Co-op stewards
Show members how accountable infrastructure keeps co-ops resourced and ready.
Ethotechnics Institute
Smarter governance for maintenance-first systems.
We identify early warning signs and predictive signals so governance decisions keep pace with maintenance realities.
We gather diagnostics from frontline stewards and researchers to surface where systems crack, what signals forecast failure, and how to redesign before harm spreads.
We translate Ethotechnics into burden forecasts, maintenance instrumentation, care drills, and reversibility protocols that teams can adapt in real time.
burden forecasts
maintenance instrumentation
reversibility protocols
What is Ethotechnics?
Accountable governance for maintenance-first teams.
Ethotechnics is a public-interest practice that keeps refusal, reversibility, and care at the center of how systems evolve.
We convene technologists, organizers, and caretakers to surface hidden maintenance labor, then prototype safeguards and rituals teams can reuse.
Pressure check
Pick the pressure you're feeling and jump to the right help.
These scenarios meet you where you are so you can scroll straight to the sections that support your current stakes.
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Burnout pressure
Incidents, on-call, and feature pushes are wearing the same people down.
Stabilize work together by convening peer support rounds, using drills that redistribute load, and naming with collaborators where steward crews should gather first.
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Risky launches
You want accountability built in before the next release.
Gather peers to stress-test launch plans with safeguards and field notes, then stay ahead of changes by following the journal and research agenda when that context helps.
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Caring alone
You shouldn't have to name the harm and hold the care work alone.
Share role-based snapshots to find allies, then open collaboration circles or a two-way contact thread for the backup you need.
Audiences we support
See who we build with
Co-op stewards, mutual aid dispatchers, frontline operators, and care web weavers can all find where Ethotechnics meets their work and invite collaborators into collective upkeep.
Explore audiencesMutual aid dispatchers
Give dispatch teams drills and facilitation guides they can run without extra prep.
Frontline operators
Equip frontline crews with patterns that help them explain, measure, and improve care.
Care web weavers
Connect collaborators with narratives and updates they can circulate to their networks.
Library
Get oriented, then dive deeper.
Preview the Ethotechnics Institute’s research verticals and core programs. Each program blends field research, labs, and the practice library so you can see how we keep maintenance-first methods alive in different domains. When you want the full slate of commitments and collaborations, open the Institute overview to see where to plug in.
Patterns
High-level blueprints for distributing accountability across systems. Each entry outlines tensions, common failure modes, and the signals that tell you when to escalate care.
Practices
Self-serve facilitation guides that help you convene the people doing upkeep. Pull the agendas, checklists, and worksheets into your next retro or tabletop exercise, or ask us to steward a session through our facilitated practices.
Resources
Curated packets of research, policy language, and tooling. Use them to brief leadership, align coalition partners, or document how your team is stewarding critical infrastructure.
Tools & experiments
Interactive calculators, simulators, and worksheets for rehearsing generous maintenance. Try them with your team to surface hidden labor and redistribute responsibility.
Travel together
Preview the collaboration pathways.
Ethotechnics walks with groups through steward circles, shared upkeep, and collective labs that are co-stewarded by the people closest to the work. Scan this snapshot to see how those community-led rhythms feel in practice, then continue to the contact section to start a conversation. For deeper context, read the full collaboration narrative for shared rhythms, collective agreements, and field examples.
- Steward circles: peer-led rhythms that keep strategic stewardship shared and woven into existing rituals.
- Shared upkeep crews: co-stewardship teams that rotate upkeep, rest, and accountability across groups.
- Collective labs: community-led rehearsal spaces where we prototype safeguards together before they reach production.
Featured resources
Sample entries to guide your visit.
Not sure where to begin? These pieces show how the library supports real work. Each stack plays a specific role: patterns are reusable structural logics, practices remap burden and maintenance, field notes capture observations, and resources serve as references you can return to. Use them as proof points, then keep scrolling into the journal for fresh dispatches.
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Pattern
Design refusals that keep people safe.
Patterns are reusable structural logics. The Accountability Escalation pattern outlines how to structure review rituals, decision checks, and safeguards before harm compounds.
Read the pattern -
Practice
Run a maintenance roundtable.
Practices remap burden and maintenance. This facilitation guide helps you gather the people doing upkeep, map invisible work, and distribute responsibility for repairs.
Open the guide -
Field note
See partnership work in motion.
Field notes are observations. A recent dispatch from the field traces how a maintenance partnership rotates urgent support coverage to keep burnout in check.
Browse field notes
Navigation
Go straight to what you need.
Use these quick links to jump into the latest details and skip the parts you already know.
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Library overview — see how patterns, practices, and resources connect before you dive in.
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Partnerships & labs — review the collaboration models without rereading the same bullets.
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Journal — get the latest dispatches and analysis in one feed instead of scattered callouts.
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Glossary — align on terminology so every section references the same definitions.
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Newsletter — subscribe once for updates instead of repeating notices across sections.
From the journal
From the Journal
Field notes, frameworks, and reflections on accountable systems. We publish practice notes, facilitation guides, and research dispatches from the work. New entries arrive every few weeks.
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Maintenance-as-strategy rotation
How a public health lab rotated maintenance as a shared strategy to surface issues early and protect teams from burnout.
Read this entry -
Care escalation rituals
How a distributed support team built care escalation rituals to catch burnout early and keep people from disappearing.
Read this entry -
Consentful deployment pause playbook
How a responsible AI team paused launch until consent and accountability safeguards were negotiated across partners.
Read this entry
Work with Ethotechnics
Share what you’re stewarding.
Review the collaboration paths and then tell us about your context. We’ll listen with you and shape next steps together, drawing on steward circles, shared upkeep, or lab options from those models.