - making governance more effective and scalable while preserving human agency and social capital.

Learn more: Governing the Commons in the Intelligent Age