Difference between revisions of "DemocracyLab"

DemocracyLab can mean a number of things on AboutUs:

Websites

• DemocracyLab.org -- An interactive online think tank, an "experiment in direct democracy, powered by open source software, and built on the idea that technology can empower us to harness freedom of speech and the power of the vote."
• DemocracyLab.com -- An abandoned domain name.

Wiki Portal and Consensus Poll

AboutUs is also the home to a burgeoning group attempting to develop a wiki portal within out community wiki framework.

Their purposed mission is to "Create a non-partisan, non-profit website dedicated to improving the democratic process by enabling the exploration, organization, communication, and synthesis of the values, ideas, and policies affecting humanity."

A Consensus Poll has been established to generate a DemocracyLab Strategic Plan, which anyone is invited to read and participate further in.

Communities/Websites that seem to align with the proposed DemocracyLab Strategic Plan include:

• Debatepedia -- part of the International Debate Education Association (sponsored in part by Soros’ Open Society Institute, which has expressed a desire for collaboration.
• Essembly -- which asks users to vote on Resolutions and appears to have good community participation.
• Debatemapper -- which creates a logic structure for in depth analysis of topics
• Dotmocracy -- which is a facilitation method for collecting and prioritizing ideas among a large number of people.
• ConvinceMe -- a fun interface for those who like debating and convincing others of their point of view.
• GlobalAssembly -- which has a methodology somewhat similar to dLab.
• ReframeIt -- which has an interesting tool for annotating web pages.
• The Open Lobby -- An effort to use wiki technology to (a) develop information resource about government functions, etc.; and (b) develop policy proposals, form broad consensus, and deliver to them to legislative bodies. Core values are transparency and open participation.