Loomio is

decision-making software Decision-making software (DM software) is software for computer applications that help individuals and organisations make choices and take decisions, typically by ranking, prioritizing or choosing from a number of options. An early example of DM s ...

and web service designed to assist groups with collaborative, consensus-focused decision-making processes. It is a

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

web application, where users can initiate discussions and put up proposals. As the discussions progress to initiating a proposal, the group receives feedback through an updatable

pie chart A pie chart (or a circle chart) is a circular Statistical graphics, statistical graphic which is divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportion. In a pie chart, the arc length of each slice (and consequently its central angle and area) ...

or other data visualizations. Loomio is basically a web based forum (has optional email delivery interface) with tools to facilitate conversations and decision making processes from starting and holding conversations to reaching outcome. Loomio was built by a small core group of developers, based out of

Wellington, New Zealand Wellington is Capital of New Zealand, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the List of cities in New Zealand, third-largest city ...

. Most of the work was made by this core group but more than 70 contributors from around the world participated occasionally with small contribution. In 2014, Loomio raised over $100,000 via a

Crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

effort to develop Loomio 1.0. The Loomio web interface supports mobile access and other enhancements. As of 2016, Loomio was used in more than 100 countries, with the software being translated into 35 languages.

History

Loomio emerged from the

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...

. In 2012, it launched its first prototype. It was utilized in the Occupy movement in New Zealand. After using the first prototype in this, the team behind Loomio felt that it would be easier to give everyone a voice with an online software, leading to the launch of Loomio 1.0. Since the launch of Loomio 1.0, Loomio has stopped using occupy hand-signals in the interface. It has since been developed into a social enterprise as Loomio Cooperative Limited. and linked to the popular trend of "

platform cooperativism Platform may refer to: Arts * Platform, an arts centre at The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow * ''Platform'' (1993 film), a 1993 Bollywood action film * ''Platform'' (2000 film), a 2000 film by Jia Zhangke * '' The Platform'' (2019 film) * Pla ...

" and targeting also mainstream markets.

Operation

The top-level organizational structure in Loomio is the ''group''. A group is made up of members, who are granted permission to that group. Groups can be both public and private, permitting for both privacy and transparency. Within the groups, members create discussions on specific topics. During a discussion, members of the group post comments and create proposals. Proposals solicit feedback from members on a specific proposition. Members can either agree, disagree, abstain, or block. Blocking is essentially a strong form of disagreement.

Funding

Loomio is funded through contracts with government and business, and donations from its users.

Reception

Loomio has been used by the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Wellington, the country's capital city and List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, third-largest city by popul ...

for discussion with their citizens. Th
Pirate Party of Hellas
used Loomio to create 461 groups, covering 18 federal departments, 13 regions of Greece, 23 prefectures, and hundreds of counties and municipalities. The Internet Party of New Zealand also used Loomio to develop policy during the campaign for the 2014 General Election. E
Partido Pirata de Chile
has also adopted Loomio through their own fork called ''Lumio'', offering a slightly different translation into Spanish for the voting options aiming at both remarking the importance of consensus and improving language style by using verbs in the first person singular (''Concuerdo'', ''Discrepo,'' ''Me abstengo'' y ''Solicito Reformular''). Additionally, the PPCL has promoted the use of Lumio in different areas of political discussion and group coordination inside and outside the Party. Loomio won the MIX Prize Digital Freedom Challenge in April 2014.

Product Overview

EU specific

Loomio has committed to address the needs and regulations of the EU market. In 2018 the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect and Loomio confirmed that it is GDPR compliant. In 2019 Loomio started planning a Loomio.eu service to use EU based hosting in response to requests from EU users.

Integrations

Recent versions include more features of integration with other software. It is possible to connect Loomio group notifications to Slack, Microsoft Teams and Mattermost. It is also possible to add a Single Sign On (SSO) using central authentication provider like Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

Prominent Projects using Loomio

Prominent projects that have used Loomio for collaborative work based on democratic process: * 2013: Diaspora* * 2014:

Real democracy Real Democracy (, , PDR) was a political party in Aruba. Election history The party was founded by Andin Bikker on 20 August 2004. In the 2005 elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population choose ...

* 2015:

Podemos (Spanish political party) Podemos (, ) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left Political parties in Spain, political party in Spain. Founded in January 2014 by the political scientist Pablo Iglesias Turrión as part of the anti-austerity moveme ...

* 2016:

Students for Cooperation Students for Cooperation (SFC) is a co-operative federation of students in the UK. As a secondary co-op, the organization is owned and controlled by its constituent member co-operatives. The membership includes twenty four food co-ops, four h ...

* 2020:

The Apache Software Foundation The Apache Software Foundation ( ; ASF) is an American nonprofit corporation (classified as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States) to support a number of open-source software projects. The ASF was formed from a group of developers of the A ...

as of early 2020 * 2020:

Consultative Council (Poland) The Consultative Council () is a non-government representative body created in November 2020 by the All-Poland Women's Strike (, OSK) in the context of the October 2020 Polish protests. The Council incorporates public participation as a mechanism ...

* 2020:

Pirate Party of Belgium Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

Research projects using Loomio

* 2018: Wild DNA * 2019: Genomics Research and Involving People * 2022: Core Outcome Measures for Improving Care (COM-IC) project

References

External links

* * {{github, loomio/loomio
Free Software Directory entry
Decision-making software Social enterprises Software using the GNU Affero General Public License Software companies of New Zealand 2012 software Cooperatives in New Zealand Free software programmed in Ruby Free software programmed in JavaScript