Adhocracy is a participation software that enables participants to discuss and make decisions in a democratic, transparent manner without moderation.
Programmes, bills, recommendations for action, texts, or the like can be developed collaboratively: like in a Wikipedia article any number of participants are able to develop and work on texts together. Thereby, the final piece is the outcome of democratic decision making using Adhocracy.
A changing the settings also allows users to create a situation where the outcome of a vote is binding and does not allow voting on conflicting proposals.
The software is built in such a way that user-generated content is self-structuring. This means that popular and recent proposals and activity are always highly visible and user behaviour is structured bottom up. Thereby, a maximum of transparency in the participation process is guaranteed. Moderation by administrators is only required in case of illegal or inappropriate content.
Due to the self-structuring properties of Adhocracy troll comments do not require attention by moderators or deletion because the platform is structured according to activity rather than chronologically.
Adhocracy is constructed modularly, which enables the client to make individual choices and choose a combination of modules. It is also possible to add modular functions, such as the “poll”, “milestones”, “delegations” and “norm database” functions. Thereby, the choice of modules and various other settings can be adjusted prior to the application, but also any time during the procedure.
Thus, suitable application versions for different types of groups and democratic decision-making can be put into practice. Changes of party programmes in terms of scheduling, identification of issues, discussion phase and poll can be structured and scheduled. Upon request, a delegation system for complex decision-making procedures can be activated.
According to the individual requirements of a particular group, the administrator is able to allot roles (observer, voter, advisor, supervisor, etc.) with different rights to the participants. Roles can also be allotted to whole groups of users.
Currently, the Adhocracy software is available in three languages, others can easily be added.
Users can participate in the following ways:
1. Users can table, discuss, evaluate and comment on proposals
2. Useres can contribute their own, already existing papers as basis for discussion or develop papers collectively
3. Users can vote on proposals.
Adhocracy is constructed in such a way, that it can be continuously used as a long-term decision making and discussion platform. Users are able to put predefined questions for discussion, while simultaneously putting issues for discussion that are currently and momentarily relevant. Thereby, top down as well as bottom up decision making process are supported and carried out on the same platform.