Decidim Blog

Nos infrastructures démocratiques ne peuvent pas être propriétaires : à propos de l'acquisition d'Open Source Politics

2026-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

La semaine dernière, la société Open Source Politics (OSP) a annoncé publiquement son rachat par Go Vocal. Cette situation résulte des difficultés financières auxquelles l'entreprise française a été confrontée ces dernières années.

Tout d’abord, nous tenons à remercier OSP pour son travail et pour la contribution significative qu’elle a apportée à la communauté Decidim au cours des dix dernières années. En tant que l’un des premiers partenaires internationaux à avoir rejoint le projet et à avoir diffusé Decidim à travers la France et au-delà, vous faites partie de l’histoire collective de Decidim.

Deuxièmement, nous souhaitons nous adresser à toutes les organisations clientes d’OSP : nous tenons à vous offrir notre aide et notre soutien en cette période critique. L’Association Decidim se tient à votre disposition pour vous accompagner dans cette transition. L’écosystème des prestataires de services Decidim est solide, et diverses options s’offrent à vous pour maintenir vos plateformes. Nous sommes à votre disposition pour vous aider par e-mail à l’adresse hola@decidim.org.

Nous tenons à exprimer notre inquiétude concernant la décision d’OSP d’abandonner les principes de transparence et d’ouverture inhérents aux logiciels libres et open source (FLOSS). Il est important de préciser que Go Vocal est un logiciel propriétaire et fermé ; il n’est même pas de type « Open Core », comme cela a été prétendu un temps. Le dépôt public contenant le code source n’a pas été mis à jour ni maintenu depuis des années. De plus, il n’est pas possible d’installer Go Vocal sur votre machine, ce qui va à l’encontre d’un principe fondamental de l’open source : la transparence, la responsabilité ouverte et la confiance démocratique. Cela montre qu’après avoir tenté de se présenter publiquement comme un logiciel libre (« open-washing »), Go Vocal a finalement décidé de s’engager dans la voie d’un logiciel fermé et propriétaire, comme on peut le lire dans le fichier README de son dépôt officiel. Malheureusement, nous nous voyons contraints de dénoncer ces pratiques d’« open-washing », qui causent un préjudice considérable à l’écosystème des logiciels libres (FLOSS), qui œuvre depuis des années en faveur de la transparence et du développement démocratique des logiciels.

Opter pour Go Vocal revient à enfermer votre organisation dans un régime de dépendance vis-à-vis d’un fournisseur, laissant votre infrastructure numérique pour la démocratie entre les mains d’une seule entreprise, sans la transparence nécessaire envers les citoyens. Passer d’une infrastructure logicielle libre et open source, transparente et gérée démocratiquement, à une infrastructure d’entreprise fermée et opaque, n’est pas simplement un changement de fournisseur de logiciels. Cela a de profondes conséquences politiques, éthiques et juridiques. C’est un peu comme si l’on transférait l’organisation des élections démocratiques d’une organisation publique et ouverte à une société privée. Les citoyens qui avaient accepté de confier leur vie privée et leurs droits démocratiques à des plateformes ouvertes et vérifiables n’ont pas donné leur accord pour qu’une société privée gère leurs droits.

Chez Decidim, nous pensons que les infrastructures de démocratie participative doivent être développées de manière transparente, ouverte et démocratique. Les principes de transparence, de participation et d’ouverture que nous exigeons des parlements et des gouvernements doivent s’appliquer de la même manière au développement technologique. L’argent public doit être investi dans du code public.

L’exercice de la souveraineté technologique est un principe actif, fondé sur la capacité réelle de contrôler la technologie que l’on utilise et de ne pas être à la merci des entreprises privées. Il est extrêmement risqué de confier l'infrastructure numérique démocratique à des projets technologiques motivés par la maximisation du profit économique.

Les logiciels libres constituent un élément clé pour construire des sociétés plus démocratiques et plus justes.

Si votre organisation est cliente d'Open Source Politics, n’hésitez pas à contacter l'Association Decidim par e-mail à l'adresse suivante : hola@decidim.org.

[english]

Democratic infrastructure cannot be proprietary: A statement on Open Source Politics' acquisition

Last week, it was publicly announced that Open Source Politics (OSP) has been acquired by Go Vocal. This situation has arisen due to the financial difficulties the French company has faced in recent years.

Firstly, we would like to thank OSP for their work and the significant contribution they have made to the Decidim community over the past ten years. As one of the first international partners to join the project and having spread Decidim throughout France and beyond, you are part of Decidim’s collective history.

Secondly, we would like to address all organisations that are clients of OSP: we want to offer you our help and support at this critical moment. The Decidim Association is at your disposal to assist you with this transition. The ecosystem of Decidim service providers is strong, and there are various options available to continue providing support. We are available to assist you via email at hola@decidim.org.

Having said that, we wish to express our concern regarding OSP’s decision to abandon the principles of transparency and openness inherent in free/libre open-source software (FLOSS). It is important to clarify that Go Vocal is proprietary-closed software; it is not even Open Core, as they once tried to claim. The public repository containing the open source code has not been updated or maintained for years. Furthermore, it is not possible to install Go Vocal on your own machine, a basic principle of open source, transparency, open accountability and democratic trust. All of this shows that, following an attempt at ‘open-washing’ to position itself publicly as open-source software, Go Vocal has ultimately decided to commit to being closed and proprietary software, as can be read in the README file of its official repository. Unfortunately, we are compelled to denounce these open-washing practices, which cause significant harm to the FLOSS software ecosystem, which has been working for years towards transparency and the democratic development of software.

Opting for Go Vocal means transferring your organisation into a vendor lock-in regime, leaving your digital infrastructure for democracy in the hands of a single private company, without due transparency for citizens. Changing from a free and open-source, transparent and democratically governed software infrastructure to a corporate closed-source, opaque one, is not simply a software provider change. It bears deep political, ethical and legal consequences, not unlike moving the organisation of democratic elections from public and open organisation to a private corporation. Citizens that once agreed to put their privacy and democratic rights in the hands of an open, auditable platform did not sign up for a private corporation controlling their rights.

