Pre ALPHA 0.9.10
At the moment we are simply a group of people trying to develop what we hope will become a platform that can contribute to increased sustainability and well-being on the planet.
The Koios project and service (koios.org) is currently being led and developed by Roy Lachica (Twitter handle @roylac) out of Norway.
Koios is a not-for-profit endeavour. We hope to evolve a non-profit organization similar to that of the Wikimedia foundation or become part of such an organization.
Our vision is to be a catalyst for social problem solving and systemic innovation.
Our mission is to develop a free open web based service for anyone around the world to collaborate on solving difficult social problems.
We recognize you don't really solve complex social challenges/issues/problems. You just make the situation better or worse (depending on what point of view you look from and what metrics you use evaluate the situation). By making variables/indicators go below an acceptable agreed upon level we can say that a problem is solved. The notion of A problem is also difficult as all problems are interrelated and part of the world problematique
Koios has been funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs through the one time Nettskap2.0 program.
Please contact us if you would like to fund, sponsor or in any other way support this project.
“ Boosting mankind's capability for coping with complex, urgent problems. ”
- Doug Engelbart
We are to a high degree inspired by the work of Douglas Engelbart the inventor, and an early Internet pioneer.
We are today faced with ever increasing global problems spanning across countries, cultural and intellectual barriers. Such problems call for us to be able to engage in effective deliberations on a global scale. The web has enabled unprecedented opportunities for such interactions. However, large-scale online interactions have been incoherent and dispersed, contributions vary widely in quality, and there has been no clear way to converge on well-supported decisions concerning what actions humanity should take in order to solve their most pressing problems.
The problems of the world are to acute and important to be let alone solved by the elite researchers and experts of the world.
Apart from these massive global challenges there are of course all the other less pressing problems on a local, national, regional and global level that do not result in deaths and tragedy but are nonetheless social problems that hamper economic growth and the evolution of society, culture and human wellbeing.
There is also the problem of globalization. The power structures of global multinational corporations should be questioned and when needed combated with a united and globally shared political ethos and culture.
The political system with hearings, consultations with parliament's political groups, plenary votes etc. are all very much based on rhetoric. This underlying emphasis on oral argumentation can be traced all the way back to ancient Athens and the birth of democracy. Persuading and convincing people is central in this political system. From this, lobbying is a natural extension. Lobbying, which in many countries borders on corruption, is a sign of weakness of this system.
There is also the big problem of the power-structures and short term views. Powerful actors push the ‘solution’ into their desired direction and the government are often more concerned about the next elections than really handling the problem in the most optimal way.
Through the adoption of Koios, awareness can be created towards analysis and thereby in the future increase the use of analytic methods in all level of politics, and especially in local governmental bodies that do not have the resources to do comprehensive research and analysis.
For the last 50 years there has been a decline in vote turn out in Western Europe and North America.
Democracy can be strengthened by enabling citizens to engage in problem solving of social issues. Koios might decrease the gap between policy makers (politicians), researchers and the population. Apathy can be replaced with engagement and interactions, creating a more political active and enlightened population.
Research within the social sciences is often carried out by research institutions on behalf of think-tanks, governments, intergovernmental organizations or international non-profit organizations etc. In other cases research seems to be random or chosen as a result of what research institutions already exist.
Koios can increase diversity in research and help to cover areas that would normally not be covered.
In our twitch-speed world, there is less time and opportunity for reflection. There's an erosion of original thinking (as students use Google to create “cut-and-paste” term papers). Koios is a tool where reflection and critical thinking is required.
Sounds interesting?
Join the team!