Spaces are global representations for all kinds of collaborative units. They cover all publicly visible units where people come together for a particular purpose and to carry out activities to work towards that. Academic activities are the main motivation, but Spaces generalize to all kinds of other domains.
Spaces can be subdivided into whether they are open-ended or time-limited, and with respect to what kind of focus activity they have:
| open-ended | time-limited | |
|---|---|---|
| focus on bringing units together: | Alliance | Consortium |
| focus on formal vessel: | Organization | Taskforce |
| focus on structuring into sub-units: | Division | Detail |
| focus on getting work done: | Group | Project |
| focus on coordination: | Program | Initiative |
| focus on outreach: | Outlet | Campaign |
| focus on exchange: | Community | Event |
This categorization is still work-in-progress, and is not meant to be exhaustive.
Spaces can have sub-spaces by declaring part-of-relations among them. Sub-spaces of time-limited spaces must be time-limited too.
For example, groups can have internal projects as they sub-spaces, communities can have initiatives, or events can have sub-events.
The most important parts of a Space are its members. Members can have different roles, depeding on the type of Space, for example speaker for an event or editor-in-chief for an outlet. All Spaces have the role of admins, which are the members that have the right to decide on the core features of the Space, such as its description and member admittance policy.