Introduce yourself to the Loomio Community

Welcome @yeltsinlima

"I’m a member of Partido Pirata do Brasil and I’ll like to help with Loomio Community."

Great to see you in this community, feel free to introduce yourself and let us know what your areas of interest are :)

Hi @alijacs,

My name is Yeltsin Lima and I'm member of the Partido Pirata do Brasil, as I said before.

I loved how Loomio works and I'll start to use this platform not only to the party-stuff, but also some others things that I found useful.

Thanks for the approval :)

Welcome @amatiasquezada ! Would you like to introduce yourself to everyone?

Hi @sarahnorton Welcome to the Loomio Community. Take a look around the sub groups and find the information you're looking for. If you need help or want to ask a question just yell out for help, or start a discussion on a topic you want to engage people with.
Here's how Sarah introduced herself:
"I’m a facilitator venturing into the online field, and also interested in supporting Loomio’s work alongside my colleague Steve Ray who has been communication already with Loomio about a possible partnership - so i thought i really should get involved and see what its all about in action rather than theory.
thanks, Sarah"

Hi @shwetaagrawal
Thanks for joining us on loomio! Please check out the full extent of the Loomio Community group as there's lots to discover. Here is how Shweta introduced themselves -

"I am a professional programmer with 2 years of work experience, one year at Yahoo! and one year at Wingify. Right now I am pursuing my masters in management from IIM Calcutta. I got to know about loomio from Hacker News and really liked the product concept."

Thanks! Let us know what you're interested in if you want?

Welcome to my friend @marykeoor from the Netherlands!

"As a founding president of the Cooperative ArboRegionaal B.A. I see that our members (all entrepeneurs, without central office) depend on digital tools like loomio. Loomio has proven its efficiency and power on distance. Loomio is, for us, a fundamental way of organizing.

Since the tool is properly implemented we face some ‘luxery’ problems, to improve loomio. I love to hear you idea’s."

Welcome Maryke!

Thank you all for the warm welcom, (eventhough it is cold in the Nederlands...)
Our Cooperative is facing a pratical issue for improval (voting on behalf...). I like to share the case below with pleasure.

A member is going on skiholiday and needs to vote. He doesn't remember his pasword and can't find proper internet in the mountains.
He sends a SMS tekst to me by agreeing on the decision.

In this case I am going to mention the vote in the discussion comments and afterwards it wil be mentioned again in the (recalculated) results. I find this energie consuming.

I guess that there is better design solution for:
Vote on behalf of someone else in a secure way (without knowing the pasword)

I am really interested in your opinion/experiences/solutions in this case. I wish you all a pleasant day.
Regards, Maryke

hi @marykeoor — one thing our upcoming crowdfunding campaign will fund is the development of an SMS interface to Loomio — so your skiing member will be able to text his vote directly to Loomio. Do you think that would solve the issue?

Hi Matthew, wauw it is really great to read about new development plans. In this case it solves (based on a temporary solution) the issue yes. I realize that many people use "what's app" or "Telegram" instead of (payed) SMS. Maybe it doesn't make a difference during the development.

However do you think this is the most adequate solution?
Maybe a bridge to far but if the software is accesible with an app(lication) on the mobile phone the impact/potention is much bigger.
Of course it is your decision and I respect the outcome. The idea of improving is already great. If I can help you to think along I am available with pleasure.
Have a nice day, my day has about ended.

Thanks @marykeoor — it'll be interesting to investigate integrating Whatsapp etc as well as SMS. I should have mentioned that the crowdfunding campaign will also let us build a beautiful mobile version :) (p.s. greetings from this grandchild of Dutch immigrants!)

Hi, Miguel here, I am from Granada Spain, 43 years old. I discover Loomio.org because I am constantly searching for tools for open government and I love horizontal workgroups and therefore cooperatives. I have promoted Loomio among the Econnomy for the Common Good in Spain and I will try to use it to built up a "kind of" volunteer parliament now I am promoting an open source tool for "open list" elections for organizations. We also participate in www.ahoratudecides.es an online survey for government issues (including participatory democracy), we have a user base of 43.000 volunteers, loads of work with no monetary return, but we love it.

