company as a whole. The [http://aftok.com](http://aftok.com) platform provides a voting service
that can be used by collaborators to make collective decisions.

company as a whole. The [http://aftok.com](http://aftok.com) platform provides
a voting service that can be used by collaborators to make collective
decisions.

this service is that units of time (the primary unit of account within a company)
are *auctioned* to raise the money. The fundamental idea is that if someone is
contributing money to purchase a shared resource, obviously some effort of
theirs was required in the past for them to obtain the money that they are
contributing, and so in some sense the contribution of money is equivalent to a
contribution of some amount of their time. The purpose of the auction is to
determine what amount of time their monetary contribution is worth.

this service is that units of time (the primary unit of account within a
company) are *auctioned* to raise the money. The fundamental idea is that if
someone is contributing money to purchase a shared resource, obviously some
effort of theirs was required in the past for them to obtain the money that
they are contributing, and so in some sense the contribution of money is
equivalent to a contribution of some amount of their time. The purpose of the
auction is to determine what amount of time their monetary contribution is
worth.

I believe that in general, the ways in which corporations strive to limit the
potential impact of malicious actors also act to inhibit individual creativity
and productivity. Hierarchies of control can ensure that outcomes desired by
those at the top are achieved, even when those goals are poor or shortsighted.
The aftok ideal seeks another way.

Many of the mechanisms which corporations use to limit the potential impact of
malicious actors also unavoidably act to inhibit individual creativity and
productivity. Hierarchies of control can ensure that outcomes desired by those
at the top are achieved, even when those goals are poor or shortsighted. The
aftok ideal seeks another way.

In my experience, a group of motivated and skilled individuals working toward a
common goal in an environment of shared trust requires no, and indeed is
inhibited by, a hierarchy of control. If you feel that you can trust your
collaborators, you should be able to trust their judgment as to what they
should be working on, and that their perspective, while perhaps distinct from
yours, is as valid as your own. If you don't trust someone to this degree, you
simply should not work with them; if you choose to work with someone whom you
feel that you may need to control, you're setting yourself up for failure
anyway. The most important of the fictional (but true) [Celine's
Laws](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celine%27s_laws) is "Communication is only
possible between equals." Wherever communication is inhibited in business,
whether by secrecy (of salary information, for example) hierarchy of control
(with the thread of firing or punishment available as a goad) or even lack of
access (can you really interrupt your CEO whenever you want?) it encourages
people to behave in cynical, rather than enlightened, self-interest. This
cynicism is the sort that causes people to reserve their best work for projects
where they have the freedom of self-determination. 

As has been mentioned before, open-source software projects have demonstrated
that a group of motivated and skilled individuals working toward a common goal
in an environment of shared trust requires no, and indeed is inhibited by, a
hierarchy of control. If you feel that you can trust your collaborators, you
should be able to trust their judgment as to what they should be working on,
and that their perspective, while perhaps distinct from yours, is as valid as
your own. If you don't trust someone to this degree, you simply should not work
with them; if you choose to work with someone whom you feel that you may need
to control, you're setting yourself up for failure anyway. 

Any question related to how you should behave with respect to others in your
company comes down to a simple question: do you trust them or not? If you trust
them, then trust their judgment and in their good intentions; there is no need
to attempt to control them, only perhaps to convince them or find common ground
when you disagree. 

Wherever trust is inhibited in a business, whether by secrecy (of salary
information, for example) hierarchy of control (with the thread of firing or
punishment available as a goad) or even lack of access (can you really
interrupt your CEO whenever you want?) it encourages people to behave in
cynical, rather than enlightened, self-interest. This cynicism is the sort that
causes people to reserve their best work for projects where they have the
freedom of self-determination. 
Given this, when working in the context of an aftok, any question related to
how you should behave with respect to others in your company comes down to a
simple question: do you trust them or not? If you trust them, then trust their
judgment and in their good intentions; there is no need to attempt to control
them, only perhaps to convince them or find common ground when you disagree. 

risk is not unique to an aftok. Sometimes, there can even be people
whom you trust and even admire greatly, but just don't want to work with, and
this is okay.  A virtue of the aftok structure is that the damage that can be
done by an incompetent or even malicious actor is limited by the very fact that
there is no centralized entity that can own assets, or even control revenue in
any but the most temporary fashion. Fraud is possible on a limited scale
(someone could overstate the hours that they've worked), but this situation is
equally likely to occur in a traditional corporation, and the scale upon which
fraud of other sorts can be perpetrated is greatly reduced.

risk is not unique to an aftok. Sometimes, there can even be people whom you
trust and even admire greatly, but just don't want to work with, and this is
okay. A virtue of the aftok structure is that the damage that can be done by an
incompetent or even malicious actor is limited by the very fact that there is
no centralized entity that can own assets, or even control revenue in any but
the most temporary fashion. Fraud is possible on a limited scale (someone could
overstate the hours that they've worked), but this situation is equally likely
to occur in a traditional corporation, and the scale upon which fraud of other
sorts can be perpetrated is greatly reduced.

Given all of this, we can construct a pretty good picture of what working in
an aftok should look like, at least ideally.

Given all of this, it should be obvious that (Aftok.com)[http://aftok.com] is
itself being built by an aftok, rather than some ordinary corporate entity. As
such, I'm now going to slip into first-person for a moment to express my
personal motivation for initiating this project. My name is Kris Nuttycombe,
and I'm a software engineer. In the previous several years, I've been
exceptionally fortunate in that I've been able to work with some of the
smartest and most self-motivated software development teams in the world.
However, that work has always been done in the context of traditional
organizations, and as such I've always been a little bit dissatisfied with how
the dynamics of hierarchical control have impacted the products that I've 
been a part of creating. 

... to be continued.

My objective in creating this service is simple; I want to be able to support
my family doing the work that I love, in an environment of mutual respect and
trust with my collaborators. I firmly believe that I will personally achieve
greatest success in this endeavor if I reject entirely notions of control and
coercion.  Communication is only possible between equals <sup>1</sup>, and I
believe that where communication is inhibited, the end result suffers. As such,
it's up to each of my collaborators to decide for themselves what work, if any,
they wish to do in the creation and promotion of this service. Each of them
knows far better than I what value he or she is able to contribute. The
structure described here is a mere skeleton, and software is never complete
until it is abandoned.  However, I hope that what I've created thus far is
sufficient to make a start, and it is up to all of us, working together, to
determine what we may ultimately achieve.