At Decidim, we believe that participatory democratic infrastructures must be developed in a transparent, open and democratic manner. The principles of transparency, participation, and openness that we demand of parliaments and governments must be equally applied to the development of technology. Public money should be invested in Public Code.

The exercise of technological sovereignty is an active principle, based on the real ability to control the technology you use and not be at the mercy of private corporations. For this reason, it is a huge risk to place the digital infrastructure for democracy in the hands of technology projects driven by the maximisation of economic profit.

Free software is a key element in building more democratic and egalitarian societies.

If your organisation is a client of Open Source Politics and you require support at this time, please contact the Decidim Association by email at: hola@decidim.org.

Case Study: Participatory Budget 2020-2023 in Barcelona

2026-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

The first participatory budgets in the city, or how to promote democratic transparency and citizen empowerment

Link to Decidim Barcelona platform: https://www.decidim.barcelona/processes/PressupostosParticipatius

🗳️ Type of process

Participatory Budgeting

📊 Results

Budget allocated: €30 million
Proposals submitted: 1,982
Technically validated: 823
Prioritised: 204
Selected for implementation: 76
Total participants: 64,571 (52,601 online, 11,970 in person)

The pandemic accelerated digitalisation: most of the 64,571 participants did so online, compared to 11,970 in person.

🏙️ Target public

Barcelona citizens aged 14 and over.

🧩 Components used

Proposals
Pages
Follow-up
Meetings
Participatory Budgets

What you need to know

Is it possible for neighbors to decide which projects they want to promote in their neighborhoods?

Barcelona’s 2020 participatory budgeting allowed city residents to decide how part of the municipal budget would be spent. The City Council made €30 million available to fund the most voted neighborhood proposals from each district. The goal was to empower citizens in decision-making about the city, fostering direct democracy, transparency, and stronger ties between citizens and the institution.

The process began before the pandemic, but the health crisis presented an additional challenge, requiring adaptation to restrictions while also encouraging online interaction between residents and the government, further promoting citizen empowerment.

Some of the most popular proposals that were implemented included calming streets with green spaces designed for pedestrians in different neighborhoods across the city. Another success story was the renovation of the Campany sports field, where the infrastructure of Barcelona’s only cricket ground was improved thanks to a proposal put forward by a group of young women passionate about the sport.

Participatory process design

The phases were structured into a process that lasted about a year and a half, activating different components and functionalities of Decidim at each stage:

Phase 1: Debate and proposal submission (1,982 proposals):

Citizens submitted investment projects for their local areas, specifying the necessary budget in each case.

Components used:

Pages: The initial phase used the Pages component to centralize all relevant information, including the process guidelines, technical criteria, district budgets, the timeline, and support channels.
Proposals: The Proposals component allowed participants to create and publish proposals with a title, description, location, and estimated budget. Comments were also enabled so that other users could contribute and collectively improve the proposals, encouraging open debate and co-creation.
Meetings: During the first phase, the Meetings component was used to announce support points and debate/co-creation sessions across the city’s neighborhoods.

Phase 2: Technical evaluation to verify feasibility (823 viable projects):

A municipal technical team reviewed the legal, technical, and economic feasibility of each proposal, in line with the participatory process regulations that defined the rules of participation.

Components used:

Proposals: In this phase, the same Proposals component was managed by the administration to label each proposal as either “Accepted” or “Rejected,” with a public justification. The work carried out by the City Council team—responding to each proposal one by one—made it possible to understand the reasons for the feasibility or rejection of each project.

Phase 3: Collection of supports and project prioritization (204 projects prioritized):

Citizens gave their support to the validated proposals they considered most important.

Components used:

Proposals: The accepted proposals were exported to a new Proposals component, where the support feature was activated for prioritization. Each participant could support up to 10 projects, with a minimum of 2, to ensure that prioritization was fair and representative. Out of the initial 823 proposals, 204 were prioritized.

Phase 4: Specification with municipal technicians:

The prioritized proposals were developed into detailed projects with a defined budget.

Components used:

Meetings: Both in-person and online workshops were organized, where proposal authors and City Council technical staff finalized the project details, including costs and other technical specifications.

Final vote on concrete proposals (76 selected):

Citizens participated in the final vote to decide which projects would be implemented.

Components used:

Budgeting: The final selection was carried out using the Budgets component, which allowed each participant to choose projects until the budget allocated to their district was exhausted. The interface displayed the remaining budget in real time, encouraging informed decision-making. Citizens could vote in two districts: their own and another of their choice. To guarantee the security of the vote, participants were verified against the municipal census.
Meetings: In-person support points were set up for the final vote. At these points, municipal staff assisted citizens who wanted to vote, ensuring that people with difficulties using the platform could still participate without issue.

Phase 6: Communication of results, execution, and monitoring via follow-up committees

Monitoring and updating the implementation status of the approved projects.

Components used:

Follow-up: Once approved, the projects were transferred to the Monitoring component, which provides an updated status (“In preparation,” “In execution,” “Completed”) and allows periodic updates to be published.
Meetings: Follow-up committees were convened with participation from project proposers and municipal officials to track the execution of the projects.
Survey: At the end of the process, an evaluation survey was sent to all participants.

This combination of components ensured that the process was transparent, participatory, accessible, and traceable from start to finish.

Applying hybridization: combining in-person and digital approaches

The process implemented a hybrid model for meetings with citizens, neighborhood councils, and various debate, information, and entity sessions. This approach facilitated participation and inclusion of all participants and allowed adaptation during the COVID-19 health emergency.

