What breaksVendor Dependency · Opacity · Lock In · Power Asymmetry
SCN-033Institutional capacity & sovereignty
The Municipality Depends on a System It Cannot Inspect or Leave.
A useful system can still become a source of domination when the institution cannot understand, contest, repair or exit it.
ScaleCity
UrgencyHigh
Coordination gapHigh
StakesService quality · Rights · Money
Vendor DependencyOpacityLock InPower Asymmetry
What Koali changes
← Back to the full MosaicKoali treats inspectability, provenance, exportability and local knowledge as governance requirements. Decisions and knowledge remain portable even when a particular software component is replaced.
Who holds part of the picture
frontline practitioners • domain experts • decision-makers
Koali response
Koali treats inspectability, provenance, exportability and local knowledge as governance requirements. Decisions and knowledge remain portable even when a particular software component is replaced.
Real-world parallels
- Post Office Horizon scandal — Statutory Inquiry
- ArriveCAN — Auditor General of Canada
What success looks like
The relevant state remains visible across handoffs and time. • Responsibilities, unresolved questions and escalation paths are explicit.
Documented parallels show that the failure mechanism is real; they do not claim Koali would have changed a specific outcome.
The Municipality Depends on a System It Cannot Inspect or Leave.
A useful system can still become a source of domination when the institution cannot understand, contest, repair or exit it.
The problem
A public institution relies on a proprietary system for records, classification, payments or decisions. Over time, staff lose knowledge of the rules and data structures. The vendor may be the only party capable of explaining anomalies or enabling migration away.
What breaks
- Vendor Dependency
- Opacity
- Lock In
- Power Asymmetry
Who holds part of the picture
- frontline practitioners
- domain experts
- decision-makers
- affected people
With Koali
Koali treats inspectability, provenance, exportability and local knowledge as governance requirements. Decisions and knowledge remain portable even when a particular software component is replaced.
Human authority
Authorized humans and institutions retain their existing legal, professional and democratic authority. Koali structures knowledge, coordination and traceability; it does not take sovereign or professional decisions.
What success looks like
- The relevant state remains visible across handoffs and time.
- Responsibilities, unresolved questions and escalation paths are explicit.
- The outcome produces reusable memory for the next comparable case.
Real-world parallels
Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry
The statutory inquiry examines failures around a vendor-built accounting system whose discrepancies contributed to wrongful suspensions, terminations, prosecutions and convictions.
Relation to scenario: DIRECT
Source: https://www.postofficehorizoninquiry.org.uk/about-inquiry
Auditor General of Canada — ArriveCAN
The audit documented weak procurement records, non-competitive professional-services contracting and cases where resources were routed through intermediaries at likely additional cost.
Relation to scenario: RELATED PATTERN
Source: https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/docs/parl_oag_202402_01_e.pdf
Boundary
The documented cases illustrate analogous failure mechanisms. They do not establish that Koali would have prevented the event or guaranteed a different outcome.
Koali loop
signals → shared meaning → evidence → choice → responsibility → action → verification → memory → better knowledge