Core - Sensorica/valuenetwork GitHub Wiki

The software has a core that would fit not only many different kinds of value networks, but also other types of economic networks: for example, supply chains, joint ventures, and business collaboration networks as described by Verna Allee, a pioneer in value network analysis. Here's an example of her work: Cisco customer support value network.

Then on top of the core, the software has a user interface that was designed in collaboration with SENSORICA, a pioneering Open Value Network that makes sensors and is now in an R&D stage of development.

The core and the UI are not well separated at this stage, but the separation is on the Roadmap.

The core is based on the REA (Resource, Event, Agent) ontology. You can read a short overview on the Concepts Wiki page, and find all the details by following the Links.

These are the main concepts in the REA ontology, as pictured in this document:

They form an economic network, where resources flow from agent to agent to agent via events. These resource flow networks do not care about company or national boundaries. And the resources themselves can be anything of value: tangible or intangible, materials, ideas, work, kudos, money, alternative currencies, whatever.

A key concept in REA is Duality, which means that each event wants one or more balancing events: in other words, give and take. REA uses an abstract word for this relationship in order to make the meaning configurable. The giving and the taking do not need to happen at the same time, or in the same transaction. And they can have any logic that a network wants: payment in money, swap, earn credits, earn reputation points, share with the commons, from each according to ability and to each according to need, etc.

SENSORICA's version of give and take will use a Value Equation to distribute income according to contributions.

From Duality, REA can generate all of the standard accounting reports and a lot more, without anybody needing to enter debits and credits or account numbers.

And different financial reports can be generated for any agent in the network, from that agent's viewpoint.

The other levels of the REA ontology are similarly flexible and configurable: The Type level represents policies, procedures, rules and patterns. The Type objects are the main places where each network can configure the core concepts to fit their desires. (If you are a programmer, you might want to look at the Type Object pattern.)

The Plan level represents schedules and promises. The Event level represents what really happened.

Recipes use the elements inside their outline, configured as a network.

Value Streams use the elements inside their outline, configured as a network.

Several components have been added to the Type level that are not part of the core, but that allow different networks to configure the core to fit their needs without programming: for example, a faceted classification system and a flexible organization structure.

And many different user interfaces, reports, and visualizations can sit on top of the core.