Lightning talks - Room #2

Room 2 - Margarita Salas

1. Enhancing Democratic Engagement through Effective Proposal Ranking

2. Decidim Geo: Discover local participation

3. How 50 University Students Are Transforming Decidim in Brazil

4. Proportional Representation in Citizen Participation

5. Vocdoni: A Secure and Verifiable Voting System for Decidim

1/ Enhancing Democratic Engagement through Effective Proposal Ranking

Speaker: Nicolien Janssens and Frederik van de Putte (Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

In an environment where the number of proposals is far higher than what we may expect an average user to inspect, how can we ensure that each idea gets the attention it deserves? This talk delves into the crucial role of ranking methods on Decidim, i.e. the way Decidim orders proposals in a list when showing them to users. The position of a proposal can make or break its visibility, thereby significantly impacting the democratic decision-making process.

We will first briefly run through the current ranking methods offered by Decidim and other similar platforms. Then we will ask how information about "likes" can and should impact the ranking of proposals shown to users and spell out a number of criteria, stages, and goals of the participatory process. We'll then introduce three foundational principles that could drive ranking based on "likes" and critically examine the pros and cons of each.

By the end of this talk, you'll gain insights into which ranking methods best align with democratic values and the overarching goals of participatory decision-making. We will provide concrete recommendations for enhancing Decidim's ranking methods and suggest directions for future improvements.

Language of the session: English

2/ Decidim Geo: Discover local participation

Speaker: Hadrien Fogger, Octree.

In this Lightning talk, we will present the module Decidim Geo, a module that improves the discoverability of participation in Decidim platforms.

Decidim Geo replaces all the maps in Decidim to bind application scopes to geographical areas (Shapefiles), allowing users to move through located and unlocated resources easily. Enhanced with filters, participants can rapidly find assemblies or meetings in their neighborhoods, engaging local citizens more effectively.

Even though this module is still at its beginning, its clean interface and nice usability already improve the discoverability of Decidim platforms that work to support participation in a given territory.

Agenda

1. Why We Needed This Module

2. Demo

3. Roadmap & Perspectives

This module was initiated by the City of Lausanne and pushed forward by the City of Zurich.

Language of the session: English

3/ How 50 University Students Are Transforming Decidim in Brazil

Speaker: Eduardo Nunes

In this brief lightning talks, we will share some of the experiences and outcomes that the University of Brasília has achieved by investing in the Decidim ecosystem and applying it in various contexts. This includes integrating Decidim into academic projects and courses, as well as participating in the Google Summer of Code (GSOC). Through these initiatives, the university's 50 students are making significant contributions to the platform, showcasing the potential of Decidim in fostering civic engagement and participatory democracy in Brazil.

Language of the session: English

4/ Proportional Representation in Citizen Participation

Speaker: Jan Maly Assistant Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and at the Vienna University of Technology

The majority rules. This fundamental principle organizes our democratic governments and public decision-making. However, when electing more than one candidate or project, as is the case for many participatory processes run on Decidim, the majority rule limits minority voices from being heard. Instead, a proportional voting rule, like in the Spanish parliamentary elections, could help to foster diverse and inclusive outcomes. Yet, how to achieve proportional outcomes in elections without an explicit party structure is a challenging problem.

In recent years, researchers have developed novel proportional voting rules that promise to produce fairer outcomes in citizen participation processes even without explicit party structures. In this talks, I will briefly discuss how proportionality can be conceptualized in citizen participation in general and why it is important. Then, I will focus on the so-called Method of Equal Shares,(External link) a proportional voting rule for participatory budgeting that has already been used in several smaller cities in Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In particular, I will discuss how the Method of Equal Shares can lead to fairer and more representative outcomes, based on the data and experience of cities that have already used it. I will conclude by describing how Decidim could implement the Method of Equal Shares and similar proportional voting rules as well as the potential benefits of doing so.

Language of the session: English

5/ Vocdoni: A Secure and Verifiable Voting System for Decidim