Roadmap visioning session
Co-Working notes from before: Weekly Co-working on Karrot - 1/5/10 statements
Previous synthesis attempt: Where would you like karrot to be in 1, 5, and 10 years? - HedgeDoc
Introduction
Vasilis:
Karrot is an independent software project embracing open-sourcefullness which diverges from the notion of simply making code accessible and departs from the idea of code being open and the traditional contributors-users distinction who instead closely collaborate in its design and management. Contrary to sharewashing and commonswashing profit-driven platforms, Karrot supports communities contributing to the transforming of the world toward equity and sustainability, facilitating resource-sharing, but also community organising, and governance. Favouring decentralisation, Karrot also allows communities to build their own instances or Karrot sites, granting them control over their digital infrastucture.
influenced by writing phd, and community technology in general
Nathalie:
Was reviewing what I wrote for 1, 5, 10 - looking at the further away things. Two sections:
vision section
- open source + transparency
- collaboration instead of competition
- (from metagov peeps) “from permissions to procedures” - refering to admins and how things are decided in software
- for groups to build their own capacities for tech
- ideological inspirations → commons theory and sociocracy
more tangible things (concrete is not good for environment)
- team
- build capacity
- see money as a common resource
- go in CSA direction
- wellbeing, cohesion, collective structure
- software
- configurable approach
- contrast to admin and hierarchy dominated software
- translating the vision into what it means for the software
- project
- more outreach, being more known
- working on the legal aspects
Daniel
vision
We live in a commons-based world with self-governed groups.
mission
We develop a free and open-source interoperable digital tool used by groups for community-building and for organising.
goals
- We have adapted the platform to the groups’ needs using user-centered design processes.
- We have developed and adopted a Community Supported Software model that provides us with a stable income and that inspires other projects.
The sub-goals could be defined for each goal based on the 1/5/10 plan.
Bruno
word cloud for vision
Vision
(more nouns, adjectives)
governance, community, self-organised, people-empowered, data sovreignty, commons, community, self-managed, open source
Mission
(more verbs)
enable, faciliate, regain skills
Marie
Don’t know karrot very well, discovered it yesterday.
A lot of goals for vision that make sense.
Wondering how to structure not in a hierarchy, how do you reach out, how do you get finances?
Seems to be working well, have a lot of goals, even on developing aspect, how big do you want to get? be spreading even further? is it a goal in itself to have more groups participate?
not to replace other platforms? maybe incorporate them, or work with them?
Butze
Was looking for old yunity vision, back in the day I liked it well.
A society based on self determination, trust and co-operation that allows people to live up their full potential dn to preserve equal systems for all living beings.
Then, asked ChatGPT to suggest 5 visions based on the landing page, vision (Where would you like karrot to be in 1, 5, and 10 years? - HedgeDoc) notes and the old yunity vision statement:
- Empowering Local Initiatives Vision:
“In a decade, Karrot envisions a world where every local community thrives through self-governance and mutual aid. Powered by an open-source platform, we aim to foster autonomy, collaboration, and innovation in grassroots activities, making self-organized, sustainable community engagement the norm rather than the exception.”
- Technology-Driven Community Collaboration Vision:
“Karrot aspires to be the leading open-source tool that bridges technology with community action. By 2034, our platform will support a global network of diverse groups, enhancing their ability to manage resources, share knowledge, and strengthen local economies through advanced, user-driven features and seamless interoperability.”
- Sustainable Societal Transformation Vision:
“Our vision for Karrot is to catalyze a transformation in how communities organize, collaborate, and sustain themselves. Within the next ten years, Karrot will evolve into a comprehensive ecosystem that not only supports grassroots initiatives but actively shapes a society based on trust, cooperation, and ecological sustainability.”
- Inclusive and Transparent Governance Vision:
“By 2034, Karrot will redefine the landscape of community governance through transparency, inclusivity, and participatory democracy. Our platform will empower every community member to contribute to decision-making processes, ensuring that every voice is heard and that every community is equipped to meet its unique challenges.”
- Global Network of Community-Led Innovations Vision:
“Karrot’s vision is to establish a worldwide network of community-led initiatives that harness the power of open-source technology to foster social innovation and democratic engagement. In the next decade, we aim to expand our reach, enabling communities across the globe to share resources, ideas, and solutions, thereby creating a more equitable and connected world.”
is it more empowering local initiatives, more about sustainability, etc… all interconnected.
Nick
started with things for now
economic model came up and economimic reality
what I find unique is that we have broader scope at least from our discussions
how to collaborate with ppl,projects, community
part of the goal was the broader vision for society (dont like the writing of the text ;D)
economic model
economic reality
clear social/political vision
idea of how to collaborate with people/projects/community
getting the roadmap/mission/steps/aims, etc ok, so we know what we work on
work in more specific ways, on outcome-related things
so, a vision of interconnected commons-based organisations/projects that work within an alternative economic system that provides for peoples needs.
there is a well developed understanding of how to produce technology that is accountable to the needs of community, within a non-domination-based way of being in society.
natural ecosystems are the centre of life, with people as part of this, technology is produced in service to life.
the various ecological and social transformation efforts have found ways to collaborate, e.g. bioregionalism, degrowth, commons, justice, municipialism, democracy - patriarchy/white-supremacy/etc… are no longer the main ways of organising.
the needs of most people are provided through these networks.