The meetings for Barcelona’s Participatory Budgets were open spaces where residents, local organizations, and specific groups such as young people or children could gather to learn about the process, discuss neighborhood needs, and generate concrete investment proposals. These sessions, facilitated with technical support from the City Council, addressed a wide range of topics, including the improvement of public spaces, green areas, local facilities, accessibility, and youth amenities, always with the goal of identifying investments that could have the greatest impact on people’s daily lives.

Innovations

In-person support points for voting: During both voting periods, voting was only possible through the Decidim.Barcelona platform. To ensure that all residents of the city could exercise their right to vote—especially older adults and others who might have difficulty accessing a web platform—in-person support points were set up. These were located in municipal facilities, where technical staff assisted residents in completing the voting process on the Decidim platform.
Participation without registration in the final vote: Barcelona developed an ephemeral participation module, which allowed residents to vote without creating an account. This enabled direct verification and access to the vote. This innovation simplified the voting process, as creating an account could have been an unnecessary obstacle for many residents.

Impact

These participatory budgets are now part of the city’s history and are here to stay. The combination of an open-source platform like Decidim with inclusive methodologies has made it possible to reach diverse groups, improve institutional transparency, and generate a sense of shared responsibility in managing public resources.

Beyond the numbers, the most valuable impact has been the real transformation of the territory and the promotion of citizen empowerment. A paradigmatic example is the cricket project led by young women: a group of mostly migrant-origin youth who proposed and secured funding to build the first municipal women’s cricket field in Montjuïc.

This project not only created a new sports facility but has also become a symbol of inclusion, visibility, and equal opportunity. Thanks to the participatory process and the tools provided by Decidim, these young women were able to turn a community need into a tangible reality, inspiring other groups to get involved and demonstrating that citizen participation can truly change lives.

Testimonials

TV3 (National TV piece): https://www.3cat.cat/3cat/una-historia-dempoderament-femeni-a-les-del-criquet/noticia/3280178/
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/23/howzat-football-mad-barcelona-votes-to-build-cricket-oval

Decidim arrives in Mozambique

2026-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Llegeix el post en català

Lee el post en castellano

A delegation from Decidim and Pokecode visited Mozambique last week as part of a project by the Catalan Cooperation Agency to advise on the rollout of the Decidim platform in the country.

The Dialogo Nacional Inclusivo

The Mozambican government is promoting the Dialogo Nacional Inclusivo, a public consultation process to allow citizens to give their opinion on a set of constitutional and government system reforms.

This participatory process comes after the last elections, which were followed by a wave of protests against corruption in the Mozambican state. The president has promoted the launch of the so-called Dialogo Nacional Inclusivo with the aim of promoting peace, stability, justice and social inclusion. As part of this process, the Cidadao Participa platform, a web platform for citizen participation, will be deployed.

The deployment of the platform is led by three civil society organisations: the Multiparty Democratic Institute (IMD), the MASC Foundation and the University of Mozambique's IT Centre (CIUEM). The platform will be publicly launched in early April.

The cooperation project

In this context, the Catalan Cooperation Agency contacted us to help deploy the Cidadao Participa platform using Decidim technology. Our role in the project is to support the teams involved in two areas:

Platform design and management: We have supported the IMD and MASC Foundation teams in co-designing the Cidadao Participa platform and have conducted a series of training sessions to teach them how to manage participatory processes in Decidim.
Web development and technical maintenance: The Pokecode team has provided training on installation, web development and technical maintenance to the CIUEM team.

The ultimate goal of these training sessions is to ensure the transfer of knowledge and skills to the organisations responsible for the project in Mozambique. This promotes the autonomy of the organisations involved so that they can be independent in the management and maintenance of the Cidadao Participa platform.

This project has been rolled out in line with our international cooperation model, based on three principles:

Promoting technological sovereignty: The platform will be hosted on CIUEM servers, and they will learn how to manage and maintain the platform.
Transfer of knowledge and skills: The training provided ensures that Mozambican teams will be able to manage the platform independently. In the future, they will even be able to implement other participatory processes using this knowledge.
Creating local ecosystems: The consortium created is a seed for the creation of a local ecosystem of organizations that can work to promote participatory democracy and free software in the country, creating new oportunities for future collaborations and projects.

Cidadão Participa

The platform will be the space through which citizen contributions will be received and aggregated around the ten reform proposals that the government wants to discuss.

The discussion of each reform proposal is organised around an initial reform text and three questions to encourage debate. Citizens will be able to write their comments on the platform or via a WhatsApp chatbot.

After the public debate phase, the teams will be responsible for summarising and aggregating citizens' comments. These will be sent to the Working Groups, which are responsible for drafting the final proposals to be sent for legislative processing and final approval by the President of the Republic.

The platform will also serve as a space for monitoring and transparency, allowing citizens to find out the status of each proposal, the modifications it is undergoing and how it is progressing through the different stages of legislative approval and discussion.

Project challenges

This project presents a number of challenges due to the political context in which it is being developed and the digital divide that exists in Mozambican society.

To respond to these challenges, we have worked together with Mozambican organisations to co-design a digital participation platform that is adapted to their local reality.

WhatsApp Chatbot

The digital divide, reflected in particular in low levels of connectivity and difficulty in accessing the internet, poses a major challenge when implementing a digital participation platform. To respond to this challenge, we decided to develop a WhatsApp Chatbot that would allow participation in the platform directly through WhatsApp.

The advantages of this solution to the digital divide problem are:

Participation without registration: It is not necessary to register on the platform, as many people do not have email, which would have created another barrier.
Participation in just a few clicks: Proposals for discussion are presented on WhatsApp, and participants can write a comment and send it in just four steps.
WhatsApp is a service that telephone companies offer free of charge in Mozambique, even when people run out of mobile data. This facilitates the participation of people with fewer resources and less access to the internet.
WhatsApp is an interface familiar to most Mozambicans who have a smartphone. This reduces the cognitive load of participating by using an app that is already familiar.

