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# What is Governance?
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## Governance of Open Source Projects
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The history of the internet is rooted in open source.
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‘Open source’ refers to software projects which are [freely open and available to all](https://www.theopensourceway.org/the_open_source_way-guidebook-2.0.html). They are developed and maintained according to the principles of transparency, collaboration, accessibility (“release early and often”), inclusive meritocracy, and community.
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Open source code can be used, copied, changed, and redistributed by anyone. Anyone can likewise propose changes or additions to the original project, though these proposals are not always accepted.
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Many individuals and organizations contribute to the maintenance and development of open source projects- such as [TensorFlow](https://www.tensorflow.org/), [React](https://react.dev/), and [Ethereum](https://ethereum.org/en/)- though no one person or entity “owns” or controls the entire project.
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Instead, these projects are openly governed. This means that there are rules, structures, and processes for managing the project codebase, including making decisions about source code and ensuring that the project remains functional and purposeful.
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In this context, governance of open source projects can be defined as the rules, rights, and norms that empower collective ownership of a project.
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It is the ethos of open source that helped build the modern internet. With decades of history, there are today many open source projects and organizations of all sizes, each with their own unique method of governance.
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## Governance of Decentralized Projects
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Decentralized blockchain projects- also referred to as ‘Web3 projects’- emerged in the 2010s as a new subtype of open source projects.
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The nature of blockchain technology has enabled these projects to develop new modes and methods of open source governance.
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For example, new *modes* of governance could include the extension of governance rights to any community member as determined by the count of tokens or cryptocurrency that they control. In other words, it’s not just reputation, contributed code, or technical skill that gives you a say in what happens to the technology, but rather the amount of investment you have made in the project.
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New *methods* of open source governance include the development of new tools and institutions to support community rights and collective decision-making. Web3 projects have popularized ‘on-chain voting’ as a method of determining what ought to happen to project proposals.
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That said, there is no “right way” to govern a project. Some projects are governed better than others, but no two open source projects are governed in the same way.
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Each open-source project or community represents a distinct set of technologies, contributors, and/or mission and purpose. As such, governance is often a complicated combination of people and technology working together to oversee collective interest.
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And, as these things slowly shift and change, so too does the governance of a system.
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## Governance of Filecoin
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### FIP0001
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### FIP00XX

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