Academic
December 2024
Google Scholar listings for all academic papers citing the original paper: Polis: Scaling deliberation by mapping high dimensional opinion spaces”. (55 citations as of Jan 2025)
Academic
December 2022
This graudate studies project seemingly attempts to determine if consensus is created over the course of a long-lived Polis conversation.
Academic
June 20, 2023
An official collaborative paper with AnthropicAI, on applying LLMs to Polis outputs and processes.
Academic
December 2024
Paper reflecting on implications of LLMs on democracy, including discussion and participation from experts in deliberation tools like Polis.
Academic
January 15, 2025
This paper offers an analysis of two software programmes specifically designed to facilitate high-quality online deliberation – Decidim and Polis.
Academic
October 2023
A paper prominently featuring Polis as a major example. The authors’ scholarship have been key in supporting consensus-based systems to be integrated into platforms like Twitter’s Community Notes.
Academic
June 2024
A paper that leaned highly on Polis to help public input shape a constitution that would direct AI responses.
Academic
December 1997
The original paper describing expectation-maximization PCA (EMPCA), which is the incremental PCA algorithm that Polis uses to update its sparse matrix in a computationally efficient way as new vvotes come in. The Polis paper refers to EMPCA as the “power iteration method” of PCA.
Academic
An important analysis of Euclidian spatial models of preference, such as is used by Polis in its PCA dimensional reduction methods.
Academic
November 2023
An implementation of methods beneficial to vote prediction, a known opportunity for extending Polis into “virtual democracies”.
Academic
August 2024
A paper discussing constraints and considerations of what Polis calls “comment routing”, or the order in which statements are presented to users in a fair way.
Academic
December 2024
This paper used a remodeled version of Polis (see “Tolerance Carousel” entry) to try to redress and combat toxic polarization, and found it contributed to productive polarization and creative relating.
Academic
May 2021
A paper on vTaiwan that discusses the user experience of Polis, including some developer interviews and discussion of gameification of the interface.
Academic
August 2023
This paper offers a Polis-based metholodology from writing a manifesto in a collective fashion.
Academic
August 2024
A DARPA-funded winner of the Best Paper Award at the 4th International Workshop on Democracy and AI. This paper “introduces a unique approach to visualizing opinion data gathered from the Polis online platform in which LLMs are used to generate positions and structure the data into argument maps.”
Academic
April 29, 2021
The authoritative paper on Polis internals and math.
Academic
May 2024
Using Polis datasets to propose automated content moderation pipelines via LLM reasoning. Argument maps are also generated from the data.
Academic
September 2024
A review of Polis’ clustering-analysis summary algorithms, and comparison with two newer algorithms based on (1) computational social choice theory or (2) abstract argumentation theory. An important analysis of Euclidian spatial models of preference, such as is used by Polis in its PCA dimensional reduction methods.
Academic
October 15, 2024
This paper (Pentland & Tsai) analyzes Polis “to illustrate how social science might enable design of next-generation digital media suitable for democratic deliberation, and in which generative artificial intelligence might be useful.”
Academic
November 24, 2022
An official paper proposing modification to Twitter’s Community Notes UI to support deliberative process.
Forks
November 2024
Agora is a Polis-inspired platform that enables citizens, organizations, and governments to engage in meaningful large-scale discussions on social and political issues.
Forks
October 2024
Hawaiʻi Economic Recovery & Resilience (HIERR) is a digital engagement platform wrapping around Polis and providing onboarding materials to solicit resident sentiments on vision and value statements for Hawaii’s economic future.
Forks
Forks
Forks
October 2023
A Slovakian fork seeking to build a community around better ways of engaging in divisive conversations.
Forks
February 2025
An in-progress experimental participation interface for Polis, built in partnership between DigiFinland and the SITRA fund.
Forks
November 2024
A decentralized version of Pol.is built on Ethereum, for community engagement and decision-making with ML-powered opinion analysis.
