Mutual Support, Debates & Great Ideas for Improving the OH Participatory Platform

Creating new Possibilities for Open Heritage with Decidim

After the Berlin Consortium meeting last May, we’ve made several strides in creating and developing new features within Decidim, the engine behind OpenHeritage’s participatory platform and the & Cooperative Heritage Online Labs. These additions have come a result of the variety of contexts of each of the Open Heritage cases. Each case provides its own challenges and needs to make a participatory process work. Platoniq as a facilitator for digital participation has worked to support more meaningful use on Decidim through multiple methods, including adding tools and components to the platform. At this juncture in OpenHeritage’s journey, Platoniq will start the development of three new models to be added to Decidim to better serve the needs of the Open heritage projects. 

Navigating CHL's participatory processes using maps and blueprints of the site

The first new feature that Platoniq aims to create is a widget with the ability to present maps of spaces and enable users to make simple votes on which space to interact with or manage. The idea for this widget came about through conversations with the Praga Lab and the context of site specific needs. The aim in Nowi Praga is to create a process of co-creation with a few specific sites in the neighborhood. To facilitate this process the team needs their Decidim page to communicate information and the location of the site. As a result we have in mind a straightforward and user friendly tool where administrators can upload simply images of maps and create zones in which they can share information or generate clicks for votes.

Measuring volunteers work impact

The second feature that Platoniq will develop is a means to count the time spent on a project by a user. The inception for this idea originally came from Matin Hulse from the Open Heritage project in Sunderland. This addition will allow administrators to see how and how much time different participants are dedicated to a project. Users will be able to ‘clock-in’ and ‘clock-out’ of Decidim to show the time that they are working on a project. Moreover they can write or upload a photograph of they tasks they were working on. The purpose of this feature is not just to measure time, but also observe the kind of labor that’s happening and needed to sustain a project or process. Very often within a project or participatory process a lot of labor happens to create and sustain a project. With this feature we can better see how things work on the ground and as a result aim to create meaningful pathways to sustainable projects.

Reservations for ‘resources and services

The final feature is a space to make reservations for ‘resources’ such as rooms etc. Frequently, facilitating a participatory process also involves the collective management of resources. For example, with the case in Pómaz, Hungary where there is an archeological site, it’s important for the organizers to be able to make reservations for the space and schedule guided tours. The work of putting together day to day logistics can be time consuming and stressful. However, with this added feature groups can identify shared resources and more easily manage them through a calendar that shows who is using what and when.

Currently we’re cooking up some new ideas and tools with Trias on the project in Pradikow. We’re looking at integrating different means to regulate services and spaces such as in a co-working space. Since the project calls for collective management of a building and resources within in we want to push it further than a calendar. Can’t wait to share the updates!

All these new developments have been co-created with individual labs part of Open Heritage but will be available to the other labs within the Open Heritage project.