DEMOS XXI Today's Solutions for Tomorrow Democracy

Redesigning Democracy is possible. Let's start by innovating ideas,

people and tools that improve our Democracies with DEMOS XXI The Web Documentary. A platform for all, to get inform, share your
vision and take part to big changes.
Imagine a world where transparency becomes the norm. A world where Collective
Intelligence is used to increase the social good.
Imagine a society where politics is no longer a platform for personal agendas or party
corruption; rather, a governance that truly represents the interests of its citizens.
Imagine a world where power is shared by everybody and not selfshly appropriated by the
self-appointed few.
Imagine a society where decisions can be debated by all, where every person has his/her
place in the discussion.
Imagine a world where the word Democracy takes back all its meaning.
Is this World possible?
The answer is in our hands. We, the Civil Society, have to decide today about the great
society and political system of tomorrow. DEMOS XXI transports us to this new world
where the 21st century Democracy is being designed. Our journey will take us to meet with
ideas, people and tools of diferent societies who are reinventing Democracy in the Internet
Era all around the globe.
Those changes start with regular citizens and continue with you, with all of us. To inform
and connect, sharing knowledge, is the essence of DEMOS XXI. This platform can be
used by every citizen that is concerned about building a better Democracy.
As Matt Leighninger afrms in his book The Next form of Democracy: In the 20th century,
public life revolved around government; in the 21st century, it will center on citizens.
Why is DEMOS XXI important?
None of the current political frameworks has been able to resolve the crisis that our
societies are facing. Primarily afected by political machinations, we, the citizens, have
been efectively excluded from the political process. Often our only recourse is to take
action by voting typically every four to fve years to elect our representatives who, with
each passing day, are losing legitimacy especially if we refer to the record abstention rates,
massive demonstrations, etc.
One thing appears evident: our systems are no longer adapted to this century's realities.
Together we can change the rules of the political game and reinvent the terms between
representatives and the electorate. To do so, the solution is evident -- open the dialogue.
By ofering easy access to information regarding this matter, DEMOS XXI posits about the
future of Democracy.
With YOUR participation, using an innovative media-platform, online analytic-tools will be
used to encourage genuine dialogue and debate of your political and social concerns,
providing a barometer to be used as an instrument for reforming governance.

The Story of DEMOS XXI

Tired of waiting, citizens came together to go from indignation to action in diferent parts of
the world. Civil Society is creating movements and developing digital tools that will allow
citizens to build a new Democracy, their Democracy.
The rise of Democratic Labs is playing an essential role in the evolution of our systems.
These new frameworks are making citizen-participation possible by pioneering tools and
political models.
Their Foundations?
Collective Intelligence complements the biggest disruptor-tool of our time: the
Internet.
Starting often at a local or municipal level, connectivity fnally transcends distant borders,
ethnic origins, social conditions and political allegiance. Every citizen, in his/her own way,
is helping build the edifce for the 21 th century Democracy. By inventing the next generation
of democratic tools, citizens are again placing people in the heart of the decision-making
process and to give a more human face to our system.
Who are they?
In the past, most citizens were not involved in the traditional political game. Today, instead,
people, civil society, have decided to promote change from the inside, leveraging these
media tools. For example, in as little as two years, Barcelonas political party Barcelona en
Comu and their candidate Ada Colau went from having obscurity to winning the mayoral
race of Spains second largest city. Their eforts were supported by an online campaign
that provided a forum for citizens to participate in local politics, when their voices would
have otherwise gone unheard.
What are they experiencing?
Ideas are seeds to every revolution. The challenge is to provide an efective conduit to
create meaningful dialogue and debate. By forming new political frameworks in using
these media tools, citizens are speaking out and defning their own governance.
None of them pretends to have the solution, but at least they are transforming their
ideas into actions and exploring the relevance of their tools.
For this project, DEMOS XXI will focus on seven new and existing political-frameworks in
fve diferent countries. These documentaries will allow us to picture and understand actual
democratic tendencies.
In the rubric Citizen Questions, DEMOS XXI will uncover concepts that are crucial to the
terms of Democratic Innovations, which include Network Democracy, Big Data, Open
Democracy, CrowdSourcing, Electronic Vote and more than ten key questions that will be
explained by some of the best specialists.
Why a Web Documentary?
Flexibility, Interactivity, Freedom, Reactivity, are the main reasons that convinced us to
chose this broadcast format. A format, in accordance with our time. DEMOS XXI ofers an
online forum that includes knowledge-based resources, information sharing and dialogue
exchange. The platform will be composed by four main sections.

Part1: Democratic Labs

One Movement = One video documentary portrait of about 15 minutes.
Part2: Citizen Question
One Question = One short video that explains the concept in an accessible and easy way.
Part 3: Tools
Knowledge base and Tutorials about the latest Digital Tools regarding governance and
citizen participation.
Part 4: The Map DEMOS XXI
A crowdsourcing based map! Interactions with users will generate anonymous data in
order to ofer a global vision of diferent citizen preoccupations all around the world and
connect them.
The web documentary will be available in three languages (English, Spanish, French)
because DEMOS XXI is for all audiences. At the end of the documentary, the credits
will list and connect the best examples of Democratic Innovations.
THE PROJECT
This project started with a crazy precept: diferent and better democracies are actually
possible. Starting from this conceit, we've decided to explore interesting political
frameworks that could ultimately be used to redefne our own system of governance.
Where to do we begin?
Our journey has already started in Argentina where we've heard of a new organization, El
Partido de la Red, which means literally The Network Party. We wanted to know if their
ideas and proposals were providing real change. After a few video interviews with diferent
members of the organization, we were left convinced that their governmental structure was
truly unique and deserved further exploration for everyone to consider.
and they are not alone! Iceland, Spain, Tunisia, France and other Democratic Labs are
developing new innovative frameworks.