Foundations · netidee · 2020/2021

Decidim.Austria: Decidim for Austria

With Decidim.Austria, the internationally proven open-source participation platform Decidim came to Austria – adapted to Austrian needs and with the first handbook in German.

• Funding: netidee (Call 15)
• Period: 2020/2021
• Lead organisation: IGO – Interessenvertretung Gemeinnütziger Organisationen (Austrian umbrella organisation for non-profits)
• Team: Romy Grasgruber-Kerl, Alexander Rusa, Daniel Lechthaler

This is where it all began

Decidim.Austria is the prehistory of the Partizipationsbüro. Romy Grasgruber-Kerl worked for ten years at IGO – Interessenvertretung Gemeinnütziger Organisationen (the Austrian umbrella organisation of non-profits), where she advocated for greater involvement of civil society in policy-making, for example in GovLabAustria. This gave rise to the idea of bringing Decidim to Austria: as an IGO netidee project, implemented together with Alexander Rusa. The experience gained still forms the basis of our work today.

What was created

• First German-language Decidim handbook for participants and administrators
• “Enhanced Textwork” module: participants work on texts together, supporting, amending and commenting on sections
• Template platforms for an idea collection and a participatory budget
• decidim-austria.org as an information site on Decidim in Austria

Impact

The project was presented at the international Decidim Fest and featured in the trade journal Kommune21. The experience gained still forms the basis of our work with Decidim today.

Learn more

• Project page at netidee with reports and handbooks
• decidim-austria.org
• “Enhanced Textwork” module on GitHub

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