Target Groups and direction

[desputinski]

Which usages doe Fordem have?

Why are current social media tools failing to improve democratic exchange?

No incentive to collaborate constructively.
interaction mainly inside of bubbles. hardly any outside exchange 
There is no guiding principle. Just chaotic randomness of opinions and perspectives. It doesn't lead to anything.
They just network people, without guiding/organizing them.
No addressing of evolutionary Human flaws. (cognitive bias, inability to accept being wrong)
The incentives are all wrong. Conspiracies, hate and prejudices get more easily rewarded, than constructive exchange.
There is no path for ideas leading to change.
Bots are corroding trust, malicious state actors and paid agitators poison public exchange

What target groups do we have for Fordem?

People, who are unhappy with the parliamentary representative democracy (because of lobby influence and the undemocratic political parties)
Foreign born immigrants in Germany, who are not allowed to vote in national or European elections
Dissidents and ordinary people in dictatorships, who are unhappy with their regimes
Everybody who wants to express their perspective on things, but doesn't because of multiple reasons
it´s no use, nothing will change anyway
No one will notice my opinions (they are drowned in the noise of everybody's opinion)
Fordem should be a tool for election campaigns. With the right tools uncorrupted, well meaning politicians have a higher chance to get elected and implement policies that are in the interest of the people. 

inform citizens about democratic processes, possibilities to influence policy
Collective guided discussion
That´s the most important part of Fordem. We need to develop a complete new way of how collective discussions are lead. With growing numbers of opinions and perspectives they just repeat. Can that noise be filtered and only the essence be extracted. 

Examples of where the platform could be used: 

Heilbronn

• Ok, but why would Fordem be attractive for those people? Will it lead to change or just be a waste of time. There is an giant economy fighting for people´s attention. How do we get noticed and get a share of it.
  30% of the adult population has no voting right
  50% of the eligible voters do not vote
  19.5% of the votes have chosen AFD
  50% of the population have migratory background but they have no one in the Gemeinderat

Iran
Internet is censored and people are attacked by the islamic republic

How can we attract these groups to participate

Fordem builds tool that are lean and straight to the point

Fordem targets societies & citizens 

Someone big uses Fordem and increases participation (e.g. political party)

How does Fordem achieve Change?
Fordem makes socio-political mobilization simple. Citizens/Netizens can do the following using the platform:

simplification of steps towards referenda

All the steps from Networking, Deliberation to Goal-setting to Voting and collection of the signature

Execution planning & project management

What benefits does/should it offer Users?

WOW effect of the App

Easy accessibility 

guide users into the features of the system - start only with basics and increase with achieved milestones (posting, commenting, voting...) Gamification

Guided activism

many groups are trying to solve repeatedly similar tasks, but don´t build upon experiences of others, which leads to the same mistakes and inefficiencies over and over again. Fordem should help groups to organize, so they can reaching their targets faster. (what´s achievable and how)
visualizing of information
what is interesting locally, who is trying to achieve similar goals near one
collecting and processing of information
what´s the easy understandable essence of any topic. What are its pros and cons
What does anyone believe in? Let them present their world view and visualize it.
prevent group think and bring people with different perspectives together. Most of the time the truth lies somewhere in between.

Are there other software solutions - Why is Fordem better?

There are Tools like Decidim and Consul that are aimed at e-governing and increase participation of the public. But they are complicated solutions that are mostly isolated. There is no chance for growing outside their silos

What Problem do we want to solve, what can we really solve?
How are we doing it.
Organizing collective action 
People want to participate and achieve change, but don´t know how

Scope: 

e-democracy functionalities: 
standard:
Networking
Organization: Networking without organizing turns rather useless really quick
Deliberation
Participation
Internet-independent network formation (WiFi-Direct P2P network)
feature list: #85 (comment)

In General: We want to reach people/networks/organizations, that act according to our defined values (basic human rights and UN development goals)