Introduce yourself to the Loomio Community
Benjamin Knight PublicSeen by 944There are so many new faces popping up in the Loomio Community!
This is a place where everyone can introduce themselves to the group, so we can all get to know each other :)
As new people come in who have provided some info about themselves, we'll welcome them here.
Welcome Elaine!
Hi my name is Elaine I am a business student in my last year with experience in a top down government and corporate entities. I am interested in Loomis because it offers an open forum approach exposing the productivity that can arise from such business practice. I am excited to see this concept further developed and effectively implemented into bigger corporate/ government organisations in particular.
( @robertguthrie how come I can't tag Elaine O'Rourke? :( )
Welcome 上官文青! Google Translate tells me: "Hello, my name is Shang Wen Qing, Shenyang, Tianjin University, graduating in 2005, starting in 2002 in the country has been engaged in activist work, has participated in many domestic famous activism. Currently a member of the Executive Council is a citizen monitoring, "Citizen Digest" group of young volunteers, the second batch of signers of Charter 08, a very recognized for your organization, you want to become a member"
Welcome Anna!
Hi there. I’m keen to see whether this would be a good avenue to empower self-assembly during a national emergency. I’m currently working on a project for a government agency where we’re assessing the efficiency and reach of the existing channels in reaching the goal (to provide information for people to make informed decisions). Would be fun to see if there are others thinking along the same lines as me. Cheers.
(@robertguthrie why can't I tag Anna??)
Welcome new members @jimmywales and @dnephin!
Feel free to tell us a bit about yourselves if keen!
Welcome new members!
@michaelduanemoorin
@mikeumus at BetaBulls & DocPad/Bevry. We’re starting to use Loomio for Bevry decisions and may do a open-source loomio glassware app at BetaBulls. We have ideas for loomio! Cheers.
@jerryscott
I am a technology researcher working on my PhD in collaboration technology. Loomio seems to address some of the collaboration gaps that I have been looking at. I’m interested in learning more about it, and designing some Loomio-like extensions or features in other software that address some of my specific research interests.
Jerry you might want to talk to @benjaminknightloom and @jeffswift about an academic perspective
Thanks @alanna. Here's the idea, voting on things with texts/Twitter (especially Twitter for open groups/campaigns) . Boom! :D
Hey @timrayner ! Welcome to the Loomio Community. Great to skype with you a couple of weeks ago.
This is how Tim introduced himself:
"Hi guys,
Tim from One Million Acts of Innovation here. We’re keen to explore how to use Loomio for grassroots campaigning, so I’d like to jump in on this discussion.
Tim"
Tim feel free to introduce yourself in more depth
Thanks @chelsearobinson!
Hi everyone. I'm a Kiwi living in Sydney, Australia. Came over here to study philosophy, and wound up doing research on how the internet was scaling transnational social movement activity. This was 2000-2008, so I started off inspired by the anti-globalization movement and tailed off (as my academic aspirations declined) wondering how this new social media thing might enable even broader forms of progressive engagement. Facebook was young, Twitter had just launched, and social media marketers had yet to flood the channels with branding. So I was an optimist.
Off the back of this research, I wrote Coalition of the Willing, which became this huge unruly collaborative film project http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk. Looking back, it's funny to think that the idea of taking an open source approach to tackling climate change might be anything but blatently obvious, but we managed to turn a few a heads and won some awards in the process.
After this, I wound up working with a network of people inspired by the film http://coalitionblog.org, which evolved into a series of start ups. None of them progressed beyond alpha stage, but it was a great experience - worked with all kinds of people (including folks from NASA at one point!) and learned heaps.
When OWS landed I was totally on board. This post sums up where my head was at in 2011: http://www.coalitionblog.org/2011/10/swarm-wall-street-why-an-anti-political-movement-is-the-most-important-force-on-the-planet/.
Like the Loomio team, I was frustrated when OWS fizzled out. I felt that there was a missed opportunity - that movement leaders should have elaborated and scaled a set of mechanisms for enabling creative making and doing. So, from this point, I began thinking about how to create a movement that was focused on building and scaling collaborative innovation tools and culture. This led me to co-found One Million Acts of Innovation (Aust.) in 2013.