@beaumurrah Hey Beau! Welcome to Loomio. This is how Beau introduced himself:
"I am a Dunedin based law graduate interested in Privacy advocacy and involved in various degrees with Generation Zero."

Welcome @davidg!
This is the space we invite people to introduce themselves to the whole community :) Feel free to say hello!
This is how David introduced himself -
"As a progressive activist in the Southern United States, I’m part of a working group out of our local peace & justice center that is trying to work out strategies for local movement building. Our group just discovered Loomio and is just beginning to explore its potential usefulness for us. In that context, I’d like to join the Loomio Community group to meet other folks using this tool, to learn more about its potential, and to give feedback on our group’s experience here."

Welcome @george2! Please feel free to introduce yourself here. Thanks for joining.

Welcome to @dean ! Thanks for joining
Dean, this is a space in the loomio community where we invite people to introduce themselves - why are you here, what would you like to learn, or discuss? What do you work on? Thanks!

Hello, I'm Dean.

I'm about to finish my PhD in molecular biology and virology... but I also have a huge passion for social justice and am involved pretty heavily in a grassroots democratic party.

I have been following the Loomio project for a while and was very excited by it's potential. Especially now that 1.0 is on the cards.

I have tried several times to get Loomio going in the community around me (with different people) but I have found engaging and adoption very difficult. I would really like to discuss and learn about how people have rolled out Loomio in their communities and what benefits they feel 1.0 will have.

Since then I have become more involved in other ways and work closely on some projects. Possibly a great place to start trying to implement Loomio again.

Essentially, it would be amazing if Loomio were a functioning part of the community I am involved in... HELP ME PLEASE!

x

Dean

Hey @dean I would love to help you! What kind of issues have you been running into with engagement and adoption?

Ha! @alanna, I guess mainly that I am the only person who thinks it is useful...

The average age of people in my group is probably around 50 (I'm 27). But they have great politics!

My strategy at the moment is to use it for the less-exciting administrative decisions that take a long till to mull over in person, they would be suited to Loomio and could show people how it is useful for discussion and then decision making.

At the moment everyone uses emails to submit proposals for discussion at local meetings, so they are interacting online anyway! Are there any stories of transition to Loomio? Where do I look?

Cheers!
D

@dean that's an awesome question! I've started a whole discussion about it.

Welcome @joaopedrotorres! João's been involved with a direct democracy project in Brazil.

Thanks, Matthew!

Welcome @vernet ! This is where we get to know each other and who is in the community. Please introduce yourself and share anything you are interested in talking about!
Signing up, Vernet said -
"I want to participate in the evolution of the software!"

Hi @gold ! Welcome! please introduce yourself here and ask any questions you might want to discuss with others or let us know what you're interested in! :)

Gold signed in by saying -
"I’m a Drupal developer living in Wellington. Run the NZ Skeptics Society and New Zealand Skeptics in the Pub (8 branches so far). Have walked the South Island and rode the North Island. Plan to complete a walk of the country in the summer of 2015/16."

Hi,

I'm a french consultant in public policies, sustainable development and collective intelligence.

My favourite topics are : direct democracy, mind-mapping, collective decision software, etc.

I support the crowdfunding campain in hope to to install an instance of the future loomio on my professional website : www.interface-consience.com/

I enjoy to discuss with all of you.

Hey all,

I'm a web developer working for Catalyst IT in Wellington, New Zealand. My primary focus is Drupal development.

I also run the New Zealand Skeptics Society and the New Zealand Skeptics in the Pub network of Meetups. The Society is undergoing a website redevelopment at the moment and part of this is moving the membership database online so the members can maintain their own details. This also allows us to provide better services/features to the membership. Loomio is looking like a great tool and I can see the Society making use of it a lot.