In the chatbot, the reform proposals are presented to the participant, who can then choose which of the ten reform proposals they want to contribute to. After selecting the proposal, they are presented with questions to guide the discussion and can write their comment in the chat. Finally, the comment is sent and published on the Decidim platform. The WhatsApp chatbot module was developed by the PokeCode team and the code can be viewed here: https://github.com/openpoke/decidim-module-chatbot

The visit to Mozambique

During our trip, we were able to present the project to GIZ and European Union representatives in the country. They all recognised the potential of the platform and the challenges that such a project poses in the Mozambican context.

[Català]

Decidim arriba a Moçambic

Una delegació de Decidim i Pokecode va visitar Moçambic la setmana passada com a part d’un projecte de l’Agència Catalana de Cooperació, per assessorar en el desplegament de la plataforma Decidim al país.

El Diàleg Nacional Inclusiu

El govern de Moçambic impulsa el Diàleg Nacional Inclusiu, un procés de consulta pública perquè els ciutadans puguin donar la seva opinió sobre un conjunt de reformes constitucionals i del sistema de govern.

Aquest procés participatiu sorgeix després que, després de les últimes eleccions, al país hi hagués una onada de protestes contra la corrupció a l'estat moçambiquès. El president ha promogut l'inici de l'anomenat Diàleg Nacional Inclusiu amb l'objectiu de promoure la pau, l'estabilitat, la justícia i la inclusió social. Com a part d'aquest procés es va desplegar la plataforma Cidadao Participa, una plataforma web de participació ciutadana basada en Decidim.

El desplegament de la plataforma és liderat per tres organitzacions de la societat civil: l'Institut Multipartidari Democràtic (IMD), la Fundació MASC i el Centre d'Informàtica de la Universitat de Moçambic (CIUEM). La plataforma es llençarà públicament a principis d'abril.

El projecte de cooperació

En aquest context, l'Agència Catalana de Cooperació va contactar amb nosaltres per ajudar al desplegament la plataforma Cidadao Participa usant la tecnologia de Decidim. El nostre rol en el projecte consisteix a acompanyar els equips implicats en dues àrees:

Disseny i gestió de la plataforma: Hem acompanyat els equips de l'IMD i la Fundació MASC per co-dissenyar la plataforma Cidadao Participa i hem realitzat una sèrie de formacions perquè coneguin com administrar processos participatius a Decidim.
Desenvolupament web i manteniment tècnic: L'equip de Pokecode ha realitzat formacions sobre instal·lació, desenvolupament web i manteniment tècnic a l'equip del CIUEM.

L´objectiu final d´aquestes formacions és garantir la transferència de coneixements i capacitats a les organitzacions responsables del projecte a Moçambic. Fomentant així l'autonomia de les organitzacions implicades perquè puguin ser independents en la gestió i el manteniment de la plataforma Cidadao Participa.

Aquest projecte s'ha desplegat seguint el nostre model de cooperació internacional, basat en tres principis:

Fomentar la sobirania tecnològica: La plataforma serà allotjada als servidors del CIUEM i ells aprendran a gestionar i mantenir la plataforma.
Transferència de coneixements i capacitats: Les formacions realitzades asseguren l'autonomia dels equips moçambicans per gestionar la plataforma. I fins i tot en el futur poder implementar altres processos participatius usant aquest coneixement.
La creació d'ecosistemes locals: El consorci creat és una llavor per crear un ecosistema local d'organitzacions que puguin treballar en la promoció de la democràcia participativa i el programari lliure.

Cidadao Participa

La plataforma serà l'espai a través del qual rebre i afegir les contribucions ciutadanes al voltant de les deu propostes de reforma que el Govern vol discutir.

La discussió de cada proposta de reforma s'organitza a partir d'un text inicial de reforma i tres preguntes per animar el debat. La ciutadania podrà escriure els seus comentaris a la plataforma o mitjançant un Chatbot de WhatsApp.

Després de la fase de debat públic, els equips s'encarregaran de sintetitzar i afegir els comentaris de la ciutadania. Aquests seran enviats als Grups de Treball, encarregats de redactar les propostes finals que s'enviessin per a la seva tramitació legislativa i aprovació final pel president de la República.

La plataforma servirà també com un espai de seguiment i transparència que permetrà a la ciutadania conèixer l‟estat de cada proposta, les modificacions que va patint i com va superant els diferents moments d‟aprovació i discussió legislativa.

Reptes del projecte

Aquest és un projecte que presenta alguns desafiaments, a causa del context polític en què es desenvolupa i la bretxa digital existent a la societat Moçambic.

Per donar resposta a aquests desafiaments hem treballat conjuntament amb les organitzacions Moçambiqueses per co-dissenyar una plataforma digital de participació que s'adapti a la seva realitat local.

Xatbot de WhatsApp

La bretxa digital, reflectida especialment en els nivells baixos de connectivitat i la dificultat en l'accés a internet, suposa un gran repte en implementar una plataforma digital de participació. Per donar resposta a aquest desafiament, vam decidir desenvolupar un Xatbot de WhatsApp que permetés participar a la plataforma directament a través de WhatsApp.

Els avantatges que ofereix aquesta solució al problema de la bretxa digital són:

Participació sense registre: No cal registrar-se a la plataforma, molta gent no té email i això implicava crear una barrera més.
Participació en pocs clics: A WhatsApp es presenten les propostes a discutir i la participant pot escriure un comentari i enviar-lo en tan sols quatre passos.
WhatsApp és un servei que les companyies telefòniques ofereixen gratuïtament a Moçambic, fins i tot quan les persones es queden sense dades mòbils. Això facilita la participació de gent amb menys recursos i menys accés a Internet.
WhatsApp és una interfície coneguda per la majoria dels moçambiquesos que tenen un smartphone. Es redueix així la càrrega cognitiva de participar en fer servir una app ja coneguda.

