# Contributing to the Minnesota Ownership Economy Framework This document is for people who want to engage with, critique, improve, or build on this framework — and who are not software developers. You do not need to know how GitHub works. You do not need to understand version control. If you have Claude, you can contribute meaningfully to this project right now. --- ## Who This Guide Is For - **DFL legislators and staff** who want to flag an error, suggest a policy addition, or connect this framework to legislation you're working on - **Cooperative, ESOP, housing, labor, and community development organizations** who want to contribute your expertise, correct a factual claim, or connect your work to this agenda - **Funders** evaluating this framework who want to understand how it develops and how you could support it - **Researchers and students** who want to engage with the underlying evidence or suggest new proof points - **Anyone** who has substantive feedback and wants it to land somewhere useful --- ## The Simplest Way to Engage: Just Read and React You don't need a GitHub account to read this framework. Every document in this repository is plain text — you can read it in your browser, copy it into a Word document, or open it in any text editor. If you have thoughts — corrections, additions, disagreements, questions — the easiest thing is to **email the project maintainer directly**: Nathan Miller naterussmill@gmail.com That is a completely legitimate form of contribution. A thoughtful email saying "your momentum assessment for ESOP succession is missing the Expanding ESOPs coalition" is as valuable as a formal pull request. Don't let the technical infrastructure stop you from engaging. --- ## If You Have an AI Coding Tool: The Fastest On-Ramp AI coding tools — Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, and others — can read and work with entire repositories directly. This means you can have a conversation with an AI assistant that has full context of the framework, ask it to help you identify gaps, draft additions, check factual claims, or format contributions — without needing to understand the underlying Git mechanics yourself. This is the recommended path for anyone who wants to contribute substantively and have their work tracked in the version history. **Getting started:** 1. Open your AI coding tool of choice and point it at this repository 2. Start with a prompt like this: ``` Please review the Minnesota Ownership Economy repository. Start by reading: 1. README.md 2. CHANGELOG.md 3. framework/00_executive_summary.md (then sections 01 through 06) Then tell me: - What the project is and its current state - The version number and most recent changes - Any gaps, errors, or areas for development you notice I'm a [describe your role — e.g., cooperative sector advocate / DFL legislative staffer / housing researcher] and I want to contribute [describe what you want to add or change]. ``` 3. Work with the AI to develop your contribution — whether that's a factual correction, a new section, an updated proof point, or a new policy analysis 4. The AI tool can help you format your contribution correctly and, if you want to go that route, walk you through submitting it to the repository **Your job is to bring the subject matter expertise. The AI handles the file formatting and version tracking.** Each AI coding tool has slightly different mechanics for connecting to a GitHub repository — refer to your tool's documentation for setup instructions. Most are straightforward and take a few minutes. --- ## Three Ways to Contribute Formally ### Way 1: Open a GitHub Issue (easiest formal option) A GitHub Issue is just a comment thread attached to the repository. You don't need to write any code. You need a free GitHub account. 1. Go to [github.com](https://github.com/naterussmill/mn-ownership-economy) 2. Click "Issues" in the top navigation 3. Click "New Issue" 4. Write your feedback — as much or as little detail as you have 5. Click "Submit new issue" **Good things to file as Issues:** - "The momentum assessment for Point 3 (Procurement) is missing [organization]. They have been active on this since 2024." - "The proof point for the Bank of North Dakota cites 2022 earnings. The 2024 figure is [X]." - "The tribal nations section should reference [specific organization or research]." - "I work for [organization] and we would be interested in contributing a section on [topic]." - "The baby bonds section understates the feasibility because [reason]." You can label Issues by policy point if you want — Point 1 through Point 6, Public Bank, Coalition, Research, etc. — but a plain text issue with no labels is completely fine. ### Way 2: Submit a Suggestion via Email If GitHub feels like too much friction, email naterussmill@gmail.com with: - What document you're responding to - What specifically you want to add, change, or flag - Any sources or evidence you'd include The project maintainer will file the Issue on your behalf and credit you. ### Way 3: Submit a Pull Request (most formal — for those comfortable with GitHub) If you're comfortable with GitHub, pull requests are the standard way to propose changes to the document text. Fork the repository, make your changes in your fork, and submit a pull request. All pull requests are reviewed before merging. If you want to submit a pull request but aren't sure of the mechanics, Claude Code can walk you through it step by step. --- ## What Makes a Good Contribution The framework is designed to be honest and rigorous, not just advocacy. The best contributions share those values. **Strong contributions:** - Add specific, sourced factual information that's missing or incorrect - Connect the framework to organizations, research, or legislative activity that isn't currently reflected - Flag where the framework overclaims — where the evidence is weaker than the text suggests - Add proof points from other states or countries that strengthen a policy argument - Identify coalition members or advocacy organizations that are missing from the momentum assessment - Propose measurement indicators that are more specific or more trackable than current ones **Things that make contributions easier to integrate:** - Cite your sources — a link, a study, a bill number, an organization name - Be specific about which section or policy point you're addressing - If you're flagging an error, say what the correct information is - If you're adding something new, say where in the document it belongs **Things that make contributions harder to integrate:** - General praise or general criticism without specific suggestions - Changes that shift the political framing without evidence-based justification - Additions that aren't grounded in Minnesota-specific context or proven models elsewhere --- ## What Happens to Your Contribution All contributions are reviewed by the project maintainer before being incorporated. This is not a wiki where anyone can edit anything — the framework needs to maintain intellectual coherence and factual accuracy. When your contribution is incorporated: - The change appears in the document with the next version number - The CHANGELOG records what changed and why - If you want attribution, ask — we're happy to credit contributors by name or organization If your contribution isn't incorporated, you'll get a response explaining why. Sometimes the right answer is "this is accurate but belongs in a different document" or "this is contested — can you add the counterargument too?" --- ## A Note on Why This Exists as a GitHub Repository Most policy frameworks are written, published as PDFs, and archived. This one is designed differently — as a living document that improves over time as more people engage with it. The GitHub format means: - Every change is tracked — you can see exactly what changed between any two versions - Multiple people can work on different sections simultaneously - The framework can be "forked" — adapted by other states or other ownership economy coalitions — while maintaining a connection to the Minnesota original - AI tools like Claude can read the full document and work with it directly, making it easier to develop and update than a PDF or Word document This is an experiment in how serious policy work gets done in public. The infrastructure is borrowed from software development, but the purpose is political and civic. If you have thoughts on how to make the collaboration model work better for non-technical audiences, that feedback is itself a valuable contribution. --- ## Questions? Email Nathan Miller naterussmill@gmail.com or open a GitHub Issue tagged "meta" — for questions about the project itself rather than its content. --- *This project is published under [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose with attribution.*