Welcome to the Deep Dive. We take your sources, your notes, all that material, and
really
try to pull out the key insights for you. Today we're looking at Console Democracy.
We've got some info from their website and their GitHub code repository. Our goal
here
is to unpack what this thing actually is, especially if it's new to you. Sort of a
beginner's guide, getting straight to the important stuff from the sources you
provided.
And before we really dive in, just a quick shout out to the supporter who made this
Deep
Thought possible, Safe Server. They handle software hosting and support digital
transformation,
things like hosting this kind of software. You can find more info at www.safeserver.de.
Okay, so, Console Democracy. Let's start with the big picture. The material we have
really paints it as a pretty complete toolkit for citizen participation, you know,
designed
for open, transparent government. They actually call it the most complete citizen
participation
tool. The most complete. That's quite a claim. Do the sources give any hints as to
why? Well,
I think it comes down to the range of things it lets people do, which we'll get
into. But maybe
the first really key thing the source has stressed is that it's open source. Ah,
right. Meaning,
free to use, free to modify. Exactly. Not some locked down commercial product. And
that feels
pretty central to its whole purpose, doesn't it? Yeah, definitely. If you're aiming
for public
participation, making the tool itself open and adaptable makes a lot of sense. The
source has
mentioned its public mission is recognized and supported. And it's not just an idea,
it's actually out there being used. The material highlights it has been used by
more than 250 cities
and organizations all over the world. Over 250, that's significant. It really is.
And they give
specific examples too. Like where? Madrid, obviously, where it started. But also
places
like mentioned in Germany, Sao Paulo, in Brazil, Glasgow, in Scotland. Okay, so
major cities,
global reach. Yeah. That's just pretty robust, handles complexity, not just a niche
tool. Right.
So yeah, the headline is open source platform used globally, trying to change
citizen engagement.
Okay, that's the what and where. So how does it do that? What are the actual
features? What
does the software let people do? The sources lay out the main functions, kind of
the core tools in
the box. First, there are spaces for debate, just, you know, online discussions on
different topics.
Standard enough. What else? Then critically, it supports gathering and evaluating
citizen proposals
so people can submit ideas and those ideas can actually be assessed. Okay, so
beyond just talk,
actually putting forward concrete suggestions. Exactly. And then moving towards
decisions,
it facilitates voting, collective decision making. Formal voting within the
platform.
Seems like it, yeah. And there's also participatory budgeting.
Ah, that's a big one. Giving citizens a say in where the money goes.
A really direct form of influence, yeah. And one more key feature they mention is
collaboratively drafting laws or regulations. Wait, really? So people can actually
work
together on the text of official documents? That's what the source material
suggests.
So yeah, you can see it covers quite a spectrum. Hmm, yeah. It's not just one thing.
It's debate,
proposing, budgeting, voting, even drafting text together. That starts to sound
like why they might
call it most complete. It seems to integrate participation much deeper than say
just a comment
section. It definitely aims for a broad range of engagement types. Now, naturally
you might wonder
about the tech side, the sort of under the hood stuff. The sources give a little
glimpse, keeping
it fairly high level. Good. Keep it accessible. So we know it's open source. Where
does the code
actually live? It's hosted on GitHub, which for anyone unfamiliar, is basically the
go-to place
for collaborative software development, especially open source projects. That's
where the community
works on it. Right. And they mention the license. They do. Aferro GPLv3. Now, this
is kind of
important in the open source world. It basically means if you modify the code and
use it to provide
a service like a city running its participation website, you generally have to
share your
modifications back with everyone. Ah, so it reinforces the collaborative aspect.
Yeah. Keeps
improvements in the open. Exactly. It prevents someone from just taking it,
improving it privately,
and locking those improvements away. And the origin story is interesting, too. It
wasn't just
cooked up in a lab somewhere. No. Where did it start? The sources say it was
originally developed
for the Madrid City government e-participation website, specifically decide.madrid.es,
launched
back in September 2015. So born from a real world need in a major city. That's a
solid grounding.