Butze
I got all notes from the round into ChatGPT again to formulate one vision:
Combining the insights from Daniel, Bruno, Marie, Butze, and Nick, here’s a synthesized vision statement for Karrot that integrates their thoughts and aspirations for the project:
Vision Statement for Karrot:
“Karrot envisions a future where communities globally thrive through commons-based, self-governed ecosystems. By 2034, our open-source platform will be the backbone of diverse, interconnected groups, enabling them to build resilient local economies, manage resources collaboratively, and uphold data sovereignty. Empowering communities with tools for democratic participation and transparent governance, Karrot aims to drive a societal transformation towards sustainability, justice, and cooperation. Our community-supported software model will sustain this vision, inspiring and integrating with other initiatives to form a robust network of self-sufficient, ecological societies that prioritize human and environmental well-being over traditional economic models.”
This vision statement aims to encapsulate the rich set of ideas presented by the Karrot team members, addressing their collective aspirations for community empowerment, technological innovation, sustainable societal change, and a profound commitment to ecological and social transformation.
Jay
Mission
Using technology to empower community building for the social good based on common, agreed upon values of democracy, inclusion, respect and compassionate care.
Vision
To cultivate a global network where individuals harness the power of technology to co-create interconnected communities that thrive on mutual understanding, solidarity, and collective action
Values
- Sustainability
- Inclusivity
- Collaboration
- Transparency
- Empowerment
- Compassionate Care
Reactions
Bruno:
-
sips tea
- everything is pretty much aligned
- like the short ones, liked daniels a lot, quite condensed
- could have short and longer versions of it
- thinking about communication outward to general public, where a short version is useful
- in terms of reactions… next steps…
- chatgpt reaction - pretty good at synthesiing/summarising stuff that we wrote, maybe worth considering using as a base and editing, although didn’t go so much into the content of it
- not in the bed headspace for the content detail
- anything more edgey? not really
- should we be a bit more specific in the vision (placing ourselves/karrot), or really broad sweeps… (problem with the world, etc…) maybe a combination of both
Marie:
- find everyones contirbution interesting, understanding better how it works
- thinking about how much it can be integrated into something bigger than software
- like the word cloud, shorter and easier to find the key ideas, thinking of mindmap showing relation between the elements, could give something visual, rather than a wall of text
- everybody seems to agree but with some different insights, so interesting
Nick:
- Similar visions (not surprising and nice to see)
- This occasion is a nice way to agree upon common decisions and make them more concrete
- uncertain about how wide of a context to include in the scope of our vision
- interconnection of projects building our ideal society: what is their relationship?
- Various forms of expressions (text, visualisation, …) when thinking about our vision are all appreciated
Vas
- A lot of commonalities
- what’s the audience of our vision?
- communities using Karrots
- collaborators (other projects/institutions/…)
- funders
- changing wording based on audience or not?
- maybe one paragraph is enough
- Worth exploring whether we are just a software projects (design is also important and dictates its usage)
- missing in the vision: how to deal with gaps karrot fills, it’s comparative advantage
- making communities takes time and effort: not to be romanticised
- how sociocracy comes into play: soft spot between hard coding our vision and allowing communities to operate with less sociocratic structures
- is our purpose to serve comunities or influence them? Both to some extent: balance to be found
Jay:
- vasilis covered a lot of the ideas
- finding a balance between empowering communityies to work in the way that suits them vs influencing them based on our values
- don’t want to push communities away if they find it too restrictive
- but don’t want to give them full freedom if it goes against our values
- could ask ourselves to go over the list of values and think if those values are vital, and see how those values could be transformed into features, to enforce those values
- really like our way of working, trying to include the users in the creation of mission/vision/values, could be a small group deciding society, but maybe they want to add values, like connection with users
- should do more connection with users, getting in touch with users who are most active and try to include them more in our design processes
Nathalie:
- don’t have so much coming up
- heard a lot of alignment
- like to include some more internal things, e.g. decision making, every time you object it should be in terms of how it would harm our goals, so difficult to do that now
- would like to include the team bit, how we envisage our collaboration
- sometimes was too quick to understanding a meaning of sentence, especially with sophiticated long sentences, so thinking about the language we want to use
- … but to consent I really want to understand what is meant, would pay a lot of attention to final sentences
- that’s it
Daniel:
- also see a lot of common ground in texts and reactions
- we talked about the problems before, but nobody spoke about the problems, but seems important to mention them somewhere, at least the main ones
- and also the values which are important, maybe finding those first before the vision
- watch our for analysis paralaysis, can always improve them and make it perfect, but takes a lot of time, which can be used to actually go in that direction
- hope there will be a clear process which brings us forward as a next step
Next steps
Now, moving to “decide/output” stage of process. We thought a vision doc, but to make it more specific, creating 3 things:
- “the broader context of karrot” - (wall of) text (~1/2 page) - Marie draft, Bruno reads
- a visual representation - word cloud? - Nathalie
- shorter vision and goals in text form - Jay
Could be on one page, starting with shorter parts.
Process around values on future agenda
