The design philosophy of the Open Civic Innovation Framework is best understood through its Theory of Change (ToC). This ToC serves as a foundational _meta-model_ that outlines the framework's logic, methodology, and activities. At its core, OpenCivics’ ToC defines a long-term vision of a vital, resilient, and participatory civilization and then maps our work backward to identify the necessary preconditions that would give rise to that future systemic equilibrium. These identified changes are graphically represented through causal pathways of outcomes, illustrating each outcome’s logical relationship to all others. This causal mapping represents a snapshot of what is ultimately an ongoing complex, adaptive, developmental and evolutionary process that will iteratively refine and develop as it us utilized. The Open Civic Innovation Framework employs a “negative space method,” focusing on enabling self-organized coordination and fostering non-rivalrous network effects through mutually beneficial infrastructures and collaborative frameworks. It avoids imposing prescriptive agendas, adhering instead to personal and systemic ethics, which are seen as fundamental to any distributed, participatory process. By providing coordination infrastructure through diverse organizational forms and activities, the ToC identifies its leverage point as creating the enabling conditions for a distributed civic renaissance — one driven by distributed innovation, participation, and stewardship. ## The Model ![[ToC_20241202.png]] [[#Vision]] [[#Outcomes]] [[#Adaptations]] [[#Activities]] [[#Principles]] ## Vision ![[Vision & Values]] ## Outcomes ![[Outcomes]] ## Adaptations ![[Adaptations]] ## Activities ![[Participatory Activities]] ## Principles ![[Design Principles]]