<aside> 💡 About this page:
Here we explore the conceptualisation of a DAO so we may inform DAO design and practice. The following conceptual foundations serve to inform the creation of our mapping framework so we may capture “the paths towards becoming a DAO” and provide a resource for DAO designers
We delved into the question of 'What is a DAO’ and frame 5 conceptual lenses that enable us to leverage the existing body of research on coordination and organisations:
<aside> 🌐 DAOs as Organisational collectives
**DAOs as multi-agent systems, with interconnected instances of decision-making, where agents attribute decisions to a collective entity (the DAO) and where declarations, statements, references (i.e. speech acts) describe what the entity is or does.
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<aside> ⚙ DAOs as Entities
DAOs in a specific point in time, represented by the communication processes between their agents (human and non-human).
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<aside> 🌱 DAOs as Process
DAO as the constant process of change and evolution of a collective (towards certain goals and informed by a specific culture or ethos).
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<aside> 💬 DAOs as Communication
**DAOs as communication events (human and computer language) between DAO agents.
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<aside> 💙 DAOs as Cultural Systems
DAOs as complex adaptive systems of emerging, and being (re)created as informed by an Ethos (exemplified by a set of DAO qualities) resulting in a Socio-Cultural System.
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Combining the above lenses with a study with 150+ participants on the convergence of DAO-defining qualities, we offer the following definition:
DAOs are collectives that exhibit organisationality, expressed and evolved through communication events and processes, and shaped by an Ethos that highlights (quotes taken from participant statements with 64%+ approval in our study):