EPICS.eu

EPICS.eu is a concept of positive further development of our democratic society.

The digital core is an open source platform, eventually residing at a supranational level (European/global). It is to be developed and operated jointly, in the public interest and with utmost transparency, and shall enable all citizens to participate directly regarding social issues and developments.

To this end, EPICS.eu seeks to optimally combine the respective strengths of artificial intelligence (e.g. for the elimination of language barriers and the clustering of topics), collective intelligence and expert knowledge. In this way, a multitude of multilingual, diverse citizen contributions can also be made available in a wide variety of contexts.

We use the innovative process ASK to unleash positive social potential that has been largely untapped. This facilitates the finding of joint solutions in a creative and constructive way (e.g., by combining face-to-face and digital options for meeting and exchange of ideas).

Many, if not most, pressing societal, political and environmental challenges of our time can only be solved if as many people as possible become actively involved in the solution finding process - on the local, regional, national and especially the global level. Climate change is just one of many examples.

The results of traditional decision-making procedures in the political realm often come too slow, are too one-sided, not visionary enough or simply lack the necessary complexity to match the complexity of the underlying problem. In addition the already existing tools and possibilities of the digital age are not used efficiently to make good use of our common creative potential.

The feeling of powerlessness in an age of huge challenges and great, but unused, potential leads to more and more frustration among many citizens. Backward looking concepts become increasingly attractive to many people, because a positive, forward looking alternative is lacking. EPICS.eu wants to offer such an alternative.

EPICS.eu is designed to improve the lives of as many people as possible. All elements are supposed to be as barrier-free as possible: handling in general, ID management, language used etc.

Everyone with a minimum of willingness to listen to the ideas of others will not only be able to participate, but has the chance to play a significant role in societal solution-finding processes as well.

For the public there are several possibilities to interact with the platform:

- different sources can make their information on a certain topic available for further considerations

- creative ideas and suggestions are collected, evaluated by ASK and used for decision preparation

- existing solutions to comparable issues can be accessed

- complete solution finding process from beginning to end and implementation is made public in a transparent way 

As an open source platform, EPICS.eu can be replicated and further developed by a broad community. Local solutions can be used and enhanced by other communities. Suitable solutions can be moved freely from one governance level to another. Different locations and settings can be used as experimental spaces for different solutions. EPICS.eu is not limited to Europe; it can be used in other regions, eventually on the global level.

Integration of a digital concept into a larger context: A purely digital platform can only marginally improve social cohesion. EPICS.eu therefore relies not only on innovative technology but also on a flexible but effective connection of the platform to the representative structures of our democracy, a variety of opportunities for people to meet at the local level, and intensive cooperation with traditional media.

Overall social development framework: We seek to intensively involve the general public, especially young people, in the development and advancement of our open source platform (based on http://consulproject.org) in order to ensure the maximum attention and acceptance from the start. In addition, the project explicitly invites all relevant social forces (e.g., politics, administration, science, business and civil society) to participate on a sustainable basis.

Finding solutions via Agile Socio-Konsensing: The collective experience of a collaborative process (based on sociocracy and the systemic consensus principle) leads people to understand each other's perspectives on a topic. Further, this enables technologically supported cooperation that counteracts how society is currently drifting apart, in part due to technology. Even target groups that have not yet been reached by existing citizen participation efforts can be involved step by step in this way.

Use of Artificial Intelligence for a non-profit purpose: EPICS.eu pursues a people-centric vision. AI will be used to bridge language barriers and to cluster semantically equivalent user input. This approach could be exactly the comprehensive AI project with a specific European flavor that many are currently seeking. 

Consideration of science and research: To be successful, participation should and must provide citizens with added value. The latest findings in the following areas (partly from active supporters of EPICS.eu) are important for inclusion in the implementation: experience from participation research and democracy development; gamification, incentives for motivation; and research in reputation and (self-) efficacy.

Almost all the necessary technologies are already available. Putting those pieces together in a sophisticated, meaningful new way, is what makes EPICS.eu an innovative solution: the combination of online and offline tools and methods, the intertwining of collective intelligence, artificial intelligence and expert knowledge, the establishment of new channels of constructive exchange for citizens, public authorities, the scientific community, and even corporations.

EPICS.eu is a subsidiarity-based approach and interconnected by design and can be deployed on local, regional, national or transnational levels. It unlocks otherwise untapped societal potential by activating citizens and making manifold perspectives available in a constructive and creative way. All societal sectors are intended to use and refine EPICS.eu collaboratively, so that win-win constellations among various stakeholders (authorities, NGOs, companies, universities, citizens, …) are generated.

The basis of the digital platform we are currently using is an open source project for citizen participation: http://consulproject.org.

It is not a blockchain-based approach so far, but we are looking at ways to change that. An interesting new open source blockchain protocol we would like to use is called KILT: https://kilt.io/.

Our decision-making module will not be based on a majority-voting algorithm, we would like to use an innovative solution called ASK (Agile Socio-Konsensing) based on sociocracy and the systemic consensus principle (similar to https://acceptify.at).

We have not yet decided how to incorporate the AI functionality. It is supposed to eliminate language barriers and to help cluster topics.

EPICS.eu is a hybrid solution, a bridge between the digital and the analog world. This is necessary to start a process we normally call "the co-evolution of attitude and acting".

People come together and interact with each other, in a constructive and creative environment. They start to act collaboratively and to adopt an increasingly positive attidude. This will lead to more positive action, leading to an even more positive attidude and so on.