OMAoI is still in pre-launch stage. We don't even have a website yet, just a landing page http://onemillionactsofinnovation.org.au. It looks corporate, but that's only because we're chasing big money at the moment. The campaign itself aims to engage groups and organisations in all sectors and at all levels of Australian society. Watch this space.
To finish up, here's a couple of posts that I'm kinda proud of, one on Maker Democracy http://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/maker-democracy-roberto-unger-progressive-politics-and-collaborative-experimentation/ and a fictional report from the end of this century on how sharing, making, and open sourcing changed the world. http://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/2045-united-federation-report-on-the-great-transition-the-culture-of-transition/ Enjoy!
Welcome @michaelmckinsey !
I am the founder and CEO of FlashByte Digital, LLC http://www.flashbyte.us - which is a WISP in Southern California, USA. I am also involved with several start-up projects, one of which recently put up a diaspora pod at:
I am interested in the D* project, and possibly on figuring out a way to include the diaspora pod in our CDSSO and so ended up here on loomia reading the discussions about the project.
In seeking information about D* I found loomia, which honestly was like a gift from the heavens.
A major problem facing the new project I am working on was how to allow people to come together in a collaborative and open environment and make proposals and decisions, and in the process of us envisioning our platform somehow none of us had heard of loomia. Finding this project has saves us an immense amount of work that would have required we functionally create the same product and we are immediately planning on setting up our own loomia server. I bought into the crowd funding at the “Host it yourself” level, and I am in the process of setting up your current implementation. I plan on contributing code and resources as well as spreading the word about what is an absolutely needed platform! If you had not done this, my team would have ended up needing to do it ourselves, and so in a real way I feel like your crowd funding effort reduced our development budget by every dollar you raised. We offer great congratulations on meeting your goal!
I am involved in the Occupy movement, and not having to sit out in a cold park for hours to make a decision is GREAT! My team here are really look forward to getting to know loomia inside and out.
@seantilleycommunit is here from Diaspora and might be interested in what you're doing with your Pod @michaelmckinsey
Great to have you in the community Michael
@michaelmckinsey Feel free to add me on DIASPORA*
deadsuperhero@joindiaspora.com is my handle, you can find me using the search. ;) I wasn't able to find you, but I know there are some federation changes in the latest upstream release, and joindiaspora.com hasn't upgraded yet.
@seantilleycommunit I am sharing with you on D* - found you no problem. I hope there is not something wrong with my pod configuration that you could not find me.
Welcome to a bunch of new members! We're very glad to have you here.
@nurana
I’m Nurana from Azerbaijan, Baku city.I’m 24 and I’m a company founder.
@erkangencol
I feel extremely inspired and empowered by the existence of Loomio and would like to contribute in any way I can as I’ll definitely be an evangelist for the widespread us of it in community organizing. I have an experience of being involved in couple of technology startups back in 1997-2004 in the Production and Product Management roles so I might have some suggestions to make Loomio better.
@stevecoffman
Hello Everyone, I’m a builder/ inventor/ organic gardener/ activist who lives in Ashland, Oregon. I discovered Loomio through Metagov start@metagovernment.org, and found out about them through my involvement in the #Occupy protests several years ago. My first intro into group decision-making was during the Diablo Canyon (nuclear power plant) Blockade back in the early 80s. I was later involved in several (anti-nuke) protests at the Nevada Test Site. From these events I experienced the incredible empowerment that can arise through well-facilitated group decision-making….and have been on a parallel odyssey or quest ever since. I’m convinced that the only way we are ever going to bring about a more holistic and sustainable society is through something akin to what is developing here with Loomio. Thanks so much for getting this ball rolling! I’m really excited to be a member of your team.
@deanhewson
Hi, I build web stuff and am a new Industrial Design student, constantly trying to put things together and get communities together and am really interested in helping build this one.
@isabelledelgrange can you tell us a bit about yourself?
So many wonderful people introducing themselves here!
Bienvenue aux nouveaux membres!
