Leveraging stewardship

Since we only interact with the world based on what we know, changing what we 'know' is essential to changing our expectations and motivations.

An open access economy leverages the ethic of stewardship that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources.

If a particular resource is poorly stewarded then it may negatively affect a life-supporting environment. Likewise, if the resource is well stewarded, it will not or may even improve it in some way.

Examples of good stewardship in an open access economy:

Only giving scarce resources to those with the proven capabilities to manage them effectively

Acting conservatively with time management to prevent the misuse and abuse of scarce resources

Respecting the environment during the production and assembly of manufactured goods

Planning ahead of time to maximise use of resources and reduce shortages

Only using limited amounts of available resources to reduce waste

Reusing existing resources over resource extraction

Leveraging trust and reputation

In an open access economy, it would be wisest to choose those with a proven record and ability to manage a particular resource or time commitment well.

This can be done through services offering honor systems such as HonorPay, and sites such as Sharebay featuring transaction reviews.

Trustos also provides an alternative way of measuring trust with a unique account ID number given to each member viewable on their map marker, and an algorithm that calculates according to various factors.

Reputation measuring services such as these provide you with an understanding of what people think of each other, based on records of past deeds of how well an interaction went down.

Not all though make declarations based on judgment of character, and simply wish to judge a person's worth based on a number they're given like a currency, but for other reasons their members wish to declare such as how well a task was performed or a borrowed item was looked after.

Private ownership becomes stewardship

Just because resources are shared with more access to them in an open access economy, doesn't mean existing private property rights are abandoned. Some critical of an open access economy fear that others will take whatever they want and whatever they can, and abuse an ability to use and misuse property without maintaining some form of property management, ownership rights, and permissions system for who can use property and in what ways.

In an open access economy, it can still be possible to retain any title ownership rights you have over that particular resource, land, or property you have the title to on record for. As it's acting steward, if something were to go wrong with said property, or cause harm to people or the environment, you will still retain the responsibility for the outcomes of how well the property is maintained.

In the current market system however, information on who is ultimately responsible for the management of private property isn't always easy to define or clear due to a lot of private property being jointly owned, whether that be in shareholdings or in title, leading to decision-making problems when shareholders or joint owners have different opinions and visions and want to go in different directions, and so are unable to settle a plan of action regarding what to do with the jointly owned property. And putting things right to the property, such as costs of repair, isn't always easy either when heavy monetary costs are involved.

To help with this, in an open access economy, alongside resources needed to improve aspects of the property now more readily available with cost no longer a major playing factor, private property can be managed and organised where all property is stewarded solely by individuals as the sole title owners. So only one person has the title ownership rights to the property.

Doing so improves responsible management and decision-making capabilities when a lack of responsible decision-making and maintenance for the use and upkeep of the property for themselves, or anyone else using the property, cannot be claimed by anyone else. So it is always known who to contact if needed or if something were to go wrong, such as when the property is in use or on loan and a return needs to be made, if a query regarding the property needs to be asked, or if an improvement needs to be made to the property.

Housing allocation

We imagine stewards will likely assign and manage property according to need.

As an example, if you are a family of five, a steward of a house or apartment will attempt to assign you to a home suitable for five people.

This can be done by assessing bedrooms and their size as well as the age and gender of each member of the family:

Two parents to one bedroom

The three kids to their own separate bedrooms

If the kids are older, of different genders, and there are not enough bedrooms, it may be organised like this:

Two boys or two girls to the same bedroom

The third boy or girl to the remaining unoccupied bedroom or spare room

This process is not too different from what social housing landlords do today for assessing you and your family's suitability for moving into a certain home based upon family size, and what housing and bedrooms they have available.

If anyone were to move out, the steward looking after the property may choose to ask the occupants if they would look to downsize to a smaller property and free up the existing housing stock to make it available for another family looking for an appropriate home for their size.

How stewards manage their property will be up to them. And likely won’t be defined or constricted by law or by a government. Though there may be some limited scenarios where government manages the transition.

But ultimately instead, the results based on reviews, ratings, and declarations across various review sites and property listing services of how well stewards take care of their property and its occupants, will determine how well they’ve been managed, and who gets the higher chance to allocate new occupants to their homes further on.

Projects and task management

As with private property, projects in an open access economy will also need to be responsibly managed, and the bigger the project, the more areas of the project need to be managed. This can be done through project founders and property owners assigning roles to their management as leaders forming teams.

Once roles are assigned, tasks can be given to those within the team the role is assigned to complete. This could be taking care of a particular part of work on property such as cleaning, electrical or garden maintenance, or for parts of a project that needs to be completed.

Role and task assigning help team leaders and stewards of property manage who are responsible for what objectives need to be carried out towards their completion.

Improving education and relationships

It’s not just resources such as property or physical goods that need to be well stewarded, but also people and their actions. Without the correct kind of education to perform well at a given task, relationships and communication falter.

Individuals wishing to practice good stewardship know and understand that each individual is different. So thus understanding that meeting each individual's needs is imperative to keep people working together toward a goal, managing on their own if they need to, or if they end up in a situation where no one might be around or able to help.

Managing expectations and fostering leaders

With the understanding that everyone is different, expectations of what to come from each individual must be managed and taken into account.

Some individuals will have an amazing new idea that can be fostered and taken further. Taking the time to understand the individual's actions, especially if they differ from the norm, might allow such talent to grow and foster into a leadership role.