This is not just wishful thinking at all. A lot of practical examples from the past few years can be found here: https://www.involve.org.uk/resources/case-studies

In addition the citizens will have a direct impact on the further development of EPICS.eu. People can make their voices heard in two different ways. By using the platform and by improving it further iteratively.

Our current prototype is only able to serve 50-100 participants. In one year we hope to be able to serve up to 10,000. In 5 years we hope to serve at least 10% of the European population, i.e. up to 50,000,000 participants.

1 year

Develop the initial prototype further to incorporate as many key features of the concept as possible, especially the AI and ASK components. Use the pilot projects to iteratively enhance the model again and again. Increase the platform capacity from several hundred to thousands of users.

Raise public awareness on a European/global scale. Secure financing from diverse sources, but remain independent and in the public domain nevertheless. Find active supporters from all layers of society in as many countries as possible.

Improve the intertwining mechanisms for the online and offline components. Initiate increasingly profound research in the area of innovative collaborative decision-making processes. Activate as many citizens as possible, especially young people.

5 years

Give millions of people across Europe/the world direct and meaningful access to many, if not most, public decision-making processes. Actively taking part in the shaping of our common future is universal practice in our society.

The platform and the methods are continuously being enhanced, although they have already reached a highly sophisticated level. A huge and active EPICS.eu open source community has been established; the modular design of the platform makes it possible to continuously expand its functionality further. With the help of EPICS.eu many of the divisions existing today can be diminished, and geographic and cultural barriers reduced. A vivid and open exchange of ideas across all kinds of borders is underway. The vision of a more and more collaborative and creative society for the benefit of all people is approaching fulfillment.

The financing and the organization of social support within the necessary framework pose great challenges.

We need to raise much more public awareness for our approach on a European/global scale - the project´s fundamental characteristic is its inclusiveness - not only in a geographical sense but in a societal sense as well, it is designed to overcome political and social boundaries alike.

The more governments, organizations, initiatives and citizens that take active part in the further development of EPICS.eu in combined online/offline environments the better.

We aspire to build a comprehensive and innovative solution for citizen participation on a European/global level by using innovative participatory processes and applying state-of-the-art research and technology.

We therefore need intense scientific research support, AI and usability experts.

Mainly by networking, going public wherever possible, developing the solution as far as possible - even without significant financial and/or scientific support.

Munich, our main base of operation at the moment, will introduce a new citizen participation platform next year. We hope to use this opportunity as extensively as possible. We are in contact with the city administration and are coordinators of a working group for the preparation of the platform.

We have a core team of 5 people. Just one of them (me) is working almost full-time on EPICS.eu, the others as often as possible. It is a network of pro bono contributors (to date) basically.

We have several years of experience in the citizen participation area. We were able to reach the final of the best 14 solutions (out of 3000) of the global New Shape Prize competition of the Global Challenges Foundation in 2018 (https://globalchallenges.org/our-work/the-new-shape-prize/finalists/global-governance-by-cooperative-communities).

We are motivated, creative, resilient and well connected. We have a great mix of contributors, young and old, female and male. All of us have an open mind and a open heart.

Our main partner is "denkzentrum|demokratie". It is an independent non-profit think tank based in the German cities of Berlin, Munich and Münster and focusing on the future of democracy.

Their major goal is to stabilize and revitalize democracy via innovations and the development of democracy´s hidden potentials. They concentrate on aspects of the evolution of political and democratic culture (reinventing political discussions, substantially improving political communication and decision making) and structural reform (new ways of decision making, e.g., citizens’ assemblies drawn by lot, intelligent online/offline processes drawing on the power of collective (emotional) intelligence).

The think tank was founded in 2014 and is carried by the Berlin-based non-profit organization Kommunikative Demokratie e.V. They support a growing number of projects aimed at the renewal and development of democracy, among them EPICS.eu.

They are well connected in the scientific community and help us to make contacts, find funding, get connected, spread the word etc.

EPICS.eu is designed as a non-profit initiative and shall be financed by diversified sources (public/private). It needs to remain independent and in the public domain.

We are currently looking at three different ways to bring in the necessary money: public funding, funding by a foundation, crowdfunding.

In the longer run two additional revenue streams might be possible:

1) offering companies citizen participation results as a service

2) making the users co-owners of the platform

Our main interest for our project would be to raise public awareness for our approach on a European/global scale. The project´s fundamental characteristic is its inclusiveness - not only in a geographical sense but in a societal sense as well, it is designed to overcome political and social boundaries alike.

The more governments, organizations, initiatives and citizens that take active part in the further development of EPICS.eu in combined online/offline environments the better. We aspire to build a comprehensive and innovative solution for citizen participation on a European/global level by using innovative participatory processes and applying state-of-the-art research and technology.

We would like to partner with supranational organisations like the United Nations, the European Union etc.

Citizen participation only makes sense in case it has at least some impact. This needs to be guaranteed by traditional decision-making structures, especially regional and national governments.

We are therefore looking for official partnerships with local, regional, national and supranational administrations. 

EPICS.eu seeks to optimally combine the respective strengths of artificial intelligence (e.g. for the elimination of language barriers and the clustering of topics), collective intelligence and expert knowledge. In this way, a multitude of multilingual, diverse citizen contributions can also be made available in a wide variety of contexts.

The main idea is to pursue a people-centered vision, to develop an AI solution that is build around people and their (societal, emotional) needs.