Deliberation tools are siloed. Results from one tool can't feed into another without custom integration. Users must trust the platform with no way to verify results. When a provider disappears, communities lose their data and history.
DDS, the Decentralized Deliberation Stack, is an open project and W3C Community Group for sovereign, verifiable, interoperable, and resilient deliberation. It separates the process of deliberation from the platforms that host it, so communities own their discussions, their data, and their outcomes. Built on AT Protocol for identity and social infrastructure, with Arweave/Filecoin/Logos for permanent archival and Ethereum for on-chain verification.
DDS work is coordinated in public through the DDS GitHub organization and the W3C DDS Community Group.
Every deliberation follows a lifecycle:
- Plan: Define the question, the rules, and the participants.
- Collect: Gather responses through structured or open-ended formats.
- Analyze: Surface consensus, clusters, and outliers, transparently and reproducibly.
No single platform controls the process. Any conforming tool can participate.
- Governance: DAOs, cooperatives, municipalities making collective decisions
- Participatory budgeting: Communities allocating shared resources
- Collective intelligence: Structured sense-making at scale
- Policy consultation: Governments gathering informed public input
| Repo | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
dds |
Monorepo: spec, website, blog, exploration | Active |
.github |
Community health files, governance, strategy | You are here |
We're early-stage and looking for people who care about deliberation infrastructure. You don't need permission to start contributing.
- Contributing Guide: How to participate
- Join the W3C Community Group: Participate in specification work and calls
- Join the DDS Matrix room: Ask questions and chat with the community
- DDS W3C Community Group calendar: Monthly call on the first Thursday at 14:00 UTC
- Support and community channels: Find calls, the mailing list, and other ways to get help
- Governance: How decisions are made
- Code of Conduct: Community standards
DDS is not covered by a single licence. Specification work follows the W3C
Community Group contribution process. The website and proof-of-concept software
are licensed under MPL-2.0 unless another licence is explicitly stated. See the
dds licence map.
DDS governance is independent of any single company or institution.