Al xatbot les propostes de reforma són presentades a la participant, perquè pugui triar en quina de les deu propostes de reforma vol contribuir. Després de seleccionar la proposta, es presenten les preguntes que guien el debat i la participant pot escriure al xat el seu comentari. Finalment, el comentari és enviat i publicat a la plataforma Decidim. El mòdul del xatbot de WhatsApp ha estat desenvolupat per l'equip de PokeCode i el codi es pot consultar aquí: https://github.com/openpoke/decidim-module-chatbot

La visita a Moçambic

Durant el nostre viatge vam poder presentar el projecte a l’Agència de cooperació Alemana (GIZ) i als representants de la Unió Europea al país. Tots ells van constatar el potencial de la plataforma i els reptes que suposa un projecte així en el context Moçambicà.

[castellano]

Decidim llega a Mozambique

Una delegación de Decidim y Pokecode visitó Mozambique la semana pasada como parte de un proyecto de la Agencia Catalana de Cooperació, para asesorar en el despliegue de la plataforma Decidim en el país.

El Diálogo Nacional Inclusivo

El gobierno de Mozambique está impulsando el Diálogo Nacional Inclusivo, un proceso de consulta pública para que los ciudadanos puedan dar su opinión sobre un conjunto de reformas constitucionales y del sistema de gobierno.

Este proceso participativo surge después de que, tras las últimas elecciones, en el país hubiera una oleada de protestas contra la corrupción en el estado mozambiqueño. El presidente ha promovido el inicio del llamado Diálogo Nacional Inclusivo con el objetivo de promover la paz, la estabilidad, la justicia y la inclusión social. Como parte de este proceso se desplegara la plataforma Cidadao Participa, una plataforma web de participación ciudadana.

El despliegue de la plataforma está liderado por tres organizaciones de la sociedad civil: el Instituto Multipartidario Democratico (IMD), la Fundación MASC y el Centro de Informatica de la Universidad de Mozambique (CIUEM). La plataforma se lanzará públicamente a principios de abril.

El proyecto de cooperación

En este contexto, la Agencia Catalana de Cooperació contactó con nosotros para ayudar en el despliegue la plataforma Cidadao Participa usando la tecnología de Decidim. Nuestro rol en el proyecto consiste en acompañar a los equipos implicados en dos áreas:

Diseño y gestión de la plataforma: Hemos acompañado a los equipos del IMD y la Fundación MASC para co-diseñar la plataforma Cidadao Participa y hemos realizado una serie de formaciones para que conozcan como administrar procesos participativos en Decidim.
Desarrollo web y mantenimiento técnico: El equipo de Pokecode ha realizado formaciones sobre instalación, desarrollo web y mantenimiento técnico al equipo del CIUEM.

El objetivo final de estas formaciones es garantizar la transferencia de conocimientos y capacidades a las organizaciones responsables del proyecto en Mozambique. Fomentando así la autonomía de las organizaciones implicadas para que puedan ser independientes en la gestión y mantenimiento de la plataforma Cidadao Participa.

Este proyecto se ha desplegado siguiendo nuestro modelo de cooperación internacional, basado en tres principios:

Fomentar la soberanía tecnológica: La plataforma sera alojada en los servidores del CIUEM y ellos aprenderan a gestionar y mantener la plataforma.
Transferencia de conocimientos y capacidades: Las formaciones realizadas aseguran la autonomia de los equipos mozambicanos para gestionar la plataforma. E incluso en el futuro poder implementar otros procesos participativos usando ese conocimiento.
La creación de ecosistemas locales: El conosorcio creado es una semilla para la creación de un ecosistema local de organizaciones que puedan trabajar en la promoción de la democracia participativa y el software libre.

Cidadao Participa

La plataforma será el espacio a través del cual recibir y agregar las contribuciones ciudadanas alrededor de las diez propuestas de reforma que el Gobierno quiere discutir.

La discusión de cada propuesta de reforma se organiza a partir de un texto inicial de reforma y tres preguntas para animar el debate. La ciudadanía podrá escribir sus comentarios en la plataforma o a través de un Chatbot de WhatsApp.

Tras la fase de debate público, los equipos se encargarán de sintetizar y agregar los comentarios de la ciudadanía. Estos serán enviados a los Grupos de Trabajo, encargados de redactar las propuestas finales que se enviaran para su tramitación legislativa y aprobación final por el presidente de la República.

La plataforma servirá también como un espacio de seguimiento y transparencia que permitirá a la ciudadanía conocer el estado de cada propuesta, las modificaciones que va sufriendo y como va superando los diferentes momentos de aprobación y discusión legislativa.

Retos del proyecto

Este es un proyecto que presenta algunos desafíos, debido al contexto político en el que se desarrolla y a la brecha digital existente en la sociedad Mozambiqueña.

Para dar respuesta a estos desafíos hemos trabado conjuntamente con las organizaciones Mozambiqueñas para co-diseñar una plataforma digital de participación que se adapte a su realidad local.

WhatsApp Chatbot

La brecha digital, reflejada especialmente en los bajos niveles de conectividad y la dificultad en el acceso a internet, supone un gran reto al implementar una plataforma digital de participación. Para dar respuesta a este desafío, decidimos desarrollar un Chatbot de WhatsApp que permitiera participar en la plataforma directamente a través de WhatsApp.

