DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM IDEA'S Supplementing Loomio discussion with a policy development platform

I have been gathering a list of collaborative authoring platforms as part of the research for the GITocracy project. One of these may be useful for our purposese here. Is anyone interested in testing some of these and reporting back their experiences, or sharing their knowledge of other platforms?

Thanks @strypey, yes very important points it will be good to find a tool with an interface that is easy accessible user friendly for everyone.

Wow great stuff that has already been expressed that we've been linked to here, awesome let's definitely adapt and contribute, thanks heaps!

Ok we seem to be getting a bit scattered at this point trying to work out

how to move forward.
I released as soon as i logged on to Gitlab that the jargon and interface
were going to an issue as they are yet another interface to get competent on. a bit of Alvin Tofflers "information overload" creeping in.
Simple clear user interfaces in plain language are going to have to be part of the design brief.
I am wandering if something simpler for this phase would be better.
At present there are about 46 members total on the loomio with about
10 actual contributors the rest are ghosting mostly. I don't know if they are even watching.
For the more tech minded other sites / applications may fulfill more complex needs (like being able to upscale the discussion and brain storming to thousands of people) but do we really need to yet.
If the tech is going to get in the way, then that is counterproductive to preparing for social / government change urgently.
1 Can we achieve policy writing here, we can display, edit, discus, vote and rewrite here.
2 A Google Doc.
3 Dropbox ed doc
4 Old school group email even.
Above all I would like to keep this group together and functional.

1) You can edit the 'thread context' box at the top of each thread (like I just did to add your suggestions), so this could be used for editing a policy document as a group for each thread. This is certainly worth experimenting with, and has the advantage that nobody needs to set up new accounts or learn a whole new interface. It's very limited in its functions. though.
2) Requires people to have a Google account. Proprietary software. No real advantage over using the 'thread context' box or an Etherpad.
3) Requires people to have a DropBox account. Proprietary software. No real advantage over using the 'thread context' box or an EtherPad.
4) if email was a practical way to do complex, collaborative work, there would be no need for Loomio. Trust me, it's not. It's like trying to write a novel using post-it notes. That's why wikis (like Wikipedia) were invented :)

Other options:
* Etherpad (click here to have a play on a Pad I created) - entirely free code. You don't need a login, and anything anybody types come up immediately, so no edit conflicts. We've used this as a complement to the Pirates Loomio group a couple of times, to good effect.
* PenFlip - like GITLab, it uses GIT, and is entirely free code, but is specifically aimed at document editing, not code editing. I've had a brief play, looks quite good.

The GIT benefits I explained in the discussion starter would certainly help with scaling up to larger numbers, but they're just as useful with ten active contributors. The main benefit is in encouraging people to flesh their ideas out in detail, and offer them as contributions towards a group document, without any fear that they will losing the detailed work they may have spent hours developing, if other group member with an opposing view comes along and does major edits on the group document.

That these two thing, the ability to think and communicate deeply, and the ability to approach policy as a pot luck dinner rather than a battle for control of the policy committee, are critical. I believe they have the potential to help us break out of polarized, caricatured, 19th century political thinking (left vs. right, capitalism vs. communism, neo-liberalism vs. neo-keynesianism etc) that doesn't address the real world in all its complexity. I believe this could be as big a step forward in democracy as the innovation of representative democracy, which helped our ancestors break out of traditionalist religious thinking, feudalism, and civil wars or bloody coups as a way of solving theological disagreements between factions.

"That these two thing, the ability to think and communicate deeply, and the ability to approach policy as a pot luck dinner rather than a battle for control of the policy committee, are critical."
Agreed. The current parliament and associated governance operations
are neither, representative, responsive, responsible or rational.
"Many minds make more sense ?" (if organized correctly).

Ok so the Likeinmind platform is not yours, you have an account with them.

Dmitry Re: the following page.

http://confocal-manawatu.pbworks.com/w/page/107959679/Aotearoa%20New%20Zealand%20Civil%20Society%20Project%20Action%20Plan

I got an account with Likinmind, but cannot seem to edit that document.?
ALSO
Given the nature of loomio we should be putting "Plan" up as a proposal as it carries the name of an informal social group
ie :Aotearoa New Zealand Civil Society Project Action Plan .

Dmitry Sokolov
Comment by Dmitry Sokolov

Hi Alan,

that's correct, LiM is developed on PBWorks wiki platform.

I am not sure where the problem with editing pages is. The Action
Plan page is open for editing by anyone with the account. Could
you please describe your actions and replies from the system?

Yes, we should put the "Plan" as a proposal. I would appreciate
your help with that.

Thank you very much!

P.S. If you think these technical details are out of the scope of
the thread,

please contact me personally:

http://tinyurl.com/LikeInMind/Dmitry+Sokolov ( http://tinyurl.com/LikeInMind/Dmitry+Sokolov )

or via our FB group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LikeInMind/ ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/LikeInMind/ )

Cheers.

TRANSFERED
Comment by Dmitry Sokolov
Thanks Alan,

what would be your "well informed and governing public" model be?

Any ideas / suggestions / action plan towards realising it in
practice?

Like · Reply · 5 days ago

TRANSFERED

Alan Forster in reply to Dmitry Sokolov
"well informed and governing public"
So far we have identified :
That electronic referenda government (ERG) would be an optimal political system of democracy that would ensure widest catchment of potential solutions and have the most democratic outcomes.
A portion of the public relieved of some toil by the UBI will have the time to
research the issues of the day. The incentive ( i hope) to get informed and make the best decisions for the country will be supplied by the empowering act of genuine direct democracy.
I am hopeful that many a sharp political mind will surface once political parties and the lumbering and antiquated parliamentary system are removed.
is that what you meant Dmitry ?

Like · Reply · 5 days ago · Edited