This project began, as many good things do, with a conversation. At one of our Tautai Salon evenings in Munich we discussed democratic initiatives — in organizations, in government, in communities — and how AI might change them. We exchanged opinions, and opinions is what they were: plausible, engaged, and largely unexamined.
Afterwards, that bothered me. I wanted a more grounded analysis, so I set out to substantiate the claim that had felt most obvious in the room: that democratic innovation on the net is already saturated with AI. That is how the article at the core of this memorandum came about.
The result was very unusual. The analysis did not confirm the expectation — it dismantled it. Roughly half of the celebrated “AI tools for democracy” turned out not to be AI at all, and where AI is genuinely present, it almost never makes the actual decision. My original question had, in a sense, evaporated under scrutiny.
So I asked a second one: never mind AI — what concepts exist for democratic initiatives on the net in general? Claude kindly offered several classifications in response: by intent, by democratic function, by target group, by architecture. Those classifications are what I present here — not as finished results, but as a starting point for further research.
Which is the actual purpose of this introduction: an invitation. This is a small, ongoing research project, and I would like you to take part in it — challenge the classifications, contribute cases, disagree productively. I believe it will be an exciting exchange.
The page link currently sits at the end of the project page — move it wherever you want it, or tell me where to place it. Journal entry is written.