It is. And it's grown since then. It's now maintained by the open source software
community
in collaboration with the Consul Democracy Foundation. Okay. So it transitioned
from just
Madrid to a broader community effort with a foundation supporting it. That shows
sustainability.
Yeah. And you can see signs of that community activity. The sources mention 145
contributors
on GitHub. That's a fair number of people writing code. And things like stars and
forks.
What do those numbers mean? They mentioned 1.5k stars and 1.1k forks. Those are
GitHub metrics.
Stars are basically like bookmarks or shows of appreciation. Forks mean people have
copied the
code base often to work on their own version or contribute changes back. So 1.5
thousand stars
and over a thousand forks. Yeah. That signals quite a bit of interest in activity
for a project
like this. Definitely indicates a living community. And that activity seems ongoing
if you look at the latest news section mentioned in the sources. Right. It seems
pretty current.
They mention a spring newsletter dated, well dated today actually, May 28th, 2025.
And previous ones
too. It shows regular communication. Yeah. And specific updates like a video
recording of 28
April Meetup featuring North Ayrshire in Starlin. So sharing real use cases. What
else stood out
from the recent news? Well something really interesting from March 2025. An
announcement
of a new project. Open source LLM powered civic assistant. LLM large language model.
Like AI.
Exactly. Think conversational AI like chat bots but potentially much smarter. They're
exploring
using that kind of tech within this open source civic tool. That's pretty cutting
edge for this
space. Wow. Okay. Bringing AI into citizen participation tools. That could really
change
things. Maybe help people understand complex issues or even draft proposals and crucially
doing it open source. That transparency is key. Yeah. The news also mentioned some
external
validation. A digital participation tools rating by an organization called People
Powered. And
apparently open source wins according to their February 2025 news. That's a nice
endorsement
reinforces their approach. Definitely. And you also see practical stuff like recent
software
releases version 2.3.1 in April 2025 shows the core product is still being
developed plus community
events like a console con 25 throwback suggesting they have conferences. So it
sounds active
evolving and getting recognition. Now for you listening if this sounds like
something you'd
want to explore more. How would you do that based on the sources. They make it
pretty easy to dip
your toes in. You can check out our demo right on their website lets you see an
action without
installing anything. Okay a demo is useful what if you're more technical. Then you
can get the code
straight from GitHub dive right in. And for an organization thinking about using it.
The site
says you can get started right away with the installation and implementation. Suggest
there's
guidance available and naturally they mention ways to support them like become a
sponsor. How
about just keeping up with news. You can sign up for the console quarterly
newsletter or follow them
on Mastodon or LinkedIn. And direct contact. Yep they list an email dot info at
console foundation
dot org. Okay so lots of ways to engage. Pulling this all together then why should
you care about
console democracy. What's the big takeaway. Well I think it matters because it's a
really tangible
example of using technology specifically open source tech to try and deepen
democracy. It's not
just theory it's being used globally. Yeah it moves beyond just government telling
people things
online towards actual interaction collaboration even shared decision making. It's a
tool for that.
And the open source aspect is crucial. It's built by a community not owned by one
company that aligns
with the whole public service mission. It's a different way of building what's
essentially
becoming critical digital infrastructure for cities and organizations. Right it's a
model
for how digital tools could work to make governance more transparent and participatory.
And thinking
about that future especially with that LLM project they mentioned. Yes that leads
perfectly to a
final thought for you the listener. How might AI especially AI developed openly
like this change
how citizens and governments interact down the line. What new possibilities could
it unlock for
participation. But also what are the challenges or risks when you bring powerful AI
into these
civic processes. Especially when the code itself is open for anyone to see and
maybe even misuse.
Definitely some big questions there for the future of civic tech. Absolutely lots
to ponder.
And one final thank you to our supporter Safe Server their experts in software
hosting and
digital transformation support. Find out more about them at www.safeserver.de.