We approach digital infrastructure(ing) through a model of a 'real full stack' of activities in the commons which are, first, mediated by digital means and, second, are mobilised, curated and stewarded in a practice of digital infrastructure(ing). These are two categories, but they overlap. Here we describe the stack. The stack is important in characterising the fundability of project proposals by a Democratic Tech Fund.
Each layer in the stack is understood to be a distnct kind of 'space' or social field, in which practice is enacted and relationships are held. The nature of the practice and the relationships varies very considerably across the range of the stack. Each kind of space (that is, relationship) is digitally *mediated*. Some - but certainly not all - are digitally *focused*.Spaces
> Why do we talk about 'a stack'? It's a pervasive and helpful metaphor in the software and internet sphere.Stacks
Our full stack looks like this.
A full stack of digitally mediated commons
Each kind of space is understood to be a commons, with privileges, under obligations, supported by protocols. Everything in the commons
As a space of relationships, in practice, all layers are necessarily constellations of powers, plural: (de)colonial, (de)patriarchal, contra-capitalist, de-enclosure, dis-extractive, de-commoditising, etc. In any project in any layer we're looking for the **altered social relations of production**, which make it a contribution to resistance to the digital coup, and to a transformative economics, and to a transformatively democratic politics. Thus we can see the full stack as a way of mapping formations of **dual power**. Equally, a mapping of a *pluriverse*.
# Regions of the stack The stack has three major regions:
- **Tech region** - A set of layers essentially concerned with the configuring and provisioning of digital means in the commons. These spaces (constellations of practices) are digitally *focused* and they constitute the middle region of the stack The tech layers
- **Solidarity region** - A set of manifestly 'social' layers, essentially concerned with the organising and weaving of practices and capabilities in civil society and the real economy, for purposes of wellbeing and justice. As significant fields of social practice, these spaces today are increasingly, and often inescapably, *mediated by* and sometimes powerfully shaped by digital means. But they are not essentially digitally focused. The solidarity layers
- **Planet region** - A pair of layers that are essentially concerned with the wellbeing of the planet as an entire mesh of living and natural fabric; also with the durability and wellbeing of human populations and practices ('the real economy') as an element of this, in enduring and well-inhabited relationships with other populations and species. Like practices in the solidarity region of the stack, these spaces too - like any significant field of social practice in this era in human history - are increasingly digitally mediated. In addition - and unlike the solidarity layers - they also are significantly and directly implicated in the extractive provisoning of digital means from planetary sources. The planet layers
The federation must necessarily be concerned with developments of practice and capability across the full stack. Some of these oreintations are 'simpler' than others, in the sense that their concerns are pretty strongly focused within one layer or another. Of course this can be advantageous: we don't wish to see 'dilettante' projects that lack focus! But the core intention in the federation is to vision, support and help to weave developments across all the layers of the full stack, and any project needs to show some way in which it facilitates this. A federation
# A stack of commons The 'full stack' is not essentially a stack of tech, but a stack of commons: practices of mutuality, around common means *that matter*: means of subsistence, wellbeing and justice. A stack of commons
This is also to say: the full stack is a stack of practices with various distinct scopes and focal concerns. Thus, we can say it is **a stack of scopes**. The stack model was created in order to frame the scope of the impact of digital infrastructures; also, the scope of kinds of practice that go to constitute digital infrastructure. A Democratic Tech Fund is concerned with both of these. Thus 'the real full stack' is a pivotal frame for determining the scope of projects that might be **funded** by the DTF; also, the relationships that might be facilitated across projects, and the entire *ecosystem of funded projects* in the federation.
The full stack as shown above can be annotated, describing it as a stack **of commons**: Full stack, annotated.
# The full stack as a mapping of an ecosystem It's important to recognise that, as practices in society, all the layers of the full stack are co-present with one another. We're dealing with a complex ecosystem of practices of sometimes very different kinds.
The stack can be seen as a 'flattened' map of a profoundly interwoven ecology. As a self-aware simplification (which is what a map is) we intend the stack schema to be practically helpful, in framing, enacting and interweaving projects that might be funded by a Democratic Tech Fund.
All niches in the ecosystem - all layers of the stack, let's say, as a first approximation - need to be inhabited by any robust inititative in contra-infrastructuring. Full stack, ecosystem map
Is that too demanding? Well, it's not hard to generate project cases that interweave any two or more layers of the stack.
Every practice, for example, has 'an economy', in the sense that is covered by the Economy layer: an economy of contributions. Every practice has a relationship with the planet (Planet layer) although the impacts of some are more profound and immediate than others: large language models in AI are the 'hot' instance, but server farms per se are also hugely impactful, as is the material composition of every single digital device, at the level of its silicon. You would therefore think that the Planet region of the stack was an inescapable consideration. But it's amazing how it gets ignored - specifically, in the funding of digital tech. > It's amazing how the Planet region of the stack gets ignored.
As regards the solidarity region of the full stack: our concern in the Fund and the federation is to radically alter the dependencies of civil society and the real economy on the digital ecosystems ruled by Big Tech. Thus *something* in the solidarity region of the stack must come into consideration for us to be interested: we're not in the business of funding 'pure tech'. Others do that. > Something in the solidarity region of the stack must come into consideration for us to be interested.
The discipline of the stack model, then, is to demand that appropriate skills and relationships are mobilised, which - collectively - ensure adequate literacy and engagement across all the layers that are foregrounded in a given infrastructure(ing) initiative.
The fundability of projects necessarily must be related to the scope of the project within-and-across the stack. In other pages we explore the fundability of projects within each subregion and each layer of the stack. - The tech layers - The solidarity layers - The planet layers
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