Frequently Asked Questions

Organization

What is Knola?

"Knola" is the name of our organization, an abbreviation for Knowledge Laboratories.

What does Knola do?

We experiment in the field of decision technology, with the goal of helping groups make better decisions, particularly public/government.

What type of organization is Knola?

Currently it's a unincorporated nonprofit association.

How can I contact you?

Here.

Terminology

What is microdemocracy?

Microdemocracy is a system applying Knola techniques at the national level, as explained here.

What is an heirloom democracy?

An heirloom democracy is one whose foundations were designed before modern technology, for instance the federal government of the United States.

Process

How much work is required for a typical person?

The most common role is a evaluator, which is similar to a voter. Tentatively we expect evaluators to spend about 30 minutes per month, on one topic. This time includes 15 minutes consuming a presentation, and 15 minutes answering questions.

Does Knola resist influence from lobbyists?

Yes! See details here.

Intentions

What are your plans?

We have a few different ongoing and upcoming efforts:

1. Expand our website, in part to attract more contributors. Today our spiel is only really convincing in person; soon we hope the site will be powerful by itself.
2. Launch a deliberation on one local issue in the San Francisco Bay Area, to start getting real world experience with the process.
3. Develop an iOS app for participants, to make it easy for others to try out our process.

Are you calling for a revolution?

No. We do not condone violence, nor a rapid reallocation of power that would put people in danger. We believe changes can and will be achieved gradually, most likely over decades.

Contributing

How can I help?

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and know about a local issue needing more attention, please send us a description. We plan to do a trial-run of our process soon, and need to find a good idea for our initial proposal.

If you have more than a four hours per week to offer, we'd love to have you join our team as volunteer. Otherwise, you can register as a participant, and soon possibly help us make our first decision. See the question below.

How can I register as a participant?

Simply email us from your desired contact address, and we'll contact you when we start running deliberations.

Alternatives

Why not include accessibility in your principles?

We considered adding a principal covering our desire to make the process accessible by everyone. But ultimately we decided that it was implied by our authenticity principle. If the process systematically excludes a particular slice of the community, it can't be authentic.

Have you considered fractal democracy?

Quite a bit. After pondering the possibilities of fractal democracies for years, we reached the belief that it's too difficult to transition from heirloom democracies. The transition requires electing fractal-supporting representatives, which means it depends on widespread support by voters. The structure of our political system will never be more important than the popular issues of the day, so candidates are not rewarded for putting such promises in their platforms.

By contrast, Microdemocracy allows for a gradual transition. Knola decisions will initially amount to just very convincing recommendations, but politicians will be strongly motivated to put them into law. Over time, legislators will gradually step out of the way, at which point decisions will go directly into practice.