Why Ethelo, Why Now?
Humanity has prospered through its ability to act collectively. However, problems in how we make decisions as groups have created their own increasingly critical issues, including economic inequality, climate change, political instability, military aggression, and dwindling resources. These are the great challenges of our times, and they cannot be solved using the same decision making processes that led to them. Society needs a fundamentally new approach to governance and group decisions. This is why we created Ethelo, and why it’s needed now more than ever.
Stories That Matter
MAKE DEMOCRACY BETTER
Goal
Bridge the gap between Nova Scotians and their democratic institutions by creating an action plan for a better democracy
Outcome
A discussion paper and publicly-validated action plan for lobbying Nova Scotia’s provincial government
News Coverage
Ethelo provides a mechanism to capture an incredible number of possibilities in a handful of simple questions. This means participants in the decision are able to see what the impact of certain decisions is, and enables us to quickly eliminate many unpopular alternatives, and focus on the changes that will satisfy the most people.
Mark Coffin
President
Springtide Collective
Partner with Ethelo to activate your social change agenda
Are you a public interest organization looking to engage citizens in creating a mandate for social change?
Do you have a grassroots membership, issue expertise, and capacity to build coalitions?
We provide free Ethelo licenses for citizen groups to engage people in collective decision-making on public policy issues. We can help you activate voters to apply democratic pressure for government action.
Testimonials
“As opposed to all people shouting at once in a social media megaphone, the powerful thing about this new platform is its capacity to build on peoples ideas and create group cohesion through dialogue and conversation."
Elizabeth Geller,
Community Investment Manager
Vancity Credit Union
“An exceptional advance on the state of the art and can be considered new benchmark of state of art that is clearly ahead of competitors."
Public Works Supplied Assessment Panel
Federal Government of Canada
“Our group, Generation Squeeze, is a national lobby group for folks in their 40s and younger, and we operate with very few resources. This means it's difficult for us to find the opportunities to dialogue about the important issues facing our constituents. Ethelo's platform allowed our folks to not only vote on what was important to them, but also to add comments and build on other people's thoughts. The transparency was appreciated and our constituents really felt heard."
Erin Robinson,
Business Development
Generation Squeeze
"I am very excited about Ethelo's potential for dramatically expanding public engagement in the key policy issues of our time."
Antony Hodgson (Ph.D.),
President
Fair Voting BC
"As the NSERC Chairholder in Design Engineering at UBC, I am frequently engaged in trying to design a device, product or system that produces the best overall outcome for a number of stakeholders. As president ofFair Voting BC, I view public policy development as a similar kind of multi-stakeholder design problem. Ethelo closely mirrors the standard engineering design process by encouraging participants to generate and consider a broad range of options, and ensures that all points of view are taken into consideration in determining the optimal policy. I am very excited about its potential for dramatically expanding public engagement in the key policy issues of our time."
Antony Hodgson (Ph.D.),
President
Fair Voting BC
"Ethelo is a perfect example of real-time deliberation over long-distances, impossible before the internet, which ought now become the centerpiece of a new model of democracy."
David Berlin,
Founder Bridge Party, Founding Editor of the Walrus
"Ethelo is a dramatic new technology that can facilitate democratic citizen participation in political decision making. As people insist on more say in the decisions that can affect them, Ethelo can make modern citizen engagement possible and practical."
Judy Rebick,
Founder
Rabble
"Ethelo is far more powerful than crowdsourcing. The sophisticated algorithm paired with the social media interface is unique in the marketplace."
Branch Director
Federal Government of Canada
"Its time to stop forcing people to stew in silence between elections and start opening up politics to continuous participation. Online participation software can provide a reflective and accurate snapshot of voter preferences and Ethelo is the most sophisticated solution I have come across."
Roslyn Fuller,
Independent Candidate
"Metro Vancouver Alliance organizes through relationships. The issues we tackle come directly from listening to our membership. We have found great value in using Ethelo for our transit fare consultation. Ethelo gave us a new option for consulting a large and diverse membership that was in line with our values and methods"
Deborah Whittman,
Lead Organizer
Metro Vancouver Alliance
Ethelo.com helps organizations make big decisions better. We enable government, businesses and public interest organizations to optimize their operations, engage employees, develop strategies and policies, and engage community.