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Economists (such as Partha Dasgupta) have observed that smaller networks (rural villages, open source projects, academic journals) tend to rely on informal reputation, whereas larger networks (international finance, DEFI blockchains, social networks) tend to rely on formal and quantitative reputation capital. Stackoverflow has in fact used a formal reputation to connect multiple open source projects’ smaller, informal networks. As a result, they’ve monetized the informal networks of open source projects. Stackoverflow has in fact used a formal reputation to connect multiple open source projects’ smaller, informal networks. As a result, they’ve monetized the informal networks of open source projects.
The oversight or steering function is a common feature of governance for many communities, from large social networks such as Instagram to small open source projects and academic journals. The steering committee doesn't have to be knowledgeable about particular topics, which requires specialized expertise, but should know what is general acceptable, which is something that a lot of people should understand. For example, Instagram doesn't get involved in whether pet or vacation photos should get more likes, but it will control what types of content are allowed. Similarly, the maintainers of an open source project may not be the most knowledgeable about each feature in the code base, but they should insist that there is proper documentation and testing for all the features that go into a project.
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