Las ventajas que ofrece esta solución al problema de la brecha digital son:

Participación sin registro: No es necesario registrarse en la plataforma, mucha gente no tiene email y eso implicaba crear una barrera más.
Participación en pocos clics: En WhatsApp se presentan las propuestas a discutir y la participante puede escribir un comentario y enviarlo en tan solo cuatro pasos.
WhatsApp es un servicio que las compañías telefónicas ofrecen gratuitamente en Mozambique, incluso cuando las personas se quedan sin datos móviles. Eso facilita la participación de gente con menos recursos y menos acceso a internet.
WhatsApp es una interficie conocida por la mayoría de mozambiqueños que tienen un smartphone. Se reduce así la carga cognitiva de participar al usar una app ya conocida. En el chatbot las propuestas de reforma son presentadas a la participante, para que pueda elegir en cuál de las diez propuestas de reforma quiere contribuir. Tras seleccionar la propuesta, se le presentan las preguntas que guían el debate y la participante puede escribir en el chat su comentario. Finalmente, el comentario es enviado y publicado en la plataforma Decidim. El módulo del chatbot de WhatsApp ha sido desarrollado por el equipo de PokeCode y el código se puede consultar aquí: https://github.com/openpoke/decidim-module-chatbot

La visita a Mozambique

Durante nuestro viaje pudimos presentar el proyecto a la GIZ y a los representantes de la Unión Europea en el país. Todos ellos constataron el potencial de la plataforma y los retos que supone un proyecto así en el contexto Mozambicano.

2025 in a wrap!

2025-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

Versió en Català

Indeed, we've also fallen into the habit of doing a year-in-review, because so much has happened and, let's be honest, we're excited to share how this project is growing more and more.

So, here we highlight some of the moments of the year that have shaped Decidim and have contributed their grain of sand to building technological sovereignty and digital common goods that represent us all in this uncertain landscape. Here we are, and more enthusiastic than ever ;)

🔵Decidim lands at the UN Open-Source Week

In the summer we travelled to New York for UN Open Source Week, where we had the opportunity to present Decidim as a Digital Common Good designed to promote participatory democracy and governance. We also shared the experience of Barcelona's participatory budgeting and how governments can support and implement digital public infrastructures.

In addition, we were able to learn more about how the city government's Civic Engagement Commission is managing its participation platform, developed with Decidim.

🔵New Decidim releases: 0.30 and 0.31

This year we have released two versions of the software with new features and very interesting improvements.

Decidim 0.30

This release features one-off participation without registration, customisable taxonomies, improved traceability, co-authoring from comments, and much more.

https://decidim.org/blog/2025-04-29-new-version-0-30-0/

Decidim 0.31

This version includes a major update to Rails 7.2, a more powerful and polished API, and two new components: Elections and Collaborative Texts.

https://decidim.org/blog/2025-11-20-new-version-0-31-0/

🔵The Decidim Association creates the Public Institutions Committee with six global institutions

In the autumn, we created the Public Institutions Committee with the Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona Provincial Council, Localret, the City of New York and the Federal Government of Brazil to coordinate the democratic digital platform.

The Decidim Association establishes an international collaboration space to strengthen the governance of Decidim. This alliance between Catalan institutions and international governments is a pioneering collaboration within the Decidim ecosystem that demonstrates Catalonia's pioneering leadership in democratic innovation and reflects a growing international recognition of the project as a digital public infrastructure. You can read more here:

[The Decidim Association creates the Committee of Public Institutions with six global institutions

Decidim](https://decidim.org/blog/2025-11-13-decidim-association-creates-public-institutions-committee/)

🔵The community process of the year: the Internal Regulations

The Internal Regulation process is a participatory initiative by the Metadecidim community to draft and approve an Internal Regulation for the Decidim Association, clarifying procedures, rules and methodologies for decision-making and governance that are not detailed in the statutes. The aim of the process has been to strengthen transparency and internal participation in the association's decision-making.

Currently, the process is in its second phase of deliberation on new texts, which will be presented to the community and reviewed and voted on in early summer 2026. You can review all the details here: https://meta.decidim.org/processes/internal-regulation-process

🔵Decidim Fest 2025, a great success once again

This year's edition was very special and extremely well-attended, as it was held with the largest number of members at an Association general assembly in recent years! Throughout the day, key issues were addressed, such as digital sovereignty, the governance of public technological infrastructures, the sustainability of free software, and the challenges of democratic participation in diverse contexts. You can re-watch the sessions here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0qxgHYu1MNl1Anr0KDCo-hirXj6SAtPu

Furthermore, this edition was held as part of the Barcelona Open Tech Week, organised with the support of the Barcelona City Council and the Mozilla Foundation, an event that positioned the city as a centre for technology for the common good, at the crossroads of democracy, technology and digital rights. Stay tuned, because next year we'll do more and better!

This is our summary of the year's highlights within the Association. Once again, none of this would have been possible without the magnificent support of the entire community surrounding the project. On to 2026!

Versió en Català:

2025 in a wrap!

Efectivament, també hem caigut en el vici de fer un wrapped de l’any, perquè han passat moltes coses i perquè no dir-ho, ens fa il·lusió compartir com aquest projecte va creixent cada cop més.

Així que, aquí et destaquem alguns dels moments de l’any que han marcat Decidim i que han aportat el granet de sorra a construir una sobirania tecnològica i béns comuns digitals que ens representin a totes en aquest panorama tan incert. Aquí seguim, i cada cop amb més ganes ;)

🔵Decidim aterra a la UN Open-Source Week

A l’estiu vam viatjar a Nova York per la UN Open Source Week on vam tenir l’oportunitat de presentar Decidim com un Bé Comú Digital dissenyat per impulsar la democràcia participativa i la governança. També es va compartir l’experiència dels pressupostos participatius de Barcelona i com els governs poder donar suport i implementar les infraestructures públiques digitals.

A més, vam poder conèixer amb més detall com la Civic Engagement Commission del govern de la ciutat està gestionant la seva plataforma de participació, desenvolupada amb Decidim.

Llegeix-ne més aquí: https://meta.decidim.org/processes/news/f/1719/posts/371

🔵Noves versions de Decidim: 0.30 i 0.31

Aquest any hem llançat dues versions del programari amb noves funcionalitats i millores molt interessants.

