SOM Metadecidim

Workshop on the future of the association

Ideas and proposals

• It is necessary to disambiguate the concepts Community Deciim of Metadecidim: Metadecidim is only the tool of the community (an instance of Deciim), the community itself is called Community Deciim.
• The price of the fee and the benefits that can be derived are the key factors for the association to have more or less people and partner organizations.
• The prices of the quotas for the legal persons must be established according to the budget of the previous year of the organization that wants to be partner. The quota or quotas for natural persons should be low.
• Different degrees of participation in the association should be allowed.
• In the Goal, on the first page, it should be well explained which actors are there and how decisions are made regarding the Product. It is proposed that there be a scheme of who is who, and who does what.
• Suggestion: explain how the Product now works and open a participatory process to improve and evolve it.
• The channels for proposing additions to the software should be clear.
• The strategic proposal about where the project is going and how the software evolves will be decided by the whole Decidim Community, with the dynamization promoted by the Association, for example, with participative processes. (It is understood that the Product Team manages the day-to-day evolution of this process).
• It should be very clear on the web how I can participate if I become a member and how I can participate if I do not join.
• It should be clear how many assemblies of members will be held per year and the dynamization that will be in between, and the work groups that will be.
• It is necessary that all the decisions that, legally possible, can be made virtually, clarifying well the tempos to make them.
• It is proposed to explain the chronology (history) of the project on the web (either in the Goal or in Decidim.org).
• Yes, it is considered necessary to have a space in the Goal for the association.
• It is proposed to create agreements or standard contracts that can be used by other administrations or organizations that want to collaborate with the project (although in reality, the agreement with Aj. Barcelona and Localret gives room to other institutions that want to join).
• Always consider that we should be an international association. There has to be a European look.
• The democratic governance of the code is very important and must always be kept in mind.
• It is necessary to pamper the maintenance of the community, it is necessary to hire people to dynamize it. We also have to generate pedagogy and guides on how to do it.

 Workshop on the past, present and future of the Community

After evaluating the results of the survey we presented, we focused on discussing the past, present and future of the community, taking into account the objectives and challenges of the project. To land the debate, we worked on the perspective of the celebration of the JAM19, which will take place on 30 and 31 October. We did this with an open debate between 6-8 perons. Listed below are the ideas that came up and that should be considered for the working group that will be in charge of all the production of this event as a whole:

• Publish in May-June the JAM19 conference at meta.decidim.org with all available information to advance work and ensure attendance.
• Activate a JAM19 conference form to call for a Call For Notes with the aim of opening a call for the preparation of workshops, debates or conferences to anyone in or related to the Metadecidim community. Special emphasis was placed on using this formula to ensure greater thematic plurality in the presentations and to enrich the JAM programme as a whole19.
• Think of a campaign to attract members of the Decidim Association linked to the JAM campaign19.
• During the preparation of the JAM19, ensure that there is no overlap with other events in the city that may be attractive to the same public.
• Consider holding the JAM19 with a format similar to the JAM18, that is, within an umbrella such as Democratic Cities, which has allowed us to reach a wider audience, open the focus of the event's themes and coordinate with other relevant actors (CCCB, Influencers, XESS, Som Energia...etc) that deal with themes similar to our own.
• Prepare dissemination materials of the project and the JAM19 to disseminate in various spaces, including the XESS (Xarxa d'Economia Social i Solidària), given its link to Decidim and the celebration of the XESS Market.
• Think about a communication that considers different targets. In particular, think of a communication that addresses segmentation not so much in terms of target city or organization, but also in the variable "degree of commitment" with citizen participation (this is a matter to mature).
• As for the JAM19 program, repeat the JAM16 or JAM17 experience more than the JAM18 experience. In this sense, it is necessary to think about a duration of 2-3 days, to guarantee the participation of the community through workshops, debates, etc., to carry out a program of conferences beyond the usual ones and to focus on the experiences of cities and above all of organizations that use Decidim (in this sense the idea of a story axis came out that could be useful for the slogan: "Decidim beyond cities").
• When preparing the communication of the day, it is necessary to think well about the target, whether users or technicians, in what messages are addressed to them, in the options of participation that are offered to them. For technicians, a hackaton session is proposed, which resolves some issue related to the development of the platform, at a functional level. For the more adminstrator profile or for the final user, training courses could be offered but also exchange of experiences in the administration and configuration of systems but also user experience.
• How can Decidim coexist and cooperate with other similar experiences? This issue is relevant to avoid the "bubble effect" of projects. Working in isolation, although each project has its own purposes, does not benefit anyone, but considering that there is a similar vision shared by all of them.
• It will be necessary to consider in a narrative axis that makes us think about the potential of the project that is simplified in this sentence that has been shared during the debate: "I like Decidim not for what it is, but rather for what it can become").
• One of the workshops, debates or presentations should be related to the relationship between "Comunidad Decidim" and "Asociación Decidim". It is important that everyone who is involved in the project or who intends to be involved has a clear understanding of what each entity is, what its functions and purposes are. It is necessary to avoid all possible confusions in this regard.