Stack design is a useful metaphor.

We are neither coders nor engineers but driven by a shared sense that the scope and speed of technological change has literally implicated us – folded us – in the workings of distributed intelligent systems that affect how we relate, speak, work. It is this transformation of our own agency we wish to comprehend, and the emergence of collective intelligences that bring human and non-human agency together in new constellations. While we realize that “stack design” is an abstract design proposition, we want to build on the technical metaphor of the stack as a layered system to facilitate a more holistic systems design conversation – and find out more about the role each of us might play in that process. Stacks are generally defined as “the set of technologies an organization uses to build a web or mobile application ... a combination of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, patterns, servers, UI/UX solutions, software, and tools used by its developers”.2 A quick look at the stacks used by key players in and across the platform economy suggests that these modularized systems have more in common than their fierce competition for users might suggest. Rather than repeating the usual invocations of global brands (and their market power), we want to shift the focus of our conversation to the stacks that sustain the power of these actors – a first step toward a more comprehensive understanding of the relational infrastructures behind data-driven societies, what we have termed the condition of distribution, and a different way of thinking about the design of (fairer) markets for a more cooperative economy.3 Adopting the principle that technology stacks are in principle subject to codesign, we showcase a series of complementary co-design processes to explore how we might best facilitate such a conversation. In these examples, we focus on the role of data – from the data monetization controversy (data-as-right vs data as-commodity) to “platform” cooperatives adding a digital technology and data governance layer to the much older organizational practices of the cooperative. We do not, however, assume a comprehensive understanding of data governance approaches. Our invitation to join the “stack design” conversation begins with a much simpler idea – the search for a narrative (with a wide range of characters and multiple conflicting plots) that might be able to frame a cross-sectoral systems design conversation in which many actors see a role for themselves. So before we turn to technology, we define our non-technological point of departure, leaving the question of where exactly to draw the line between the technological and the non-technological to the side for now. While we are not yet sure what the scope and structure of such a conversation will be, we do know that we want such a narrative to allow us to comprehend the condition of distribution that serves as infrastructural context for the ways in which we live and work.