Abstract
My technical project is a web-based system design simulator app. Specifically, this project is an educational tool used to bridge the gap between industry expectation and the preparation of entry level software engineers. Through a turn-based simulation, users engage in experiential learning, showing how each decision made influences the immediate steps and system state, as well as how those decisions cascade in the more long-term project context. Each decision triggers a new event, allowing users to choose an option to address a given event. There is no clear “correct” option but instead emphasizes tradeoffs and how those tradeoffs affect system architecture. The system architecture is exposed through two means. First, a metrics panel is presented to a user, with metrics like reliability, architecture complexity, performance, latency, and real-world constraints like budget. Secondly, a software architecture diagram is presented to the user as a main focus of the screen, allowing the user to refer to it for a visual representation of the internal system state as a level of abstraction expected in system design scenarios. Specifically, the software diagram has nodes and edges between the high-level components to represent major parts of a system. Both the metrics panel and software diagram update per decision, showcasing the current system state and highlighting the effect a decision had through. In particular, a slider representing the metrics tracked adjusts (via animation) and also provides color-themed feedback on the state of those metrics (“good”, “warning”, “critical”). Depending on the event, the system highlights relevant nodes and edges to indicate to the user where in the system the newest issue is, allowing users to focus on the problem area, but also maintain a perspective of the system at large, as to not lose focus of more long-term goals. The project includes multiple “worlds”, which simulate a junior software engineer being assigned to a new project, and each world has its own events and action options to take. After playing a session, users can review their decisions to further inform their future decisions.
My STS project explores the paths that governance power is redirected through in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). By juxtaposing the DAO imaginary with the realities limited by their implementation in practice, I expose the true outcome of their network. Specifically, I examine how proposed DAO theoretical attributes reveal themselves through a case study of CityDAO. While exploring the lifetime of CityDAO, I apply Actor Network Theory (ANT) to model CityDAO in particular (and DAO processes more broadly) as a network of human and non-human actors. In this network, each actor delegates a level of agency to each other actor it interacts with. I highlight how agency is assigned from each actor to others, and how each actor reshapes the ultimate outcome of the system. However, not all actors are equal. Rather, some actors function as obligatory passage points, through which all proposals must flow and cannot proceed unless this actor allows the proposal to proceed. Through my analysis, I identify membership NFTs, informal member forums, DAO members, DAO leaders, and formal vote signaling tools as actors in this actor network. I also identify multi-signature wallets, registered legal agents, and DAO-oriented legislation as obligatory passage points. By examining this network, I reveal the controlling role that multi-signature wallets, registered legal agents, and supporting DAO legislation plays in the proposal process. These obligatory passage points hold ultimate governance power, since if any of them fail or reject a proposal, the entire system process up until that point’s intentions are unrealized.
While not highly correlated in a direct way, these two projects complement each other by emphasizing system/network level perspectives of visualizing sociotechnical systems and processes. My technical project focuses on users building their understanding of system architecture, while my STS paper reveals the critical points where power lies in the DAO proposal process. Together, the system-building skills learned from the technical project may be applied alongside the strengths and limitations revealed through the network in the STS project to enable us to design systems that more adequately allocate power among all actors moving forward.
