Dotmocracy.org Established method for collecting and prioritizing ideas
Dotmocracy | The best way to make decisions together
Dotmocracy is a facilitation method for collecting and prioritizing ideas among a large number of people. It is an equal opportunity group decision-making process. Though true consensus decision-making is often named as difficult (how can so many people agree on one thing?), Dotmocracy is based on the principle that "if you ask enough people the same question, at least one of them will give an answer that the rest will agree with or can at least accept." Though no process of decision making is perfect, Dotmocracy provides a simple, fair process which makes success likely for reaching consensus on divisive issues.
Dotmocracy has had a established body of success stories in real world use. The 2007 National Conference of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (80 participants), the 2006 Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC) Youth Symposium (45 participants), and Karma Food Co-op's 2004 annual general meeting (88 participants) all utilized the Dotmocracy process to reach effective conclusions.
How It Works
- An issue is presented with questions.
- Potential sitations are discussed.
- Proposals are posted.
- Participants read and consider each idea and fill-in one dot per a sheet to record their opinion on a scale of “strong agreement”, “agreement”, “neutral”, “disagreement”, and “strong disagreement” or “confusion”. Participants sign each sheet that they dot and may optionally add brief comments.
- Dotting is closed and a conclusion is published.
Rules and Requirements
Dotmocracy is governed by a simple set of rules and responsibilities to ensure a fair and effective process. The site also publishes a Handbook. The core rules are:
- Official facilitators are authoritative and responsible for the dotmocracy session and location. They should be in control of the process but neutral on the content.
- Each participant can only fill one dot per a dotmocracy sheet.
- There are no changes to an ideas text inside the idea box once dotting has started. Amendments should be presented as a new complete idea on a new sheet. Comments may be added at any time outside of the idea box.
Languages
English, with some Spanish resources.
Contact
- Jason Diceman
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- Phone: 416-538-co-op (2667)
- Toll free: 1-866-519-co-op (2667)
Related Domains
External Links