To that end I'm hoping to be able to get integration between Loomio and any Drupal site working. Talking with one of the Developers on G+ it sounds like authentication against Facebook/G+/Persona is already working so extending that should be a manageable thing.

I'm hoping a benefit can be seen in this. I know that much of our membership won't be on any of the big social networks that have authentication like this.

I'm also looking forward to having the opportunity to finally have a reason to get my hands dirty on some Ruby. :)

Oh! For the record, I came across Loomio on G+ via aimee whitcroft and was initially quite interested in it. The thing that made me sit up and pay attention was the tweet mentioned that it was already being used inside the WikiMedia Foundation. That caused me to take a more detailed look at it.

I'm now sold on it, a financial contributor, and wanting to make it work with the tech that will be driving the majority of the sites I work with.

Thanks @gold and @vernet for your wonderful introductions.

Please welcome @G who has shared this introduction with us:

"Hi guys
Love to come hang out and learn more about Loomio !
G"

Let us know why you're here and if you'd like to touch base on anything in particular!

Welcome @lyrecalliope !!

I’m a culture hacker natively from Atlanta, GA and currently serving from Boston, MA. I’m a volunteer for the open movement with Mozilla and Code for America as the cornerstone communities of practice I support and seek to align ecosystems with.

Glad to have you with us :)

@alanna Thanks for the intro! I'd heard of Loomio before but only just now decided to check it out given recent activity. I'm totally in on the vision!

I know a number of organizations and groups (unorganizations?) that have been dying for a replacement for traditional mailing lists, Google Groups, or the dreaded mail-list/GoogleGroup/integratedFrankensteinsMonster. I'd be interested in doing the legwork to find out what set of functionality would turn Loomio into a viable platform to migrate to from traditional mailing lists.

I know TeamBox (now Redbooth) had initially envisioned/marketed themselves this way, but they were more about productivity than consensus building. They also couldn't figure out how to get the open source model to work.

In any case, nice to be here with all ya'll and can't wait to see what this community can accomplish! :D

Great to have you in here @lyrecalliope! I'd expect Loomio to be a drop-in replacement for mailing lists by the end of the year, with of course the addition of decision-making functionality. Email integration is high on our list of developments.

Would be great to get your perspective on what user experience and functionality would make sense to you :)

Let's welcome two new members! We're really glad to have you with us :)

@andrewkensington : "Hi, I’m from Newtown, Wellington. I’ve spent the last 14 or so years in the building trade. I spend too much time squabbling with people on Kiwiblog where I post under the pseudonym Yoza. I heard about Loomio on Kim Hill’s program on Saturday morning. The whole Occupy movement is an interesting idea and if anyone gets the chance I would suggest they read David Graeber’s, The Democracy Project: a History, a Crisis, a Movement "

---

@samboyer : "former NYC Occupier, software engineer, and someone who is overall COMPLETELY elated to see Loomio. i became an engineer with aspirations to build something like this :)"

Welcome @dominiksteinacher !!

"I am Dominik Steinacher and I am Head of Sales at Magnolia International. I am responsible for all clients and partners world-wide. Before joining Magnolia I worked as head of product development and marketing within the financial sector and IT sector, as well as in business development and sales strategy. The common thread in all of my roles is the connection between product development, relationship management, innovation and management.
I love sports - I runs, bike and play tennis. I was a pole vaulter for 14 years and I won the Swiss championship in 1996.
I am very interested in new things and therefore I want to be part of Loomio :-)"

hey @dominiksteinacher Loomio is real happy to have you, the sales, and international network part of Loomio is just developing so love to 'hangout ' or skype with you if you are up for it:-)

welcome @philipkorsika !
Philip works with Weta and used to be a student of mine at Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti in christchrch

Hey everyone,

I'm a regular average tech guy Netizen who is pretty interested in using technology for social and economic change. I can write some code, and do so for a living (as well as a few other things), and enjoy giving ui/ux feedback if wanted or not :D

Looking forward to using this and doing sweet, sweet things with it.