@fanny
Bonjour nouvelle venue sur loomio je découvre la communauté et son fonctionnement. Je suis avant tout une militante convaincue par plein de causes certaines “ perdues” d autres moins toujours prête au débat et en quête d idées nouvelles
@jeronimoluisbarrac @dosto @canellebambou ... Voulez-vous nous parler de vous?
(sorry I don't really speak French!)
Welcome new members!
@johngietzen
I’m a software engineer from Seattle, WA. I’m recently really interested in civics and “consensus software” like loomio and wrangl.com.
@timmcnamara
Coordinator of the Science in Society group and love.loomio.org supporter.
Hi!
Welcome @jessenaiman
I was trying to build a similar system during the Occupy Movement. I may have some ideas to lend…and I have a job that may allow me to get this somewhere important.
And @edgalligan care to tell us a bit about yourself?
Welcome @m4xin3 !
I read an article about Digital Democracy in RT and it mentioned Loomio. I thought it would be good to check it out to see what it was all about.
Welcome to some new people!
@alexwatt
Hello, i have thought about OA platforms for a long time, but this is the first one that really feels natural to work with. I do think we need proxy’s though, if this is going to scale at all.
@neelgupta
I love Philosophy & Computers
hello team!
Hello everyone :)
@alexwatt, what's OA?
Sorry, it means open access but really was a mental slip as i meant to say open democracy.
Welcome @dallasknight !
Hello. I am new to the Loomio community and an excited about the prospect of using Loomio as I have followed the development of this web-based decision support software for a few years. The internet has always held a fascination for me for it’s ability to democratise information.
I am a ‘brand new’ PhD graduate (Sat 10th May), with an interest in Health Information Science, and plan to garner representatives from stakeholder health provider groups together using Loomio to broker solutions to existing barriers which prevent disempowered groups getting easy access to health services.
Glad to have you here! You might be interested in this post about how Loomio is helping Pathways, and organisation focused on mental health. I think Loomio has great potential in the health field and I'm interested in your thoughts about that.
Then we both think that Loomio has great potential in the health field. I plan to get to know Loomio really well, so I can coordinate health groups and direct them towards using Loomio. This current project is my first hands-on venture, so there is lots of learning to do.
Welcome to some new members!
@jesteracer
Ruby on rails developer, vegeterian, anarchist from Russia.
@andrewmicone
I just want to try this out because I like the consensus based decision making methods it supports and I want to see how well Loomio does the job.
@emilvikstrom
Since I work with helping organizations transform to new forms I want to see what possibilities Loomio will create.
Welcome @henrilaupmaa @seanfarmelo @jessica4 ! Care to tell us a bit about yourself?
And some more new members....
@johnlove
hacking and healing to build a thrivable world
@jamesedwards
Am new to Loomio and have started a group dedicated to exploring the subject of human Scale Technology. I have a diverse background, including retail, adventure tourism, social and economic policy, and food production. I have deep concern regarding the trajectory of future developments in array of spheres, politics, economics, labour relations, social justice, environmental exploitation, and technological change, all of which are inextricably intertwined.
@elifeghali1
Just getting started using Loomio. Work for a US-based nonprofit network that is looking into using the software in our working groups.
Hi - I’m a co founder of a number of student co-operatives in the Uk - greenbikeproject.net the birmingham student housing co-op and also involved in getting a national network of student co-operatives going ( students.coop )
Currently using loomio to co-ordinate brewing and also for our community co-op newspaper www.slaneystreet.com - I tweet @seanfarmelo
Welcome @seanfarmelo ! My first introduction to consensus decision making was in student housing co-ops. Powerful stuff!
@jessedoud might be interested in connecting about bikes :) @josefdaviescoates is also big into co-ops in the UK and is a Loomio supporter.
hey @seanfarmelo good to see you here :) have you read this yet? http://www.managementexchange.com/story/collaborative-funding-dissolve-authority-empower-everyone-and-crowdsource-smarter-transparent
I've know of Enspiral for a while and long been a Loomio fan but it wasn't until read that I realised quite how much I love what they're doing!