Forks
October 2023
A Dutch fork seeking to build a community around better ways of engaging in divisive conversations.
Forks
April 2023
An initial V1 set of deploy scripts, settings files, custom patches, translations and utilities for running Polis experiment deployments for DigiFinland.
Forks
September 2024
A current V2 set of deploy scripts, settings files, custom patches, translations and utilities for running Polis experiment deployments for DigiFinland.
Forks
September 2024
PolisOrbis is a Polis fork with extensive rewrites, aiming for GDPR compliance, OpenID Connect auth support, and improved docs, among other things.
Forks
November 2022
Suburb is an experimental fork of Polis, with cleanup in code and infrastructure requirements.
Forks
November 2024
A new Polis frontend and collective-response tool, funded for Filecoin governance and integrated with GitHub.
Forks
March 2025
Nexus is a full-stack application designed to facilitate group deliberation using AI. It draws inspiration from platforms like Polis and Community Notes by X.
Forks
Forks
March 2021
An unmodified deployment of the Polis codebase, hosted by the UK-based Crowd Wisdom Project.
Forks
August 2023
An slightly modified deployment of the Polis codebase, hosted by PDIS.tw, a division of the Taiwanese national government.
Forks
May 2023
A comprehensive platform and funded project to create a social participation app, reimplementing Polis. (Brazil)
Forks
February 2025
A DIMensional REDuction library for stellarpunk democracy into the long haul. Goal is re-implementing Polis algorithms in Python, supporting easily-tuned variables and alternative dimensional reduction algorithms.
Forks
July 2022
Code for deployed fork of Polis that paired with the Tolerance Carousel project.
Misc
May 2024
Polis Argument Mapping to Guide Policy Decisions. How can large language models enable us to ingest massive streams of unstructured information, incorporate diverse perspectives and distill them into actionable insights that demonstrably align with public opinion?
Misc
October 2023
Analyses Polis data with Vitalik’s simplified version of Community Notes algorithm, evaluating for quality and polarization.
Misc
June 2024
Sample reports generated by Talk to the City, an open-source LLM survey tool to improve collective discourse and decision-making by analyzing detailed qualitative responses to questions and generating an easy-to-navigate report based on the input data.
Misc
October 2024
The codebase for generating reports. Talk to the City is an open-source LLM interface for improving collective deliberation and decision-making by analyzing detailed, qualitative data. It aggregates responses and arranges similar arguments into clusters.
Misc
March 2019
Polis export data and perl scripts for g0v.tw conversations, including Talkto.tw
Misc
Misc
Misc
November 2024
A helpful bot for generating list of statements to use as seed statements when creating a conversation on Polis. Example
Misc
June 2024
A Chrome extension allow polis moderator to accept/reject comments with hotkeys
Misc
October 2024
Join the active #polis channel in this Slack team to participate in projects PolisNL / Partici.app
Misc
Misc
Misc
July 2024
A general-use collective intelligence framework that allows AI agents to deliberate in a Polis-like way to utilize and demonstrate collective intelligence, with entry points for collective intelligence from a community of human participants.
Misc
March 2024
Conceptualised as a multi-player variant of Pol.is, this app aims to test whether intimate, small group discussions, enhanced by scalable intra-group communication protocols, can improve wider debate. Grantee in OpenAI “Democratic Inputs to AI” challenge.
Misc
February 2019
An experimental Ruby on Rails app attempting to reimplement the Polis frontend.
Misc
October 3, 2024
Part of a 5-post blog series about adapting and improving Polis for evaluation by several Dutch provincial governments and central government ministries
Misc
August 2024
A Decidim module to integrate Pushing Together (EJ) into Decidim. (EJ was started by previous Polis users.)
Misc
June 2024
A general-purpose deliberation platform to host online conversations, inspired by Polis. In talks with potential partners for field experiments.
