Designed to address individual political apathy, Echo is an open-source project intended to encourage active citizen participation by allowing them to jointly engage in democratic decision-making.
Note: the following entry is incomplete. You can help Participedia by adding to it.
Problems and Purpose
Echo is a joint open-source project for active citizen participation.[1] Its comprehensive approach is designed to address a core problem of our time: the political resignation and feelings of powerlessness of the individual.
Echo is an instrument for a new kind of participatory democracy facing these challenges. Unlike usual Web 2.0 applications, Echo provides a clearly structured opinion base and allows for a solution-oriented social collaboration. It unites technical innovation and human scientific knowledge into a unique concept. Its aim is to help people better understand backgrounds and interrelations of topics, jointly make sound decisions and turn them into reality. Accordingly, echo comes with three main functional areas: Discuss – Connect – Act!
Origins and Development
How it Works
“Echocracy” stands for the new form of participatory democracy of echo. It aims to empower people from all over the world to jointly discuss issues of common interest and to develop and implement the best possible solutions to these issues.
Echo facilitates this process through a deliberative intercultural discourse, where competences from the most important segments of society are all incorporated into a collective decision making process. These segments of society are:
- Citizens and impacted people (with competence with regard to needs)
- Experts and scientists (with professional competence)
- Politicians and other representatives (with decision making competence)
- Non-governmental and governmental organizations (with action competence & mobilization potential)
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See Also
References
[1] https://github.com/echosystem/echo
External Links
https://web.archive.org/web/20161020234145/http://echo.to/en
Notes
Lead Image: Echo http://tinyurl.com/y2b45j35