@alanna thanks for the mention. I met Sean at a co-op event in Manchester and then again at the launch of http://www.students.coop/ a few month ago :)
My name is Roslyn. I wrote my PhD on democracy and international law (finished three years ago) and basically made the argument for establishing direct digital democracy as a way to deal with our numerous international relations issues. I knew enough about IT (I am a lawyer by training) to know that digitial democracy was possible, and, in fact, inevitable. Needless to say I was ecstatic to find out that someone out there was actually working on this. I didn't sleep all night. I currently live in Ireland where I lecture (on a programme combining IT and international law) and am a regular contributor to media on legal and political issues (mainly RT). This is a fascinating project and I'm thrilled to get in touch with like-minded people. I speak English, German and a bit of Spanish and French. On Twitter @roslynfuller
Really happy to have you here @roslyn!
Welcome @mattsale !
I’m 39 and live in Auckland, NZ. I’m Retail General Manager at Public Trust, New Zealand’s largest provider of Wills, Powers of Attorney and Trustee services. One of my team members went to a day with Gary Hamel recently and his learnings included Loomio. I am passionate about helping people love their work, and believe involvement in deciding what and how to improve customer experience is a great motivator for most people. So I’m very excited to be testing Loomio to see how it could facilitate that involvement for our staff.
Welcome @jordifaxedas !
Very interested in the development of Loomio. I think it is a great tool to empower real and direct democracy. I’ve been active in the translation of Loomio into Catalan. I study Engineering in Copenhagen (Denmark) but born and risen in Catalunya (Spain).
Welcome @eamonnoflaherty !
I’m a Sydney occupier, currently challenging the constitutionality of our 2011 arrests (and about to be bankrupt for my efforts, but ah well :) ) I’m interested in bettering Democracy, and recognise in Loomio the same cause that inspired me in my effort to create Demos- a democratic, online issues voting platform. I’d love to know more about Loomio, where it is similar and where different, from my own idea. Here is my FB event for my crowdfunding effort, and the Start Some Good page. Thankyou. Glad to have found you :)
hey @eamonnoflaherty you should check out http://iagr.ee set up by some friends of mine who are doing similar stuff :)
Welcome to some new members!
@noosquest
Hi, I love your project, we give it a try for a users feedback of our pearltrees users community
@kenlefebvre
I am experimenting with Loomio for helping my extended family make decisions about an upcoming reunion. In general, I am personally a fan of Loomio’s vision, as I believe a solid platform for introducing genuine democracy into any group is sorely needed.
@jonahfreeland
Hi, I’m Jonathan, I work as a freelance web developer. I’ve been thinking about collaborative decision making applications for quite a few years but never got round to building one. Recently, after an inspired search to see if anyone had released one yet, I found you guys. I would like to get involved in the development side of things, fixing bugs etc. Anyway, nice to be here and meet you all.
and @danielplaat and @inikette too!
Hello; I'm an OWS veteran of the Info WG, with occupy from day one. I have heavy experience with consensus in person and have worked in a think tank working group to hash out process, membership, and putting the ideas of Values based consensus into practice in the following year(2012). The past year I've been a growing facilitator for Occupy Albany. Upon hearing about putting consensus on an online platform through an occupy podcast; I wanted to check it out and see if I could contribute. With your coverage in Wired a comrade in the consensus group really hated on the idea; as to him this can only best be done in person; otherwise we are putting screens between us and tring to solve human communication problems, like listening to each other instead of having "the right program." I disagreed with him mostly; So I'd like to contribute to make sure there's an amount of humanity in this and importantly, work to take out the need for voting. More on that with a proposal in the right discussion section.
Thank you & Felicitations for having created such a powerful tool.... strongly agree with @roslynfuller above :
"...establishing direct digital democracy as a way to deal with our numerous international relations issues... & that digitial democracy is possible, and, in fact, inevitable."
I'm here to try it for our users community & figure out how it can be used elsewhere & at different scales
@josefdaviescoates Thanks Josef I'd love to talk to your friends- that link doesn't work however.
@eamonnoflaherty ah, it is only really in alpha and I think they're in the middle of another development cycle so must be working on stuff contact https://twitter.com/eddowding :)
Kia Ora everybody
I am new to Loomio and have come to this community via the Internet Party.
