The Computational Democracy Project
The Computational Democracy Project is a Seattle-based 501c3 nonprofit that develops and maintains Polis, an open-source real-time platform using machine learning and statistics to gather and analyze large-group opinions for governments, media, NGOs, and academic institutions worldwide.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersSeattle, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What The Computational Democracy Project does
The Computational Democracy Project is a Seattle-based 501c3 nonprofit founded in 2018 that designs, engineers, and maintains Polis, an open-source real-time platform for gathering and analyzing large-group opinions using machine learning and advanced statistics. Polis operates as a 'Wikisurvey': participants submit short comments (under 140 characters), which other participants vote on as Agree, Disagree, or Pass, generating a sparse vote matrix that feeds dimensionality reduction (PCA, UMAP) and clustering algorithms (K-means with silhouette coefficient, Leiden community detection) to identify opinion groups and consensus points. The system is intentionally language-agnostic—it applies no NLP—making it deployable in any language. Notable proprietary components include a group-informed consensus metric that counters tyranny-of-the-majority, representative-comments scoring, and a comment-routing algorithm that prioritizes high-variance comments.
The organization serves governments, newsrooms, academic institutions, NGOs, and political organizations across more than a dozen countries, with reference deployments including Taiwan's vTaiwan (200,000+ participants since 2014), Germany's Aufstehen (33,547 participants in a single conversation), the UNDP's Global South youth engagement, Austria's Klimarat climate council, and Uruguay's referendum consultation. Its business model is a hybrid of free access and professional services: the hosted pol.is instance is provided free of charge to non-profits, public institutions, and academics, while the organization monetizes through paid implementation consultation, training, integration support, custom data analysis, feature development, and end-to-end project delivery. Distribution is community-led—driven by case-study publication, earned media coverage in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist, MIT Tech Review, BBC, Wired, and Penguin books, a volunteer program, and open-source self-hosting under AGPL3.
The Computational Democracy Project maintains an extensive knowledge base, open data repository, and Jupyter notebooks for academic and practitioner use. The main pol.is instance is GDPR compliant. The organization operates with 1–10 employees, no disclosed funding rounds, and no parent company or external investors; sustainability is presumed to rely on grants, donations, and professional-services revenue.
The Computational Democracy Project firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- The Computational Democracy Project
- Legal name
- The Computational Democracy Project
- Website
- https://compdemocracy.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- The Computational Democracy Project is a Seattle-based 501c3 nonprofit that develops and maintains Polis, an open-source real-time platform using machine learning and statistics to gather and analyze large-group opinions for governments, media, NGOs, and academic institutions worldwide.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
The Computational Democracy Project industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Civic Engagement and Deliberation Technology
- NAICS
- Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support (921)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy (BPAGAFAJ)
Keywords
Where The Computational Democracy Project is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Seattle
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
The Computational Democracy Project business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Others
Revenue model
- Free Platform Access: The main hosted instance at pol.is is available free of charge to non-profit, public, and academic institutions worldwide. This is the core product offering that drives adoption.
- Professional Services: CompDem provides paid services including implementation consultation, training, integration support, custom data analysis and reporting, feature development, end-to-end project support, and fully hosted instances on customer hardware.
- Grants and Donations: As a 501c3 nonprofit, The Computational Democracy Project likely relies on grants, donations, and public funding to support operations and free access.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier for non-profits, public institutions, and academics |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
The Computational Democracy Project product offering
Product offeringCore offering
The Computational Democracy Project designs, engineers, and maintains Polis, an open-source real-time system for gathering, analyzing, and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words using advanced statistics and machine learning. The platform allows participants to submit short text comments (under 140 characters) that others vote on as Agree, Disagree, or Pass, then uses dimensionality reduction and clustering to identify opinion groups and consensus points. CompDem hosts the primary pol.is instance free of charge to qualifying institutions and offers paid professional services for implementation, training, and custom analysis.
Product overview
The Computational Democracy Project maintains Polis as its core product — an open-source, real-time system for gathering, analyzing, and understanding large group opinions using advanced statistics and machine learning. Polis operates as a 'Wikisurvey' where participants submit short text comments (under 140 characters) that other participants vote on as Agree, Disagree, or Pass. The platform includes: pol.is (the primary hosted SaaS instance), Admin Interface (for conversation management and moderation), Participation Interface (for voting and commenting, available in 20+ languages), Real-Time Report (automatic visualization of opinion groups and consensus), Summary Statistics (monitoring dashboard), Jupyter Notebooks (open-source Python/Clojure analysis tools), Open Data Repository (public conversation datasets), Knowledge Base (extensive documentation), and Embed Code/iframe (for third-party website integration). The company also provides consulting services including implementation support, data analysis, and end-to-end project assistance.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Polis
Quantifiable outcome
- 33,547 participants in single conversation (Aufstehen, Germany)
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use The Computational Democracy Project
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
The Computational Democracy Project technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability6 records
Feature7 records
The Computational Democracy Project partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered supporting, core and minor.
- AstyLab (Greece)supportingGreek nonprofit used Polis for AirBnB regulation discussions in Athens and Thessaloniki. First Greek organization to implement Polis, inspired by vTaiwan and Audrey Tang's work.
- Andy Paice and Martin Rausch (Climate Council facilitators)supportingFacilitation partners who created 'The Climate Council asks Austria' project using Polis to gather feedback from over 5,000 Austrians on Klimarat's draft climate recommendations.
- Cognition CompanysupportingCognition Company served as UNDP's service delivery partner for the Youth Conversations initiative across Bhutan, Pakistan, and Timor Leste. Provided technology support for SMS-based outreach to over 10 million youth.
