Ben Gansky (Candidacy for Coordination Committee)

Name of the candidacy (individual or collective): Ben Gansky

Composition (list member/s, maximum 7):

Objectives of this candidacy: For the last two and half years, I have been researching the Decidim community, and I have come to feel a real kinship with the individuals and groups who together make Decidim as a software, discourse, and political collective. Many members of the Association may know of my interests and commitments through my interviews and conversations with you: I believe in the need to approach making public software in a self-aware, critical, deliberative, and collaborative way. The Decidim community has made itself into a vital forum for exploring and expanding -- through action and reflection -- what it means to create and care for democratic software -- including by making it possible for non-developers (like me) to play a role in our shared work.

Having learned so much from this community, and finding it to be so aligned with my own values and mission, I hope to contribute back by serving as a representative of the Association on the Coordination Committee.

Along with what I consider to be the 'general responsibilities' of members of the Coordination Committee (acting as a bridge between members of the Association and the Technical Office, collectively articulating the strategic direction of the project, ensuring that the Coordination Committee is able to perform the duties given to it by the Association's statutes), here is my 'platform' as a candidate for the Committee:

1. To participate in facilitating the process of developing the detailed internal regulations of the Association and Committee. (I have already volunteered to take part in this effort with @hadrien_froger and @llangton at this past Decidim Fest.) As a member of the Coordination Committee, I would support and assist @basicavisual_ 's proposal to launch and steward a participatory process for developing these new detailed regulations.

2. To revitalize the Research Committee (which is specified in the existing statutes but has never been active to my knowledge). As a researcher, I believe that I owe my research subjects reciprocity -- to offer something in exchange for the time that people spend giving interviews, sharing their expertise, etc. As I mentioned during the last General Assembly at Decidim Fest, I would like to initiate a Decidim Research Committee to collaboratively develop a research agenda that focuses on the questions that members of the Association would like to see explored. This Research Committee could also craft a research agreement that could be offered to any researchers hoping to study Decidim, that makes clear the kinds of reciprocity that we look for in a research relationship. These could include the contribution of short essays or blog posts about the researchers' conclusions that could be shared on Decidim's own blog and/or social media channels. These are just some of my first thoughts -- I am sure that bringing together a group of Decidim researchers in a committee would yield much more interesting ideas!

3. If elected, I would be the first member of the Coordination Committee from the United States. As an academic and someone who has worked in American think-tanks and digital rights advocacy organizations, I know the landscape of American philanthropy, academic institutions, and research organizations interested in digital democracy fairly well. I hope to establish connections between these groups and Decidim that will result in collaborations and funding(!) flowing to the Decidim project and Association.

4. Related to funding, Decidim deserves a bigger public profile than it has had to this point (certainly in the United States!). I would like to help find opportunities for Decidim's story to be shared with different audiences (such as government administrators, philanthropic funders, and digital government institutions/think-tanks) in the US and beyond. Decidim has a number of very charismatic ambassadors already on the Coordination Committee and in the Technical Office. I would like to help find opportunities for them to publicize Decidim's work more, and to take part myself in this work.

5. Again related to funding (but also beyond): as a native English speaker/writer and someone who has a fair amount of experience writing grant proposals, etc. I would help locate and participate in Decidim's applications for funding.

With deep appreciation for all of the work done by and in this community, and for the chance to take part,

Ben