Decidim Association - Coordination Committee Meeting

Assistants

Pauline, David, Antonio, Nil, Maite, Txema

Meeting 10/31/2023

1. Retorno Fest + retreat
2. Grants 2024
3. Brazil
4. Return from EC meeting
5. Possible collaboration with Barcelona Super Computing
6. Fundraising

Preliminary issues

Decidim is certified according to the national safety scheme?

• https://administracionelectronica.gob.es/pae_Home/pae_Estrategias/pae_Seguridad_Inicio/pae_Esquema_Nacional_de_Seguridad.html
• https://www.ccn.cni.es/index.php/es/menu-organismo-de-certificacion-es/productos-certificados-menu-es

This type of certification requires a lot of work.

It could be interesting for the association to have this certification directly for the product.

1/ Retorno Fest + retreat

Commentary/proposal DecidimFest24: Collaboration between VersoBooks + Association + Technopolitics to co-manage the tables and keynotes on Thursday afternoon.

Publish a book with the authors we invite, we could have it published.

Close a first proposal before the end of the year for tables and keynotes.

Possible names: Kohei Saito

Antonio brings us a document/proposal to talk about it. In principle we think the idea is fantastic :)

Meeting to be scheduled in 2 weeks between committee, city council, etc.

2/ Grants 2024

GenCat: A meeting was held with the Generalitat, everything is well underway. This year's justification has to be done. The Gene has been concerned about speeding up the process. The 50k are maintained.

Ajuntament Barcelona: There is a little more uncertainty, it is fighting to maintain the 100k.

Diputació de Barcelona: We are working on an agreement with the Diputació de Barcelona.

3/ Brazil

Organizational structure and financing

The organizational structure of the Decidim project and the Decidim Association was presented. As well as the current funding model and the different ways to support the project. I share with you some resources:

• Blog post on the renewal of the governance agreement
• Blog post on the signing of the funding agreement (public grant)

The organization chart of the Secretariat of Social Participation was presented, as well as how the team behind the Brasil Participativo platform works.

Collaboration

Starting from the definition of Decidim as a digital common good, the Decidim Association highlighted the need to find ways of collaboration to involve the Federal Government of Brazil in the maintenance of Decidim.

Some key elements of the conversation:

• Brazil does not want to make a fork, they want to participate in the project and contribute to the common one (Decidim).
• It is very difficult for the Brazilian government to transfer resources to organizations outside the country.
• In Brazil there is a well-developed legal framework that allows for collaboration between the Federal Government and civil society organizations.

There may be different ways of collaboration that we will gradually implement.

Four possible levels of collaboration have been presented:

1. Technical and product coordination: This is already underway. We have meetings every two weeks between the Product team of Decidim and the Brasil Participativo team. We will continue to have these meetings to have regular contact and coordinate possible contributions to the code.
2. Human resources (committers): The possibility of the University of Brasília providing developers who could work with the Decidim team was discussed. This would be a fast way of collaboration, since it could be done without many legal requirements.
3. Memorandum of Understanding Government + Decidim Association: Signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and the Decidim Association can be a first step to later facilitate collaboration. Surely it is easier with the Association directly, putting the City Council inside can make the process more difficult.
4. Transfer of economic resources: In view of the limitations existing in Brazil, the possibility of creating an Association headquarters in Brazil was discussed. This would greatly facilitate the transfer of resources by the federal government.

Next steps

• Continued technical coordination (Decidim+Brasil)
• Explore the possibility of opening a branch in Brazil (Decidim)
• See if there is the possibility of having developers working for Decidim (UnB).
• Initiate procedures for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (Federal Government)

4/ Return from EC meeting

Frameworks contracts: to pay for licenses (Microsoft for example). They are awarded to a company. Possibility to explore with Decidim.

The EC could contract through this means the association for the maintenance of the Decidim application.

You should consult with your legal services.

5/ Barcelona Supercomputing center

BSC-CNS We have been proposed a service / collaboration, we would be paid to make improvements to the Decidim API and its documentation.

It would be for 2024.

6/ Fundraising + Lobby & Advocacy

1. Do we apply to become a member of People Powered? https://www.peoplepowered.org/membership
2. (https://www.peoplepowered.org/about/members )

Pros:

• Access to funds
• Contact with global implementers

1. Future of Government Awards: Open Source Creation of the Year

Pros:

• Visibility
• Little effort. The most difficult thing is to make a video or PPT of the project.
• Closes on December 14

Cons: It has prestige but we do not know if there is a financial award.