Upgrading our digital collaboration infrastructure - Avstemninger blant medlemmer av DiEM25

At the Prague Assembly, members discussed, amended and approved the following proposal (among others) to improve DiEM25’s work and its potential in the coming year. Please evaluate it carefully, especially the amendments compared to the pre-Prague version (highlighted in green), and decide whether this is something DiEM25 should invest its limited energy into.

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Area: Running an Effective Movement (strengthening our OPs and Manifesto, improving internal processes; fundraising; IT)

Summary:

This proposal is considered an “addition” not a “substitute” or “upgrade” of existing DiEM IT infrastructure.

We propose an upgrading of DiEM25's digital collaboration infrastructure. Why do we need better tools for digital collaboration?

For much of our digital collaboration we use the DiEM25 forum, which is good for focussed discussions but falls short on many other ways of working together as a movement. Also the current voting tool is not suitable for serious deliberation and complex methods of decision making such as systemic consensus. As an emergent 21st century organisation our infrastructure needs to be contemporary - if not avant-garde - in terms of transparency, security, longevity as well as sociology.

Whatever may be the outcome of the deliberations in the Prague Assembly we need better solutions and we should use them to unlock the potential of working together across time and space. At the moment new members quickly get lost in the vast ecosystem of DiEM25s communciation. Even long term members struggle at times to find documents, manage the dozens of telegram and signal channels, mattermost and slack instances, the forum and bespoke personal tools. The tool for all-member votes - that are crucial for the movements decision making - only allows a one-dimensional level of consensus.

Therefore we need a dedicated set of tools instead of too many channels that establish parallel structures and inefficient information flows.

Technology (software & infrastructure) is a means to an end in our transnational movement that promotes socialisation (not centralisation), inclusiveness, and open source principles.

Assembly will acknowledge the need for a collective, uniform, secure, and modular infrastructure/tool at a DSC and NC level that the current infrastructure provide for.

How will this proposal help DiEM25 achieve its goals?

In a co-working environment - such as e.g. Humhub that mimics social-media platforms like facebook - people can be onboarded quickly, be pointed into thematic and organisational ""spaces"" and build their own. Basic tools like calendars, linklists, file hosting, wiki, simple polls and instant messaging are all in one place. The forum would be just one mouseclick away and can be referred to in mem An elaborated deliberation tool like e.g. Liquid Feedback or DECIDIM - a digital infrastructure for participatory democracy developed for the municipal government of Barcelona - can strengthen member initiatives, provide collective decision-making and make DiEM25s processes transparent, accesible and accountable."ber-2-member discussion.

An elaborated deliberation tool like e.g. Liquid Feedback or DECIDIM - a digital infrastructure for participatory democracy developed for the municipal government of Barcelona - can strengthen member initiatives, provide collective decision-making and make DiEM25s processes transparent, accessible and accountable.

The implementation of this tool will include a clear path for members’ proposals to be put to an AMV after deliberation. If a pre-defined amount of members express their support for a proposal (e.g. by listing their name on it), the CC shall consider this sufficient evidence that it is in the interest of the movement to consider it (i.e. put it to an AMV).

How will your proposal be implemented (timeline and steps)?

The CC launches an open call for a taskforce, to be approved and coordinated by CC, that reviews the current IT infrastructure and develops a single list of recommendations or numerous scenarios for the improvement of our IT infrastructure.

Targets in three steps are:

In order find a good set of inter-operating software the assembly should therefore decide that:

In situations of dispute, but without creating a parallel IT team, any taskforce will use the DiEM25 mediation process to resolve conflicts.

- The CC mandates the Technological Sovereignty 1 DSC to create a interdisciplinary task force (including DiEMers with expertise on digital collaboration tools from other groups of our movement) to propose a digital system as well as create a process of implementation. This includes the architecture of the technical and the social aspects, e.g. code of conduct or guidelines for use, of this system.

- The CC takes care that the selected tool is implemented as an upgrade to our shared infrastructure and facilitates that all members can use this. This includes giving the project sufficient financial ressources. An all member vote could be envisioned to vote on this organisational change.

- The CC ensures that a robust structure is set up including paid staff (e.g. 1-2 part-time jobs) running this infrastructure, including documentation, security standards, responsible persons and regular updates. The task force works in dialogue with them.

You will know your proposal has succeeded when:

All DiEM Members are using the tool, because they feel it suits their needs. Members find it easy to collaborate across the organisation, find allies and start initiatives.

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Should DiEM25 invest energy and resources into this?