FAQs

Decidim is a Free Open-Source participatory democracy platform for cities and organizations. But Decidim is more than a digital platform: it’s a common free and open project and infrastructure involving code, documentation, design, training courses, a legal framework, collaborative interfaces, user and facilitation communities, and a common vision.

It is currently used by cities and organizations worldwide. In fact, any group of people can use it, whether it is an NGO, university, trade union, cooperative, neighbourhood association, etc. Check the complete list of currently active instances.

The best way to solve your doubts quickly is through the Metadecidim community. Enter now in the process Support Forum and see if your question exists or if it has been answered and otherwise enter to ask questions. If you can't resolve your problem in this space, maybe it's time to contact us through the contact form.

Yes. Contact us for any question and we will answer you as soon as possible.

To start using Decidim, you must install the application on a server. Because Decidim is built with Ruby on Rails, the installation requires a developer with experience in this framework. Check the steps to introduce yourself in the Decidim ecosystem.

Easily configure participatory processes Do you want to make a strategic plan? Or discuss new regulations? Or discuss a new square or a public building to achieve the common good? Thanks to Decidim you will be able to configure participation spaces (initiatives, assemblies, processes or consultations) and enrich them through the multiple available components (face-to-face meetings, surveys, proposals, voting, follow-up of results, comments and many more).

Decidim makes it possible for thousands of people to organize themselves democratically by making proposals, attending public meetings, fostering decision-making discussions, deciding through different forms of voting and monitoring the implementation of decisions.

The documentation site helps any individual or organization to understand Decidim. It’s a step by step guide on how to install, configure and develop Decidim on your own. Check it out.

It’s an online platform where you can play, test and dive into the Decidim functionalities, components and system. You can check it out without installing it, to see how it works.

We release a new version approximately every 6 months. See the record of versions.

There are many differences: features, flexibility, architecture, modularity, etc. We have published a post to try to answer this question.

Thanks to its modular architecture and scalable logic, you can configure a powerful system of democratic participation in all kinds of organizations. Choose the features that best suit your needs and customise your participatory process.

For contributing to the governance and product roadmap you should be a member of the Decidim Free Software Association. Even if you are an organisation or want to become an individual member you can do so here checking the requirements.

That's how we call our Code of Democratic Guarantees and Democratic Collaboration. All members of the community must endorse the Social Contract.

Metadecidim is the community of Decidim that collaborates in the design of the platform and the construction of the Decidim project. We meet regularly through the Community Meetings, for issues related to the technological aspects of the platform. Our annual conference is Decidim Fest. Go to meta.decidim.org to follow the calls closely and if you want to join the community. We'd love to ;-)

Of course! You don’t need to be a technology expert or developer, just interested in participatory democracy, technopolitical spaces, citizen initiatives and movements. You can contribute to the project by just assisting meetings, collaborating, proposing and participating in the different active processes in the community.

Anybody who has good faith and a correct attitude towards democratic collaboration.

Installing Decidim is easy but you need some knowledge and technical requirements. See the documentation for installing Decidim.

You can find the roadmap of new features of the project at GitHub.

Decidim is a platform for citizen participation made by the people and for people. Its source code is open and can be inspected, modified, and enhanced by anyone. The Decidim software is covered by the AGPL license. That means that you can use it, modify it and redistribute derived versions of it as long as you respect the AGPL license.

You can collaborate in multiple ways. One of them is through the Metadecidim community. If you want to propose new features, go here. If you have detected errors and want to notify them, go to this process. If you want to actively participate in the Metadecidim community, you can attend Community Meetings. Register as a participant of the community and participate with us. If your thing is the code, come to Github.

You can check the latest version of our admin manual in the Documentation section.

There are different ways to collaborate with the Association. We are defining a ladder of collaboration that goes from less to more. The goal is to propose a progressive path of collaboration between public organizations and the Decidim Association. You can check this out here.

Decidim counts with a partner network that are official service providers for installing, managing and maintaining the platform for organisations of any type.

It’s an international collaboration space to strengthen the governance of Decidim 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.

The "Asociacion de Software Libre Decidim" (The Decidim Free Software Association) is a democratic association for the governance of the Decidim community. It was founded on February 16, 2019 in an extraordinary assembly of the community, with the approval of the organization statutes.

In the general assembly of the Decidim Association you can find more info abous us, follow the activity of the meetings and check relevant information (statutes, legal agreements, the internal regulations)

Even if you are an organisation or want to become an individual member you can do so here checking the requirements.

Do you want to support the project even without having a specific link with the community? You can make a donation or contribution through this form

Members have the right to participate in all the participation spaces of the Metadecidim platform with voice and vote, exercise their vote in strategic and internal decisions, elect or be elected in representative bodies, request and obtain explanations about the management of the positions of the Association, receive information about the activities and make common uses that are established.

Decidim and the Decidim logo are registered by the Association, they cannot be used as a commercial product nor cannot be sold. If used, the credit has to be referenced to the project. You can read more about this in our Trademark policy.

That's fantastic! You can send us an email with all the information at hola@decidim.org or get in touch with us via our social media channels