Misc
August 2020
A small site built to receive incoming Dynata ids, show people an embedded Pol.is survey, and send them back off when done.
Misc
July 2017
Holopolis was an open project launched by PDIS and Pol.is with the help of Microsoft Hololens Team and Re:public Inc.
Misc
November 2024
A lightweight polis-like library, aspiring to reproduce the Polis math algorithms in Python.
Misc
September 2024
A research project to help create simulated preliminary policy recommendations, by simulating a Polis engagement with LLMs.
Misc
December 2024
A list of all GitHub repos (both source and forks) where Polis-related code exists.
Misc
December 2018
Web mobile app that through geolocalization and the use of stickers with QR codes promotes democractic deliberation processes everywhere in the world.
Misc
October 2021
Polis implementation for Tribu (a Chilean NGO), it includes a complete website with a database that leverages the xid method of the polis embedded conversation to identify users uniquely.
Misc
Misc
May 2020
A series of Locust test to meaningfully load-test Pol.is instances
Misc
November 2024
The Junction 2024 is Europe’s leading hackathon held annually in Helsinki. This year featured SITRA, sponsoring a challenge called “Let’s make Finland the world leader of digital democracy”, encouraging a focus on improving Polis. This is a list of the full 28 submitted projects (not all centered on Polis).
Misc
December 2024
A browser extension (and backend server) that helps users take action (Polis conversation, petitions, etc.) on the issues they are reading about. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
Democracy Chamber is an open platform for meaningful, democratic political discussion. The goal is to provide citizens with more tools to influence decision-making. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
A human identifying tool based on deep gazing detection, to ensure human participation on Polis. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
A project to allow Polis auth and bot detection via browser fingerprinting, mouse movements, and request patterns. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
A proposal for anonymous, phone-based login for Polis. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
A proposed Polis extension introducing robust cryptographic security measures to Polis, guarding against automated participation. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
An attempt to reimagine the Polis interface with LLM involvement. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
A proposal to connect Polis with physical verification. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
A proposal to generate Polis-like conversations about news. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
November 2024
An attempt to create a multimodal, accessible UI for Polis-type visualizations. This was a Junction hackathon project (see other entry for details), within SITRA’s digital democracy challenge. (Finland)
Misc
Misc
November 2024
A simple and efficient polis-like system built as a learning exercise by a contributor from Civic Tech Toronto.
Misc
December 2016
Mini-site wrapping Polis for a citizen-run online consultation experiment.
Misc
May 9, 2024
LitePolis is a WIP aiming provide a developer- and data-scientist-friendly port of Polis written in Python.
Misc
August 2020
NewVote was an online crowd-sourcing tool in Australia that integrates Polis, supports co-design, communication and decision-making.
Misc
December 2024
Platform that enables communities to collaboratively create and refine AI models based on collectively defined constitutions, democratizing AI alignment. Uses Polis’ participants-votes.csv export data.
Misc
December 2017
An example Decidim codebase with the Decidim::Polis module installed
Misc
September 2022
Decidim module for integrating Polis into that platform.
Misc
September 2014
A platform for creating more transparency and engagement with local government processes in Minneapolis. Groups council agenda items into larger issues, and integrates Polis conversations to explore those issues.
Misc
June 2016
An experiment with Airbnb Pol.is data, importing it into graph database.
Misc
Misc
Misc
February 2025
The Partici.App documentation website for the PolisNL software project.
Misc
June 2024
A server providing an alternative API on top of the Polis database, supporting third-party frontends for the Polis project.
Misc
November 2024
Alternative Polis administration app written in Python’s Django framework. For self-hosted Polis conversations, aims to improve the interface, and add user management, without forking its Polis core.
Misc
September 2024
Deployment scripts for deploying Participa platform alongside a self-hosted Polis instance.
Misc
April 2024
A sample wrapper app for a Polis conversation, built on Astro framework.
Misc
April 2023
A Pol.is API proxy for experimenting with different API design choices.
