We are genuinely delighted by your interest. Integral is an ambitious project — perhaps one of the most ambitious cooperative endeavors being attempted right now — and the people who join it matter enormously to what it becomes.
This interview is designed to do two things at once. It helps us understand who you are and what you bring. And it helps you understand what we are actually trying to build — because this is not a typical open source project, and we want to make sure that is clear before you invest any more of your time.
There are no right answers here. We are looking for genuine engagement, honest self-assessment, and real curiosity. The interview takes about 15 minutes. Your responses will be reviewed personally, and if there is a good fit, you will hear back within one week.
Take your time. We are glad you are here.
— The Integral Collective
Section 1 — Who You Are
What is your name?
Please enter your name before continuing.
Section 1 — Who You Are
What is the best email address to reach you?
Your email is used only to respond to your application. It will never be shared or used for any other purpose.
Please enter a valid email address.
Section 1 — Who You Are
Where in the world are you based?
We ask because Integral nodes will eventually be geographically distributed. Knowing where contributors are located helps us understand the shape of the community forming around this project.
Please share your location before continuing.
Section 2 — How You Found Us
How did you find out about Integral?
No need to be formal here. "A friend sent me a link" is a perfectly good answer. We are genuinely curious about how this project is finding its people.
Please share how you found us before continuing.
Section 2 — How You Found Us
What specifically caught your attention enough to fill out this form?
Something made you stop and take this seriously. What was it? A particular idea, a concern, a sense of recognition — whatever it was, we want to hear it in your own words.
Please share what caught your attention before continuing.
Section 3 — The Project
Before we go further, we want to make sure you have a clear picture of what Integral actually is.
Integral is an attempt to build a federated, post-monetary cooperative economic system from the ground up — five interdependent software systems that together replace market coordination with democratic governance, open design commons, contribution accounting, and feedback-driven monitoring. It is not a product. It is not a startup. It is not a nonprofit. It is an attempt to build the infrastructure for a different kind of economy, designed to be taken up by real communities operating real nodes.
The white paper describes the full architecture. The development guide describes how we intend to build it. Both are available in the project repositories.
With that in mind —
Section 3 — The Project
Have you read the Integral white paper?
Yes, I read most or all of it
I skimmed it or read parts of it
I have not read it yet but I plan to
I have not read it
Please select an option before continuing.
Section 3 — The Project
What part of the white paper made the strongest impression on you — positively or negatively?
We are not looking for a summary. We want to know what landed — what made you think, what made you uncertain, what surprised you.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 3 — The Project
Did anything in the white paper immediately concern you? Something that made you pause or think "this might not work"?
Skepticism is not a disqualifier here. It is a sign of careful thinking. We are building something that has never been done before, and we need people who can hold both genuine belief in the project and honest doubt about its harder questions. If nothing concerned you, say so — that is also useful information.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 3 — The Project
Did you have any immediate suggestion — however rough — about something that could be improved or reconsidered in what you read?
Even better than a concern is a concrete idea. Describe it as specifically as you can. The best architectural improvements to this project will come from people who read something carefully and immediately saw a better way. Do not worry about whether it is fully formed — rough ideas are welcome here.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 3 — The Project
No problem at all — we will make sure you have easy access to both documents. Before we continue, here is a brief picture of what Integral is trying to do.
Integral proposes to replace market coordination — with all its ecological destruction and structural inequality — with a democratic, cybernetically coherent alternative. Five interdependent systems handle governance, design, production, contribution accounting, and feedback. No prices. No profit motive. No central authority. Instead: democratic deliberation, open design commons, time-based contribution recognition, and continuous adaptive feedback. The ambition is to make this real — not as a thought experiment, but as working software operating in real cooperative communities.
Sit with that for a moment. Then continue.
Section 3 — The Project
Having read that — what is your immediate reaction? Does this resonate with you, concern you, or raise questions?
There is no right answer. We want to know how you think about this, not whether you already agree with it.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 4 — The Development Guide
Have you read the Integral development guide?
Yes, I read most or all of it
I skimmed it or read parts of it
I have not read it yet but I plan to
I have not read it
Please select an option before continuing.
Section 4 — The Development Guide
The development guide is honest about the project's hard open problems. Did any of those stand out to you?
The guide names problems like democratic deliberation at scale, the one-to-one labor value question, verification without coercion, and governance velocity under crisis. If one of these struck you as particularly important — or if you think there is a hard problem the guide missed — we want to hear it.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 4 — The Development Guide
The guide describes a philosophy called "minimalistic but faithful." Does that approach make sense to you? Do you agree with it?
You do not have to agree. If you think it is the wrong approach, say why. This is a genuine question, not a test.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 4 — The Development Guide
Based on what you know so far, what do you think the biggest challenge in actually building something like Integral would be?
There is no wrong answer here. We are interested in how you think about complexity, coordination, and what makes ambitious projects succeed or fail.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 5 — What You Bring
Now we want to understand you — not your resume, but what you actually think about and work on.
Section 5 — What You Bring
How would you describe what you do — not your job title, but what you actually spend your time thinking about and working on?
"I write software" is less interesting to us than "I think a lot about how distributed systems fail under adversarial conditions." Tell us what actually occupies your mind.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 5 — What You Bring
Which feels closest to how you would contribute to this project?
