2025/07/01 by Matthew Scott, Scott, Matthew, Jeremy Pitt +1
Computer Science · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Multi-Agent Systems and Negotiation #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #Open Source Software Innovations #Usability and User Interface Design
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.01239
openalex publication_date 2025/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
To mitigate the restrictive centralising and monopolistic tendencies of platformisation, we aim to empower local communities by democratising platforms for self-organised social coordination. Our approach is to develop an open-source, full-stack architecture for platform development that supports ease of distribution and cloning, generativity, and a variety of hosting options. The architecture consists of a meta-platform that is used to instantiate a base platform with supporting libraries for generic functions, and plugins (intended to be supplied by third parties) for customisation of application-specification functionality for self-organised social coordination. Associated developer- and user-oriented toolchains support the instantiation and customisation of a platform in a two-stage process. This is demonstrated through the proof-of-concept implementation of two case studies: a platform for regular sporting association, and a platform for collective group study. We conclude by arguing that self-organisation at the application layer can be achieved by the specific supporting functionality of a full-stack architecture with complimentary developer and user toolchains.