Principles Cooperative social enterprise Loomio is a social enterprise collectively owned by the people building it. Social enterprise creates social and environmental benefit in a way that generates sustainable revenue. Unlike a traditional profit-maximising company, revenue is not an end in itself, but a means towards achieving a core social purpose. A worker-owned cooperative structure is a powerful way to live our values of collaboration and collective ownership. This legal structure embodies our commitment to democracy in the workplace and connects us to a global movement based on cooperation. Independent and neutral We are committed to remaining independent so we can provide a neutral place for any group to come together. We’re immensely proud of our diverse and growing user community: community organisations, businesses, educators, government departments, social activist groups, and families. Loomio needs to remain independent to support this diversity. We will never do anything to compromise our autonomy or core purpose. We will never sell your data. Open-source collaboration Loomio is free software, meaning that anyone has the freedom to run, read, learn from, modify and redistribute the code. Loomio couldn’t be anything other than open-source. Peer-production is transforming the way communities create value, laying the foundation for a new economy of abundance. Open collaboration unlocks collective wisdom on a scale we’ve never seen before, producing invaluable public resources like Wikipedia and Linux. Free software is about the freedom of the user, not the price of the service. Groups with a budget contribute financially for the use of Loomio. This means we can gift it to groups without a budget. Adaptive, reflexive, user-driven Loomio uses Loomio to develop Loomio. Development of Loomio is iterative, self-reflexive and adaptive, driven by the collective wisdom of the user community. We’re developing an open participatory design methodology that will allow anyone affected by Loomio to have a say in how it works. Transparency Our community of users and contributors must be confident that we’re doing what we say we are. We’re committed to remaining open and accountable to our community by sharing information about our internal decision-making, social impact results and finances. Communicating this information effectively is an ongoing challenge that we look forward to undertaking with our community. How it works Video tutorial Check out the video for a quick demonstration of how to use Loomio. Getting started On the left, the group discusses a topic, exchanging ideas and information. When there’s a decision for the group to make, it comes up on the right. Have a discussion The topic and any relevant background information sit at the top of the page. Use the comment box to add your voice to the discussion. Make a decision When the group is ready to make a decision, anyone can make a proposal. Outline a clear course of action and give some background so everyone knows exactly what it means to agree or disagree. Have your say When you’re ready to have your say, click one of the four decision buttons. When you’ve made your decision, give a brief explanation. Underneath the pie, you can see what everyone else thinks. This makes it quick and easy to catch up with the discussion. As new information comes to light, you can change your position at any time. Agree means you’re happy with the proposal. Abstain means you’re unsure, or you’re happy for the group to decide without you. Disagree means you think there might be a better alternative, but you’re willing to go with the group’s decision. Block means you’ve got serious objections and you’ll be extremely unhappy if this proposal goes ahead. Build shared understanding As the conversation progresses and new information comes to light, you can change your position as many times as you like until the proposal closes. If the group isn’t in love with the first proposal, anyone can suggest a better one and keep moving forward. Through this dynamic process, the collective wisdom of your group can generate better ideas than anyone would have come up with on their own. About us Loomio emerged when activists from the Occupy movement collided with businesspeople from the social enterprise network Enspiral and realised that they were using different approaches to work towards the same aim. Loomio is being built by a core team in Wellington, New Zealand, and a wider network of friends and supporters all over the world. This video is a presentation by one of the team members that explains some of the background of the project. Contact Interested? Get in touch! If you’d like to find out more about the project, drop us a line at [email protected] If you’d rather speak to someone directly, you can call Ben on +6421 0232 5433.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 08:57:17 +0000
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