Builder
I write code, design systems, or build infrastructure
Thinker
I engage with ideas, theory, governance, or critique at a conceptual level
Practitioner
I have real experience running cooperative organizations, mutual aid networks, or commons governance
Maker
I write, design, communicate, or document
Explorer
I am not sure yet — I am here to understand the project before deciding where I fit
These are starting points, not permanent categories. Many contributors move between them over time.
Please select an option before continuing.
Section 5 — What You Bring
Whatever you selected — say more. What specifically do you bring, and what have you built, written, organized, or thought through that feels relevant to this project?
This is the most important question on this form. Take your time with it. We are not looking for credentials — we are looking for evidence of serious engagement with hard problems. A mutual aid organizer who has spent five years navigating resource allocation in a community without money has something more valuable to offer this project than a developer who has never thought about cooperative economics.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 6 — Tools and Community
Integral's development happens across two platforms — GitHub for all formal work, and Discord for real-time conversation and coordination. Neither requires prior experience to participate, and we will walk you through everything you need. But we want to understand where you are starting from.
Section 6 — Tools and Community
Are you familiar with GitHub?
Yes — I use it regularly
Somewhat — I have used it but am not confident
Not really — I have heard of it but have not used it
No — this would be new to me
Please select an option before continuing.
Section 6 — Tools and Community
Are you familiar with Discord?
Yes — I use it regularly
Somewhat — I have used it but am not deeply familiar
Not really — I have heard of it
No — this would be new to me
Please select an option before continuing.
Section 6 — Tools and Community
Is there a particular working group or system area you feel drawn to? Optional
CDS — Collaborative Decision System (governance)
OAD — Open Access Design (design commons and ecological certification)
COS — Cooperative Organization System (production coordination)
ITC — Integral Time Credits (contribution accounting)
FRS — Feedback & Review System (monitoring and adaptive feedback)
Specifications — Interface contracts and data schemas
Documentation and communication
Not sure yet
Section 7 — Honest Self-Assessment
Last section. These questions are about expectations — yours and ours. We ask them because the project succeeds when contributors are honest about what they can give and what they hope to get. There are no wrong answers here, only honest ones.
Section 7 — Honest Self-Assessment
How much time do you realistically have available to contribute, at least in the early stages?
A few hours a month — I want to follow along and contribute occasionally
Several hours a week — I can be a consistent presence
More than that — I am seriously committed and ready to take on substantial work
I am not sure yet — it depends on what the project needs and what fits my situation
Please select an option before continuing.
Section 7 — Honest Self-Assessment
What do you hope to get out of contributing to this project?
Be honest. "I want to be part of something meaningful" is a real answer. So is "I want to develop specific skills" or "I am professionally interested in post-market economic systems." We are not looking for altruism — we are looking for genuine motivation that will sustain engagement over time.
Please share your thoughts before continuing — there are no wrong answers.
Section 7 — Honest Self-Assessment
Is there anything else you want us to know? Optional
About yourself, your interest, or anything that did not fit neatly into the questions above.
Access // What Happens Next
What happens when you are approved.
Integral's development community operates across two platforms — GitHub and Discord — and access on each is intentionally simple at this stage.
On Discord, access is binary. Before approval, the server is readable but you cannot post. Once approved, you receive a single community role that gives you full posting access across all channels. There are no tiers, no restricted working group channels, no special ranks. Everyone who is approved participates on equal footing from day one.
On GitHub, there are two tiers. Every approved contributor begins as a Contributor — you can open issues, comment, participate in deliberation across all repositories, and fork any repository to develop work independently. As you establish a track record of serious, quality contribution, the trustee may grant Trusted Contributor status, which allows you to push directly to feature branches within your working group's repository. Merge authority to the main branch of any repository remains with the trustee until a core team has been established and trust has been sufficiently demonstrated to delegate it.
Neither platform requires prior experience. We will walk you through everything you need when your invitation arrives.
The simplicity of this structure is intentional. Complexity in access and permissions is introduced only when the community is large enough to genuinely need it — and we are not there yet. What matters right now is the quality of engagement, not the tier you occupy.
Almost Done
One last thing before you submit.
When you receive your invitation to join the Integral community on GitHub and Discord, it is important that the account names you use — whether existing accounts or new ones you create — are recognizably consistent with the name you have provided on this form.
This does not mean your accounts need to use your full legal name. But they should be clearly traceable to you as a person — not an anonymous handle that makes it impossible to connect your application to your participation. This consistency is how we maintain the integrity of our contributor registry.
If you already have GitHub or Discord accounts, please share your usernames below so we can connect your invitation directly.
If you do not have accounts yet, no problem — we will walk you through creating them when you receive your invitation.
Submit Your Application
You have reached the end of the interview. When you click Submit, your responses will be sent to the Integral Collective for personal review.
If there is a good fit, you will hear back within one week.
Something went wrong submitting your application. Please try again. If the problem persists, email us directly at info@integralcollective.io.
Application Submitted
Thank you.
Your responses have been submitted and will be reviewed personally. We read every application carefully — this is not an automated process.
If there is a good fit, you will hear back within one week with an invitation to join the Discord community and the GitHub organization. If we have questions about your application, we may reach out before making a decision.
In the meantime, if you have not already done so, we encourage you to read the white paper and the development guide. Both are available at the links below. The more you understand about what we are building before you arrive, the more meaningful your first contributions will be.