Decidim 0.30

Aquesta versió destaca per la participació puntual sense registre, taxonomies personalitzables, una traçabilitat millorada, coautoria a partir de comentaris, i molt més.

https://decidim.org/blog/2025-04-29-new-version-0-30-0/

Decidim 0.31

Aquesta versió incorpora una actualització important a Rails 7.2, una API més potent i polida, i dos nous components: Eleccions i Textos Col·laboratius. https://decidim.org/blog/2025-11-20-new-version-0-31-0/

🔵L’Associació Decidim crea el Comitè d’Institucions Públiques amb sis institucions globals

A la tardor, vam crear amb l’Ajuntament de Barcelona, la Generalitat de Catalunya, la Diputació de Barcelona, Localret, la ciutat de Nova York i el Govern federal del Brasil el Comitè d’Institucions Públiques per coordinar la plataforma digital democràtica.

L'Associació Decidim estableix un espai de col·laboració internacional per enfortir la governança de Decidim. Aquesta aliança entre institucions catalanes i governs internacionals és una col·laboració pionera dins de l'ecosistema Decidim que demostra el lideratge pioner de Catalunya en innovació democràtica i reflecteix un creixent reconeixement internacional del projecte com a infraestructura pública digital. Pots llegir-ne més aquí:

[L’Associació Decidim crea el Comitè d’Institucions Públiques amb sis institucions globals

Decidim](https://decidim.org/blog/2025-11-13-decidim-association-creates-public-institutions-committee/)

🔵El procés de comunitat de l’any: les Internal Regulations

El procés Internal regulation és una iniciativa participativa de la comunitat Metadecidim per redactar i aprovar un Reglament Intern de l’Associació Decidim que clarifiqui procediments, normes i metodologies de presa de decisions i de governança que no queden detallats als estatuts. L’objectiu del procés ha estat reforçar la transparència i participació interna en la presa de decisions de l’associació.

Actualment el procés es troba en la segona fase de deliberació de nous textos, que seran presentats a la comunitat i es revisaran i votaran a principis d’estiu de 2026. Aquí pots revisar tots els detalls: https://meta.decidim.org/processes/internal-regulation-process

🔵El Decidim Fest 2025, un any més tot un èxit

L’edició d’aquest any ha estat molt especial i molt multitudinària, ja que es va celebrar l’assamblea general de l’Associació amb més membres dels últims anys! Al llarg de la jornada es van abordar qüestions clau com la sobirania digital, la governança de les infraestructures tecnològiques públiques, la sostenibilitat del programari lliure i els reptes de la participació democràtica en contextos diversos. Aquí pots tornar a veure les sessions: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0qxgHYu1MNl1Anr0KDCo-hirXj6SAtPu

A més, aquesta edició s’ha celebrat en el marc de la Barcelona Open Tech Week, organitzada amb el suport de l’Ajuntament de Barcelona i la fundació Mozilla, un esdeveniment que va situar la ciutat com a centre de la tecnologia per al bé comú, a la cruïlla entre democràcia, tecnologia i drets digitals. Estigues atenta, que l’any que ve repetim més i millor!

Aquest és el nostre resum dels moments més destacats de l’any dins de l’Associació. Un cop més, tot això no hagués estat possible sense el magnífic suport de tota la comunitat que envolta el projecte. A pel 2026!

New version 0.31.0

2025-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

Release Highlights

The major highlight of this version is a technical one: the upgrade to Rails 7.2. But as always, over the six months between releases we’ve had time to add plenty of improvements, including two new components that revisit and refine previous experiments: the new Elections component and the Collaborative Texts component.

Elections

After exploring different hypotheses around potential voting mechanisms (with and without cryptographic guarantees), we have finally implemented a component based on the concrete needs of organizations requiring these kinds of processes. This component makes it possible to run elections with multiple configuration options, without the complexity introduced by a cryptographic layer.

For elections that do require additional guarantees, there is a community module integrating the Vocdoni protocol. In the future, our goal is to converge toward a single module that can optionally enable the Vocdoni security layer.

Init elections module #14560
Add election model and admin interface #14605
Add question and answer models and admin interface for elections #14696
Add Census to Elections component #14783
Add an election dashboard #14859
Voting booth in an Election #14915
Search and display component elections #15025

👉 Try out the feature here: https://try.decidim.org/processes/hereslug/f/57/elections/5

Collaborative texts

This is the first iteration of a new component designed to replace the old Participatory Texts, which is currently tied to the Proposals component and comes with several usability issues. Instead of extracting the existing functionality into a new module, we chose to rebuild it from scratch, informed by years of accumulated experience and diverse use cases.

The plan is to add a couple more iterations to cover all required functionalities and then deprecate the old Participatory Texts, helping to simplify and lighten the Proposals component.

Initialize collaborative texts module #13978
Add admin UI for "Collaborative Texts" component #14013
Add body and versioning to collaborative texts documents #14084
Add frontend interaction to collaborative texts #14137

👉 Try out the feature here: https://try.decidim.org/processes/sup2035/f/59/documents/2

Improvements to Existing Features

API

This release brings substantial updates to the API, strengthening both functionality and reliability. We introduced configurable API authentication to enforce secure access and expanded the Write API with new capabilities, including action logging and support for answering proposals. The GraphQL API has been updated and refined, with several resource fields revised for greater consistency. We’ve also standardized timestamp formats to ensure better interoperability across systems. Finally, we added documentation and examples for integrating Decidim with Grafana, making it easier to monitor and visualize platform activity.

Update of the API GraphQL #13986
Force api authentication with configuration #14238
Change timestamps to a new format in the API #14640
Add Grafana integration documentation and examples #14659
Add API authentication possibility #14225
Update API fields for component resources #14644
Update API fields for space resources #14648
Write API: log actions for the API users #14960
Write API: add answer proposals #14881

Admin panel

We continue to make improvements to the administration panel. This time, we focused on reorganizing the collections of action icons, which in some cases had become unsustainable, and implemented a dropdown menu to ensure better scalability. As always, this is just the first iteration! In the next release, we plan to refine this solution so that each table keeps a couple of the most frequently used actions visible. We also continued streamlining forms and bringing order to the interface by moving configuration options into the content blocks where they belong.

