We’ve been supporting Radworks (formerly Radicle) this year to evolve and improve their governance. Through our initial research, we identified two core challenges the community was facing: 

The Radicle ecosystem has an ambitious goal: to create the infrastructure for a free and open internet. To protect and further this mission over time, Radicle has been transitioning decision-making to its community of developers, users, token holders, investors, and founders. 

Governance is a funny thing – both ubiquitous and categorically difficult to define. It is often reduced to voting mechanisms, but this isn’t the full picture. We need a better mental model for governance that accurately reflects its complexity. 

We founded Apiary to solve the challenge of collective decision-making, by improving the efficacy of communication, coordination, and collaboration. To do this, we’re focused on three core areas of work: 

We, Camille Canon and Kristen Stone, have decided to bring our work together and merge the forces of Apiary and Iris Rising. We both care deeply about collective decision making – different from governance that focuses on ownership over someone or something, collective decision making consists of how groups communicate, coordinate, and collaborate.

Today, we’re proud to announce the launch of apiary, an applied research company developing governance solutions for decentralized organizations.