I believe that in order for libre software to serve the people, we need to make sure that the process is actually democratic. The voices of normal people has to be heard.

There is miniscule interest for libre software developers to listen to normal people. It is understandable. They invest their free time to create something and they have their own vision of what they want to develop. Developers may also be disinterested because there is too much that can go wrong.

I also think that normal people understand this and it has gotten to the point that nobody is even trying to give any feedback.

I believe the lack of enthusiasm is because there isn’t any arena for voicing these desires.

I believe what we are missing is an arena to cultivate the relationship between developers and people. Where people can voice what they want, generate attention for these desires and connecting people to developers.

My suggestion

I’m imagining a platform where a person can create a post voicing their desires. A person can give peer support to desiree where they argue why this would help them as well. Developers can propose a solution. A peer supporter can vote on this solution as interested/uninterested. A peer supporter can apply for mandate which desiree can grant. A person can propose software that already exist or are in development that will satisfy the desire. The desiree’s voting is highlighted.

If developer and mandates are satisfied with the response, they can proceed to the next step where they meet up in any format to get a thorough understanding of what the participants expectations are. If the participants agree, a post will be created associated with the original post with an official statement of what will happen. The mandates and the developer will sign the contract. This will notify all peer supporters. The rest of the project can happen independently from this arena.