Project and participation
OpenValues aims to become a participatory culture and later an open digital infrastructure. Today it is a small, public working process. We will not pretend that the community or app already exists.
What you can contribute
Section titled “What you can contribute”A contribution does not need to be a finished essay. Useful contributions include:
- a personal experience that raises a question about values
- a reasoned disagreement with an existing position
- a reliable source or counterexample
- a concrete case in which several good values conflict
- an idea for a shared practice or decision
You can begin with a rough thought or speak it first and send the transcript. The first step is not a writing test.
A useful structure
Section titled “A useful structure”Five questions are enough if you want to organise the contribution first:
- Observation: What did you experience or notice?
- Value: What appears worth protecting?
- Tension: Which other good values pull against it?
- Practice: What would change in real life?
- Open question: What has not been resolved?
What happens to a contribution
Section titled “What happens to a contribution”A contribution begins as a proposal, not a truth. We separate experience, factual claims and value judgments, look for the strongest counterarguments and keep uncertainty visible. Nothing personal is published without consent.
Later this process should happen directly on an open participation platform. We will build accounts, voting and recommendation systems only after a real pilot has shown which social practice they need to support. The app follows the community, not the other way around.
What we are working on next
Section titled “What we are working on next”The current focus has three parts:
- give reasons for the first value map and subject it to criticism
- work through concrete decisions using the method
- form a small founding circle for the first process pilot
Anyone interested in the founding circle can use the same email contact.