Current Known Efforts In Australia Regarding Democracy Related Organisations

Australia
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In no particular order these are known so far to us:

Designing Open Democracy

ABC Australia Vote Compass

Vote Compass is a tool developed by political scientists for exploring how your views align with those of the candidates

Flux

wikipedia - Flux is a political movement which aims to replace the world’s elected legislatures with a new system known as issue-based direct democracy (IBDD).

MiVote

https://mivote.org.au/

App and voting on policy goals/destinations, Issue based, information provided, policy goals vetted via ethics and internal approval.

wikipedia - does not yet exist

newDemocracy

@newdemocracyAUS

NewDemocracy is an independent, non-partisan research and development organisation. We aim to discover, develop, demonstrate, and disseminate complementary alternatives which will restore trust in public decision making. We conduct real world trials using random selection and deliberation - the jury model - as a central process.

Online Direct Democracy

https://www.onlinedirectdemocracy.org/

Direct Democracy based voting reform party

Electoral Royal Commission

Promoting a commission to investigate voting reform options. Started by Pirate Party Australia. (Their discussion forum here)

Referendum Council

???

We Are Future Gov

Not too sure, but they seem to be a service that governments can pay for that focus on accessibility of governmental services.

The Australian arm of the international Open Government Partnership

https://ogpau.pmc.gov.au/

Australia’s first Open Government National Action Plan 2016-18 comprises 15 ambitious commitments that promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.

Accountability Round Table

The Accountability Round Table is a non-partisan group of citizens with diverse backgrounds (academics, lawyers, politicians, journalists, authors) who are concerned with the current erosion of honesty and integrity in our democracy. The Accountability Round Table is dedicated to improving standards of accountability, probity, transparency and democratic practice in all governments and parliaments in Australia.

Open and Shut

This blog takes an interest in issues associated with Freedom of Information (FOI) and privacy legislation in Australia.

They vote for you

  • Collate information about current politicians and how they vote.

They Vote For You was built by the OpenAustralia Foundation, an independent, non-partisan not-for-profit. It is based on the ground-breaking UK Public Whip site originally created by Francis Irving and Julian Todd in 2003. We owe Julian and Francis a massive debt of gratitude for everything they’ve done.

Open Australia

OpenAustralia.org is a non-partisan website run by a charity, the OpenAustralia Foundation and volunteers. It aims to make it easy for people to keep tabs on their representatives in Parliament.

Open Australia Foundation

The OpenAustralia Foundation is a pioneering charity whose vision is to transform democracy in Australia. Our mission is to give all Australians the tools they need to effect the change they want.
We currently do this through our five websites theyvoteforyou.org.au, RightToKnow.org.au, OpenAustralia.org, PlanningAlerts.org.au and ElectionLeaflets.org.au.

Susan McKinnon Foundation

We are a non-partisan organisation committed to working with all sides of politics to find common ground and practical pathways to solve some of Australia’s major challenges.

NewVote

https://www.newvote.org.au/about-us/

Our purpose is to enhance and celebrate democracy.

That’s why we’ve created a digital participation platform (essentially, an app). The app is:

  • a dedicated public record of every political issue, goal and solution facing Australia.
  • a source of balanced information - a wiki for Australian good governance
  • a tool to co-create policy and be part of the decision making process.
  • a channel to communicate with our representatives

People Decide

http://www.peopledecide.org.au

People Decide (PD) is a participatory democracy online voting platform and political party of independents to enable you to vote on, create and contribute to national laws and local government decisions in Australia.

Potential Categories:

  • Direct Democracy - Interventions
  • Liquid Democracy - Interventions
  • Deliberative Democracy - Interventions
  • Citizen Juries
  • Representative

Spreadsheet

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You appear to understand opening democracy as being largely based in citizen organisations which are advocating for better representation and a ‘voice’. However there are other ways too of understanding the problem.
While supporting the above I am also involved in Accountability Round Table which advocates for a more open, ethical and transparent government (and public service).
Once you include these organisations, there are lots which should be added to your list.
The Australian arm of the international Open Government Partnership https://ogpau.pmc.gov.au/
Accountability Round Table http://accountabilityrt.org
Open and Shut http://foi-privacy.blogspot.com.br/?m=1
They vote for you https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/about
Open Australia http://www.openaustralia.org.au/

There are others which I will look up when I am not typing in this annoyingly small mobile interface. This is a start.

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Thanks, I’ve updated it up. So if I understand correctly my initial list contains organisation seeking reform to government structure, while yours is about improving the accountability and trustworthiness of the government?

Should they be considered separate categories?

Also I updated the above list with your suggestion.

Oh btw for other site owners, to make the link preview pop up in the above list, you may want to add these metadata to your <head> section

  <meta property="og:title" content="Designing Open Democracy">
  <meta property="og:type" content="website">
  <meta property="og:url" content="http://designingopendemocracy.com">
  <meta property="og:description" content="This is a group for any tech professionals or political experts (or ordinary citizens) interested in discussing in a detailed way the potential opportunities for reforming existing democratic institutions; from local organisations to national governments around the world through technology or other practices. Our aim is to improve democracy: we think this can best be done by providing a forum for discussing democracy proposals, ideas, and to foster collaboration between people who would like to participate in democracy reform.">
  <meta property="og:image" content="http://designingopendemocracy.com/img/dodlogo.png">
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https://www.newvote.org.au/about-us/

http://www.peopledecide.org.au

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In the US, United.Vote has a working, though new/sparse, Liquid Democracy site. They’d probably be happy to share their software- it’s a non-profit. Plus they have a way to introduce it that’s intriguing to new candidates yet compatible with the current system, that is, no new laws need to be passed…

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