We Agree That… Part I

As Programme Lead at Massey University, I got to a lot of meetings. A lot. And, being honest, it’s possible that not all of those meetings need my full attention. So I’ve taken to getting some concurrent work done.

The main project I’ve been working on is the website experiment We Agree That. The idea behind the website is that it is a place for positive axiomatic opinion – that is, dense statements that can be essentially agreed with. Much like the Euclidian axioms from mathematics, but for opinions.

A key element to the website is being able to create variants, or evolutions, of those statements. So if you are unable to completely agree with a statement, you can submit your variant that you do agree with.

It’s for that reason that users are not permitted to disagree with any given statement. Instead, they are encouraged to create a variant they do agree with.

A big inspiration for this project is the Declaration of Independence. It too sets out a series of axiomatic statements as the basis for a social contract and government: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

Please check out the website, and feel free to add your own statements. It’s still in  early development, but I’d love to get some user test feedback. Part II of this post will focus on some of the technical issues in development.