:)

Ohey, parallel commenting with @mixirving, see that comment too :)

Welcome @benchatterton ! "Loomio looks like a very interesting way to make decisions as a group. I’m interested in exploring how it works." - do you want to share a bit about yourself with the group?

I'm Ariane, in Cambridge, MA, in the US. I learned about Loomio a few months ago at an in-person meeting of facilitators - thanks, @vivienmaidabornloo and @mjkaplan for coming (from far and not so far) to introduce it to us. I've found it really useful for a group I'm involved with that has some critical decisions to make and isn't always around each other. Much easier than tracking emails. I look forward to learning more about the transition from other communication methods to Loomio so I can make it with another group.

Glad to see you here @arianecherbuliez ! Check out this ongoing discussion about transitioning from other tools :)

Hi, I'm Ben in Portland, Oregon, USA. I found Loomio on boingboing I think. I'm really interested in the sharing economy, alternative democracy, stuff like that. So mostly I'm here to see how it works and observe how people use it.

Welcome to two new members!

@ultraviolet

I have an idea to share and want to vote on other ideas. I think Loomio is a great software to facilitate direct democracy!

We're looking forward to hearing your ideas!

@peteranderson

Hi, I’m really interested in liquid democracy and have been working in this area for about 10 years. Do you guys have any working groups in the UK yet?

Yes we have lots of contacts and collaborators in the UK like @hannahs @neilmorris among many others...

Hi @arianecherbuliez. Great to see you connecting with loomio's global network.

Welcome @jeremygilpin

" 你好! Hello!
My name is Jeremy. I’m an American who has been living abroad in China for the past seven years. I work in education and believe there is massive potential for Loomio with regards to engaging students in decision making and helping to shape what democracy looks like in the 21st century."

Great to have you as part of our community Jeremy! Feel free to tell the group a little more about yourself :)

@jeremygilpin welcome! Mandarin Chinese translation is currently at 41%, and Taiwan Chinese at 24%. Are you interested in potentially helping with translation, or finding people in your networks who might be? If so speak to @mixirving :)

Welcome to 3 new members, @miguelsirvent @davidbest and @robnevin1 - please tell us a bit about yourself :)

Hi, and greetings from central Canada. My name is David, and I thank you for accepting me as a member in this vibrant community. I have taken time to read through all the introductions, and I'm impressed with the global representation and diversity of the community.

I have recently retired from a large international IT organization, where I worked as a software developer and advocate for inclusion best practices. I am very much interested in grassroots collaboration, and sustainable living, initiatives. I have always been an outdoors adventurer, enjoying the untamed nature of Canada's wilderness areas, but recently taken an interest in local gardening systems and seed development. As an entrepreneur, I provide organizations with website accessibility/usability, and Universal Design best practices, education.

I support your efforts as an advocate of the participant model and I feel the infrastructure created by Loomio, unlike other social collaborative tools, may be truly inclusive. I believe the simplicity of the Loomio platform offers great potential for inclusion of disabled people, and look forward to contributing in whatever way I can.

Hi David

Great to have you in our community! Sounds like you have a greath wealth of knowledge to contribute :)

Whereabouts in central Canada are you? I'm living back in New Zealand now, but I spent three years in Saskatoon.

Should have tagged you - @davidbest

Alina, I have never traveled to Saskatoon, but understand the winters can be quite brutal. I, fortunately, live in a more temperate climate, close to the beautiful Niagara Falls in southern Ontario (not exactly central Canada, but east of central; which is also known as the centre of the universe in some minds ). Cheers!

Welcome @cobi !

Hi! I’m doing a PhD in participatory governance in science and technology, and I’m backing the Loomio crowdfunding campaign :)

Tell us some more about your research! Would be keen to hear about it.