Shared experience of grassroots initiatives

When Mindset Shifts Transform Adoption

Article ID: AN-LLE-2026-003 Insights: This article highlights supplier mindset (CASE-LLE-2026-003) vs collaborator mindset (CASE-LLE-2026-002). In the outreach and sustainability stage, success depends less on distributing ready-made solutions and more on cultivating relationships that invite joint experimentation and shared ownership. The transition from “learn and use” to “build and evolve together”

Lessons from Coris backstory

Article ID: AN-LLE-2026-002 Abstract: Early-stage community projects face distinct challenges around momentum, coordination, and sustainability that differ fundamentally from both traditional organizations and mature open source projects. This article documents patterns for navigating these challenges, drawn from the Coris community platform development experience in 2024 and 2025 (CASE-LLE-2026-003). The key

Coris (Backstory)

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2026-003 Executive Summary A volunteer team in Toronto spent more than 8 months trying to promote and improve a digital democracy tool that helps gather public opinion. They started with excitement and good intentions but got stuck in endless discussions for months. What changed everything was treating volunteers

Regular Practice: Blockchain Community Co-working Session

Article ID: BP-LLE-2026-001 Abstract: Community co-working sessions create sustained engagement through regular, low-pressure gatherings where participants work on their own projects while benefiting from shared space, peer support, and collective momentum. This pattern, refined over seven years in blockchain developer communities, prioritizes doing over discussing, maintain consistency through working side-by-side.

Councilmatic Chicago

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2025-007 Executive Summary Councilmatic Chicago is a website that helps people understand what their city government is doing. Unlike its sister project in New York City (which shut down), Chicago's version is still running today. But "still running" doesn't mean "problem-free.

Civic Dashboard

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2026-001 Executive Summary Civic Dashboard is a website created to make City Hall way easier for everyone to understand and use. It started in 2024 when a group of people realized that local government felt too complicated, so they teamed up with over 200 volunteers to build a

Weekly Open Call about Deliberation Tool

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2026-002 Executive Summary This article documents how one person in Toronto started a grassroots movement around digital democracy tools, showing an unconventional path of community-building through weekly open calls rather than formal organizational structure. The facilitator made extreme personal sacrifices to dedicate full time and energy to promoting

Going Public: Launch Strategies and Partnerships

Article ID: AN-LLE-2026-001 Abstract: Launching a community technology platform represents a critical transition from internal development to public service, requiring a strategic balance between immediate impact and long-term sustainability. While "big, loud launches" offer instant visibility, they often invite catastrophic technical failures and volunteer burnout; instead, a "

Civic Spark

Case ID: CASE-LLE-2025-009 Executive Summary Civic Spark was a one-time conference celebrating 10 years of Civic Tech Toronto. This wasn't just another event—it was organized during this "civic tech winter," a time when energy around community technology work was low in both Canada and the

Story of Designing BikeSpace