- Makati Business Club (Philippines)coreBusiness club that piloted Polis with local governmental units, trained government staff, and expanded to 5 consultations in 6 cities. Provides model for business-led democratic innovation in Southeast Asia.
- Uruguay National UniversitysupportingTeam of 13 engineers, communications professionals, and data science faculty and staff set up Polis alongside the national referendum to reveal deeper understanding beyond yes/no voting.
- American AssemblycoreServed as facilitation partner for Bowling Green, Kentucky civic assembly using Polis to find local consensus. Provided process design and facilitation expertise for the engagement.
- Dreiwerk Entertainment (Germany)minorIndependent production company supporting Aufstehen's media appearances and introduced Polis to party members for platform formation conversation.
- Public Engagement Projects (PEP, New Zealand)corePEP facilitators partnered with Scoop News to run six HiveMind conversations (2016-2019) and later connected with government agencies to inform national biodiversity strategy. Pioneered the use of Polis in public engagement projects.
- PDIS (Public Digital Innovation Service, Taiwan)corePDIS is Taiwan's government digital innovation unit that runs vTaiwan, the longest-running national-scale implementation of Polis. PDIS staff serve as 'Participation Officers' trained in the Polis methodology. This partnership established the model for government-led democratic consultation that has been replicated worldwide.
Scale indicators12 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
The Computational Democracy Project competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- All Our Ideas (Wikisurvey): Research project from Princeton and the University of Melbourne that pioneered the 'Wikisurvey' methodology (which Polis explicitly builds on). Directly comparable as a paired-vote opinion-elicitation tool that influenced Polis's core data model.
- LiquidFeedback: Open-source liquid democracy platform originally developed for the Pirate Party and used by political organizations. Directly comparable as open-source software for collective decision-making with structured voting and proposal workflows.
- Decidim: Open-source participatory democracy platform used by cities, governments, and civic organizations across Europe and Latin America. Directly comparable as an open-source civic participation tool, with a broader feature set covering proposals, voting, and assemblies.
- CONSUL (Madrid citizen participation platform): Open-source e-participation platform originally developed by the Madrid City Council and forked by hundreds of municipalities worldwide. Directly comparable as open-source civic consultation infrastructure targeting local and regional governments.
- Loomio: Cooperative-owned decision-making and deliberation platform used by organizations, activist groups, and civic movements. Comparable as a deliberative, group-decision technology with an emphasis on consensus-building at scale.
- Ethelo: Group decision-making and opinion-gathering platform used by municipalities, associations, and organizations for stakeholder consultation. Comparable as a deliberation platform that uses structured voting and analytics to surface consensus and group preferences.
Broad incumbents
- Delib: Established UK-based civic engagement and consultation platform for governments and public sector organizations. Comparable as a competitor in the government consultation space, with longer commercial track record and enterprise support.
- CitizenLab: Commercial civic engagement SaaS used by 300+ governments, with features for surveys, ideation, voting, and budgeting. Comparable as a competing civic participation platform, but as a venture-backed commercial incumbent with broader feature coverage.
Emerging players
- MIT Center for Constructive Communication: Academic research center developing deliberative technologies and AI for constructive public discourse, including the Deliberatorium platform. Comparable as a research-driven peer developing computational deliberation tools, with academic rather than open-source-nonprofit distribution.
Others
- vTaiwan / PDIS (Public Digital Innovation Service, Taiwan): Taiwan's government digital democracy unit that operates the vTaiwan platform using Polis. Listed as a peer because PDIS is both the longest-running user and a key implementation partner that has effectively become a sister deployment of CompDem's technology.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat7 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
The Computational Democracy Project social profiles
Digital presenceThe Computational Democracy Project compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
The Computational Democracy Project financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
The Computational Democracy Project leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
The Computational Democracy Project funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
The Computational Democracy Project M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about The Computational Democracy Project
What does The Computational Democracy Project do?
The Computational Democracy Project designs, engineers, and maintains Polis, an open-source real-time system for gathering, analyzing, and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words using advanced statistics and machine learning. The platform allows participants to submit short text comments (under 140 characters) that others vote on as Agree, Disagree, or Pass, then uses dimensionality reduction and clustering to identify opinion groups and consensus points. CompDem hosts the primary pol.is instance free of charge to qualifying institutions and offers paid professional services for implementation, training, and custom analysis.
Is The Computational Democracy Project a public or private company?
The Computational Democracy Project is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was The Computational Democracy Project founded?
The Computational Democracy Project was founded in 2018. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is The Computational Democracy Project based?
The Computational Democracy Project is headquartered in Seattle, United States, in the North America region.
How does The Computational Democracy Project make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Free Platform Access are the primary driver. The others are professional Services and grants and Donations.
Who are The Computational Democracy Project's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are All Our Ideas (Wikisurvey), LiquidFeedback, Decidim, CONSUL (Madrid citizen participation platform), Loomio and Ethelo. Broad incumbents are Delib and CitizenLab. MIT Center for Constructive Communication is listed as an emerging player. vTaiwan / PDIS (Public Digital Innovation Service, Taiwan) is listed as an others.
Does The Computational Democracy Project have an API?
No public API is recorded for The Computational Democracy Project.
What industry is The Computational Democracy Project in?
The Computational Democracy Project's product category is Civic Engagement and Deliberation Technology. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGAFAJ, Democracy, Voting Rights & Civic Participation Advocacy. Its NAICS code is 541910 and its SIC code is 7372.