I live in Dunedin New Zealand and I am a 23 year old with 40 years of experience. I have been a pharmacist for most of my working life but I have also been a University lecturer, hosted a radio show, been an elected member of a District Health Board and presently I am a restaurant owner and some-time chef.
I have lives and worked in Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu and have sent time in Thailand.
As a student I was part of the huge changes that swept the world in the 1970's. My first computer was a Commodore 64 in the late 1970's and when I purchased my first laptop I had to choose between a 40Mb and an 80Mb hard drive and chose the 40Mb as at the time I couldn't see how I could possibly use 80Mb!!!!
I highlight this because there seems to be some opinion that the technology revolution is new.
As a 60th birthday present to myself I went back to University to study full-time for and MBA - it was the best 2 years of my life with exchanges to Germany and Thailand.
My expertise and interest in in health. My MBA research was on Shared Electronic Health Records and I used some exciting software called 1000Minds - www.1000minds.com . !000Minds is multi criteria decision making software and it was extremely useful for obtaining and weighting public opinion via a web-based survey.
I see a real synergy between Loomio and 1000Minds in the sense that Loomio provides the "panel of experts" who develop the questions and then you can use 1000Minds to present a series of hypothetical choices to a sample population and weight their preferences.
I have attached a proposal that I wrote to the Internet Party when I first learned that we were going to use Loomio as a democracy tool.
I am very keen to part of any Health Informatics group
Delighted to have you in the community @peterbarron! I'm part of the Loomio team, and Dunedin has a special place in my heart (my first 22 years of life were there).
I totally agree with your sense of synergy between Loomio and 1000 Minds! The great news is that Franz and Paul agree - the motivation is absolutely there, so it's just resources that are limiting us in terms of looking at integration. So any suggestions or ideas there would be much appreciated :) I'm really enjoying the thinking behind this proposal!
I'd love a chance to talk with you - if you email me at ben [at] loomio.org, it would be great to make a time to meet when I'm visiting Dunedin at the end of next week.
Make yourself at home in the community and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions :)
Delighted to introduce some wonderful individuals to the community this morning :)
Vadim - @vadimmalykh :
"I’m individual programmer from Russia. Interested in all kind of collaboration and social using information technology."
Vadim - you have found the right place :)
David - @davidbohlmark :
"Tja! Jag vill också vara med och utveckla plattformen! :)"
Which the internet tells me means "Well! I also want to be involved in developing the platform! :)" in Swedish.
We would love to have you involved David!
And last but not least, Joi - @joiito :
"I am the director of the MIT Media Lab and a fan of Loomio. Would like to participate in the community and explore using it in some of my organizations."
@joiito, it was wonderful to meet you this morning - we're huge fans of the amazing stuff coming out of MIT Media Lab, so really looking forward to finding ways to work together! I'm sure others in the community will be really interested to hear about your work.
And now we're joined by Nuong (@nuongnguyen). Great to have you here Nuong - feel free to share some words with the group about your background and what's brought you to Loomio :)
Welcome to the community Fred Carr!
Fred has this to say about himself:
"I’m a retired engineer with a deep interest in philosophy and economic justice. A friend from the Occupy movement recently pointed me to the Loomio project because he knew that I had been investigating consensus software.
Based on what I’ve seen, and I’ve seen many startup ventures over a period of decades, all the necessary elements are in place for this project to bloom in a big way in the coming years. The combination of people and ideas around Loomio is channeling the energy we saw with Occupy into what will become an important mechanism for change in this time of need.
This is only the beginning for you. You are on the leading edge of history!
Fred"
Welcome @willmalina
I’m currently involved in the Metagovernment project and am interested in contributing to the development of loomio. I will be studying philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison next fall and currently reside in Minnesota, USA. I find loomio’s mission inspiring and would love to participate in its development.
@peterschurman1 Hi Peter, great to talk with you on Google hangouts. This is the place in Loomio Community where we invite people to introduce themselves and what they're working on so that you might meet others also interested in what you're doing! Feel free to start a conversation about what we were discussing about your work.
http://oneglobaldemocracy.com/