Delete inactive user accounts #13882
Implement dropdown menu for actions in spaces index pages #14805
Implement dropdown menu for components (part 1) #14872
Implement dropdown menu for verifications and templates modules #14914
Implement dropdown menu for admin module (part 1) #14897
Implement dropdown menu for admin module (part 2) #14916
Implement dropdown menu for other actions in spaces #14863
Implement dropdown menu for taxonomies #14920
Remove Appearance page #14797
Manage uploaded census records in the admin panel #13850

Budgets

Implement share and download buttons in budget successful vote screen #14283
Implement focus mode in the budget projects component #14512

Initiatives

Enhance initiative creation wizard #13952
Improve the digital signature process for initiatives #13729

Meetings

Allow meeting addresses to be unset/TBD #14389
Manage meetings registations with QR codes #14298
Customizing meeting reminders #14470
Waiting list for the meeting #14492

UI fixes and other Improvements

Improve merge proposals functionality #13732
Improve accountability results visualization #14067
Standardize statistics #14360
Add taxonomies and attachments to posts #14085
Add QR code for share modal #14086
Split the survey admin interface in tabs #14182
Change secondary buttons to transparent in admin panel #14249
Change the 'choose template' page for questionnaires to a two column design #14274
Align global Search page with other search pages #14133
Add proposal autocomplete in editor #14184
Move CTA button configuration to Hero content block #14741
Shows the debate status (ongoing/not started/closed) when listing #14739
Add possibility to automatically hide reported spam content #14870
Add demographics collection module #14486
Add Democratic participation indicator content block #14418
Implement publish & unpublish actions in spaces #15008

In addition to this, this release incorporates as always lots and lots of fixes and improvements for developers.

Check out the whole changelog: https://github.com/decidim/decidim/releases/tag/v0.31.0

The Decidim Association launches the Committee of Public Institutions with six global institutions

2025-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Versió en Català

The Decidim Association launches the Committee of Public Institutions with six global institutions

The Barcelona City Council, the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Barcelona Provincial Council, Localret, the City of New York and the Federal Government of Brazil have joined forces to coordinate the democratic digital platform

The Decidim Association establishes an international collaboration space to strengthen the governance of Decidim. This alliance between Catalan institutions and international governments is a pioneering collaboration within the Decidim ecosystem, demonstrating Catalonia's leadership in democratic innovation and reflecting a growing international recognition of the project as a digital public infrastructure.

The creation of the Committee marks the beginning of a new phase in the governance of Decidim and reinforces its role as a global digital public infrastructure, collectively governed and maintained. This milestone is part of a new global trend, a new multilateralism that finds in Digital Public Goods a concrete example of how to put global cooperation into practice in the development of digital technologies.

A shared effort to maintain a digital public good

Through the creation of the Committee of Public Institutions, the Association establishes a formal framework for collaboration that:

Recognises and coordinates the institutions that support the Decidim Association.
Provides a space for institutional participation in governance and strategic planning.
Facilitates the exchange of experiences, needs and development priorities.
Promotes inter-institutional cooperation to strengthen Decidim as a digital public good.
Contributes to the financial and organisational sustainability of the Association.

The Institutions Committee is a coordination space made up solely of those public institutions that have a signed collaboration agreement with the Decidim Association. The Institutions Committee is defined in its founding text as ‘the space that allows institutions to participate in governance and to convey needs and improvement proposals to the Decidim team.

This initiative consolidates a first of its kind alliance between Catalan institutions and international partners, ensuring the sustainability, innovation and global impact of Decidim as a public digital infrastructure in the service of democracy.

Access the link to the founding text of the Committee of Public Institutions.

Versió en Català:

L'Associació Decidim llança el Comitè d'Institucions Públiques amb sis institucions globals

L’Ajuntament de Barcelona, la Generalitat de Catalunya, la Diputació de Barcelona, Localret, la ciutat de Nova York i el Govern federal del Brasil s’alien per coordinar la plataforma digital democràtica

La creació del Comitè marca l’inici d’una nova fase la governança de Decidim i reforça el seu paper com a infraestructura pública digital global, governada i mantinguda col·lectivament. Aquesta fita s'emmarca dins d’una nova tendència global, un nou multilateralisme que troba en els Béns Públics Digitals un exemple concret de com posar en pràctica la cooperació global en el desenvolupament de tecnologies digitals.

Un esforç compartit per mantenir un bé públic digital

Mitjançant la creació del Comitè d'Institucions Públiques, l'Associació estableix un marc formal de col·laboració que:

Reconeix i coordina les institucions que donen suport a l'Associació Decidim.
Ofereix un espai per a la participació institucional en la governança i la planificació estratègica.
Facilita l'intercanvi d'experiències, necessitats i prioritats de desenvolupament.
Promou la cooperació interinstitucional per enfortir Decidim com a bé públic digital.
Contribueix a la sostenibilitat financera i organitzativa de l'Associació.

El Comitè d'Institucions és un espai de coordinació format només per aquelles institucions públiques que tenen un acord de col·laboració signat amb l'Associació Decidim. El Comitè d'Institucions es defineix en el seu text fundacional com “l'espai que permet a les institucions participar en la governança i transmetre les necessitats i propostes de millora a l'equip de Decidim.”

Aquesta iniciativa consolida una aliança precursora entre institucions catalanes i socis internacionals, garantint la sostenibilitat, la innovació i l'impacte global de Decidim com a infraestructura digital pública al servei de la democràcia.

Accediu a l'enllaç per accedir al text fundacional del Comitè d’institucions públiques.