Misc
October 2024
An interactive Swagger API spec for documenting and exploring the Polis API Proxy endpoints.
Misc
January 2021
Minimal sample apps for demonstrating various sorts of integrations. Notably includes passing vote/submit messages out of iframe via postMessage, and using Auth0 accounts.
Misc
August 2024
An unfinished, messy work-in-progress set of scripts attempting to generate a Polis zipped export archive from public API endpoints.
Misc
February 2022
A demo to show how Polis conversations might augment in-person meetings.
Misc
January 2017
A Twitter bot to auto-create Pol.is conversations for each Donald Trump tweet.
Misc
November 2019
PDIS.tw scripts for performing various tasks directly on the Polis database of self-hosted instances.
Misc
July 2017
An exploration of visualizing Polis results in the A-Frame web VR framework
Misc
Misc
Misc
May 2023
Plural Polis Discourse, is a forum plugin to integrating Polis into a Discourse fork. It is cited in the linked paper as a demo of a collusion-resistant communication channel.
Misc
May 2023
A Discourse Forum fork intended to be used with the Polis-integrating pcc-consensus-polling Discourse plugin.
Misc
December 2023
A prototype React-Native mobile app for IRL voting in Polis conversations via scanning assigned NFC stickers.
Misc
November 2020
Configuration management code for setting up a Polis instance via Kubernetes.
Misc
Misc
March 2021
Notes from a walk-through of the Clojure math module of Polis, given by CompDem data scientist Chris Small during his technical office hours.
Misc
November 2024
The raw source material for this community-stewarded Awesome Polis directory.
Misc
June 2024
PolisNL is a demo Partici.app frontend for Polis, accessed via the ParticiAPI server.
Misc
December 2023
A Dutch working group for a Dutch version of Polis subsidised with the innovation fund afiliated to the Dutch Governement.
Misc
September 2024
Scripts and code to deploy PolisOrbis in a provisioned Amazon AWS infrastructure.
Misc
February 2025
A Polis implementation by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, where partici.app components where used.
Misc
March 2022
The website code (hosted archive) and collected data of the Polis experiment running in the months prior to the LUC referendum in Uruguay.
Misc
October 2024
A platform using gamification and machine learning to promote discussions and participation in a virtual democracy. (EJ was started by previous Polis users.)
Misc
October 2024
An opinion research chatbot for Telegram and WhatsApp. (EJ was started by previous Polis users.)
Misc
March 2022
Example of a Proof-of-Humanity identity provider wrapper for any arbitary Polis conversation.
Misc
Misc
Misc
October 2023
Data processing for the Collective Constitutional AI project (a collaboration between The Collective Intelligence Project & Anthropic)
Misc
October 2023
A vTaiwan banner website for running a consultation (including Polis) within the Democracy Inputs to AI grant.
Misc
November 2024
A fully-launched Polis-centred platform for improved hosting experience and discoverability of public Polis conversations, from local up to international.
Misc
October 2024
A “storybook” instance to display frontend UI components from Polis and its forks, to allow more collaboration and experimentation on UX and accessibility improvements.
Misc
March 2016
Source for generating the Talkto.tw website codebase, which used Polis alongside livestreamed interviews of public figures.
Misc
August 2017
Polis-integrated media platform for the people of NYC to bring their ideas to city politics
Misc
November 2022
An interactive exhibit that integrated a fork of Polis into a multimedia Virtual Agora in-person event.
Misc
October 15, 2024
This paper (Pentland & Tsai) analyzes Polis “to illustrate how social science might enable design of next-generation digital media suitable for democratic deliberation, and in which generative artificial intelligence might be useful.”
Misc
November 2024
Simple wrapper app, intended to help citizens of Tübingen Germany provide input on city issues. Written in Racket language, using Pollen and UnoCSS, built with Nix. Created for a hackathon.
Misc
A Twitter list of folks who’ve built, used or just gotten really stoked about Polis or vTaiwan.
