A hub is an entity that uses our democracy software for its own purposes. A hub enables a group of people, from a small community group all the way up to many millions in size, to manage it’s own decisions democratically and fairly.
A hub could represent all the people of a given area or it could represent a private organisation of any size.
PUBLIC HUBS:
Public hubs serve a spatial area, up to millions of people in size. They are used by people to decide whats best for their community using democratic process.
In concept they are designed to be like “Town Hall” meetings of old where the community would decide what to do with its own resources in a democratic process. People can suggest ideas, run surveys, vote on referendums, call for real world meetings, call/demand for more information and a lot more. Instead of it being just in a physical Town Hall (physical meetings are also done), but the actual voting is on a website (or public display points) for people to peruse at their leisure up to deadline without the pressure of physical meetings.
In practice it’s simple, a resident gets a URL on which they can vote about an issue. Instead of voting for a politician to decide for them, they are voting directly on an issue that relates to them. That vote should be used to direct politicians and authorities and reduces apathy since their vote will directly count.
People can vote on everything from whether they want speed humps in a street, all the way up to major infrastructure decisions.
What they decide upon can be used to direct authorities. The authorities can be involved in the process or not, however the information that locals decide on will be transparent to councils who should act accordingly if they wish to be re-elected.
Each Hub is run entirely independently of other hubs in a decentralised fashion. Each hub can be run on its own domain name. ie OurLocalCouncil.org.nz or subdomain ie Ourarea.Of.OurLocalCouncil.org.nz This gives you autonomy over it’s name and allows the system in general to be decentralised over hundreds of sites, not centralised on one website.
Rules for public hubs:
- Trust Run
- They are run by legal public non profit trusts each of whom must have a website.
- A public deed of the that trust must be publically visible on the system and that trust deed must indicate that this group operates democratically for its members.
- They cannot be run by an individual, company, or private trust. Those entities can instead run a private hub.
- They are run by legal public non profit trusts each of whom must have a website.
- Democratically Run
- At least 70% of the members of that group must publicly concur each six months that the group is run democratically (whether or not they agree with that group’s decisions they must agree the process was done democratically).
- Representation of the community. The trust needs to submit a plan to ensure that over an agreed timeframe, their hub will communicate with a certain number of people of that community and get a certain percentage of the community involved.
- The total number of population of the hub, the number uniquely communicated with and the number signed up need to be visible on the site and that needs bear a good resemblance to what was in the plan.
- Balance
- The items people are voting on as a referendum must contain balance from all sides and not one point of view.
- Each angle must be backed with opposing “expert” scientific, community, financial, economic and cultural SWOT analysis. The site cannot promote only one viewpoint or agenda… ie “one source of truth” and each referendum must allow argument and debate and the seeking of further information.
- Ie Example PRO Referenda
- SWOT
- Scientific
- Community
- Financial
- Economic
- Cultural
- SWOT
- Example AGAINST Referenda
- SWOT
- Scientific
- Community
- Financial
- Economic
- Cultural
- SWOT
- Ie Example PRO Referenda
- Items just for general survey aren’t as rigid, its only referendums that have stricter balance to ensure the community fully understands the details and the options.
- Each angle must be backed with opposing “expert” scientific, community, financial, economic and cultural SWOT analysis. The site cannot promote only one viewpoint or agenda… ie “one source of truth” and each referendum must allow argument and debate and the seeking of further information.
- The items people are voting on as a referendum must contain balance from all sides and not one point of view.
- Legitimate complaints (proven substance) about the hub being undemocratic should not exceed 5% of the population base it covers.
COST:
Hubs pay for a setup fee and then they pay for every 3 months in advance after a trial period.
They may also require support and training for their team or the public, we can help.
Hubs will also incur their own costs relating to uptake including marketing and operations.
COST RECOVERY:
Hubs can recover their costs and obtain operational income by:
- Charging subscription fees
- Donations
- Allowing non conflicting advertising.
- Sub groups within their hub…. Such as Councils, smaller community organisations
