Do. Learn. Teach.
Urban Array allows members to use their skills to do purposeful work with tangible results. These may be skills that members don’t get to use in their day job or skills they have honed over years of work. Members may be interested in a new skill set and enter the UA network for education and real-world experience, or they may have expertise they wish to share with others.
Furthermore, UA’s technology provides a living resume of all work completed and skills learned within the network. This public profile of work may be used within UA to become a project manager or a teacher for others. Also, it may be viewed by outside employers as a verifiable resume of education and experience.
From the underemployed to the formerly incarcerated, refugees to the retired, students to hourly employees with jobs that don’t engage their hearts or minds, UA allows members to build knowledge and expertise while using their skills to make an impact. Our time, energy, interests, hobbies and desire for engagement and teamwork are an underutilized resource. Just as UA unlocks latent resources within a neighborhood, it also unlocks latent skills and talents within its population.
Governance
Both locally and globally, the system mechanics of Urban Array will prioritize fair representation, diversity, the ascension of good ideas to the top and community-based decision-making. Those who have contributed to other peoples’ projects will have a higher chance of obtaining support for their projects, leading to the first genuinely meritocratic platform of its kind. Contributors become leaders, and in this way teamwork and cooperation are encouraged.
Projects will grow from the grassroots level as specific needs are identified. Community support and action dictates whether or not a project is chosen, and members select the projects in which they would like to participate. Project leaders are selected based on their experience and Reputation, all of which is tracked and logged on the SEAMS app.
The broader governance model will evolve as the organism grows. The model will utilize preference-weighted voting to foster understanding, fairness and transparency. In a constantly changing world, no set of rules or policies could ever hope to be perfect. Governance based on principles rather than prescriptions is necessary in order to ensure that the network neither stagnates nor overreaches.
UA provides a platform for us to transform ourselves and our world, together, on our own terms.