Misc
Misc
November 2024
Open Source Headless CMS for Publishers and News Rooms, integrating Polis. Created in Switzerland.
Misc
August 2022
A Wikipedia entry originally created by Nicolas Perez, a member of the Polis User Group (PUG) community, giving Polis its first dedicated section on the platform.
Misc
Official
Official
January 2023
Scripts to streamline the running of the pol.is instance used in Policy Lab. Some of these will become features later on.
Official
A guide for those who are thinking about the interaction between techniques for listening at scale and in-person deliberation
Official
The table of contents for an incomplete stub of a currently unpublished Polis book.
Official
Official
July 2023
Examples illustrating how to embed a Polis conversation in another website.
Official
2024
The Computational Democracy Project maintains an extensive (and growing) knowledge base for Polis and related facilitation methods.
People
December 2024
A more curated Bluesky user list, including people actively working on Polis & Polis-related projects. Best-suited as a pseudo-feed of user posts, via the “Pin to Home” feature.
People
December 2024
A more inclusive Bluesky user list, including people who’ve expressed interest and enthusiasm about Polis, particularly on social media. Best-suited as a pseudo-feed of user posts, via the “Pin to Home” feature.
People
December 2024
A more curated Bluesky user list (as a starter pack), including people actively working on Polis & Polis-related projects. Best-suited for mass-following users. (Sync’d with list of same name as much as possible.)
People
Citizen Collective is a community that spun out of Jon Alexander’s book CITIZENS. There is no specific channel for Polis-related interests, but since many people are active in Citizen Assembly pprocesses, there are a high number of people running experiments or eager to discuss. Search to find past convos.
People
Plurality Insitute was founded by Glen Weyl and Audrey Tang, two big proponents of Polis, and sees Polis-like tools as central to creating more co-operative democracies.
People
An unofficial Discord server for the Polis User Group (PUG). See PUG entry for details.
People
RadicalxChange Foundation uses Polis in its work, and has built several projects on comparable technologies. It’s founding members are bullish on it’s use in democratic processes.
People
See entry for “Agora Citizen Network” project, a reimplementation of Polis. They are also financially supporting Red-Dwarf, a Python library reimplementing Polis algorithms, and running community calls for developers and other practitioners. Channels: #dev (for library conversations)
People
A canonical contact spreadsheet of almost 400 practitioners (people, projects & orgs) of Polis and Polis-like software, aggregated from public resources by patcon, from almost a decade of working and interacting in the space. This resource will be used to auto-generate others. (private for now, pls feel welcome to request access)
People
January 2025
A network visualization of practitioners of Polis-like tools and processes. Generated from the “Polis Practitioners directory”.
People
May 2022
Landing page and weekly call notes for Polis User Group (PUG), a community for users and fans of the Polis software project, for anyone eager to explore the tool/processes, including prospective conversation moderators & participants, as well as self-hosted server administrators.
People
Civic Tech Toronto is a vibrant and diverse community of Torontonians engaged in understanding and creating solutions for civic challenges through technology, design, and other innovative means. Channels: #polis, #polis-portal, #polis-content-creation, #polis-tool-talk
People
Code for NL is the Dutch community of people working together on an open, fair and inclusive digital government and society. Channels: #polisnl, #polis-portal
People
Metagov is a community of research and practice gathered around the mission to cultivate tools, practices, and communities that enable self-governance in the digital age. Channels: #deliberative-tools-and-interop
People
December 2024
A more curated Twitter/X user list, including people actively working on Polis & Polis-related projects. Best-suited for following users. (Sync’d with Bluesky lists as much as possible.)
People
December 2024
A more inclusive Twitter/X user list, including people who’ve expressed interest and enthusiasm about Polis, particularly on social media. Best-suited as a pseudo-feed of user posts, via “pinning” on your list listing page. (Sync’d with Bluesky list as much as possible.)