Before we can get started telling you more of the real stories - the day in, day out ebb and flow of life in a disrupter, we thought it made sense to cover off the milestones we have hit so far. Looking at them, we are feeling pretty happy. We may still have a long way to go but we’ve also come a long way.

MILESTONES. THE INSTITUTE

10 NOVEMBER 2016

NewVote is founded as a for-purpose (a not-for-profit), Australia.

NOVEMBER 2017

We fostered cooperation among the digital democracy sector at the inaugural Australian Digital Democracy Forum, Melbourne, Australia.

SEPTEMBER 2017

Registered educational charity with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission, Australia.

DECEMBER 2017

Presented the concept at TedXBrisbane in a one-minute pitch to the crowd, Australia.

NOVEMBER 2018

Assembled a research committee who have responsibility for our research fund and research program.

JANUARY 2019

Dr Ron Levy, an Australian National University academic, joined us as our research director.

FEBRUARY 2019

Australian Government officially recognised us as an Approved Research Institute (ARI). The Australian Tax Office endorsed us as a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR-1).

MARCH 2019

Chris Saad, the former Head of Uber’s Developer Platform, joined us as our start-up adviser.

APRIL 2019

Presented our model on the panel, Participation, Engagement and Empowerment at the United Nations University-backed International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, Melbourne, Australia.

May 2019

Democracy Expo, Melbourne Knowledge Week event co-facilitated with the Power to the People study at Meat Market, Melbourne, Australia.

MILESTONES. THE APP

JUNE 2017

Winner of the ‘People's Choice Award’ at the Random Hacks of Kindness event, Brisbane, Australia.

NOVEMBER 2017

'Soft' launched our prototype of the app at the inaugural Australian Digital Democracy Forum which we hosted.

DECEMBER 2017 / JANUARY 2018

Presented at the panel Future Democracy at the Woodford Folk Festival, Australia.

MARCH 2018

Presented at the Digital Democracy Forum - distributed politics and governance hosted by RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

SEPTEMBER 2018

Presented at the panel, What technology is making democracy more democratic? at the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy in Rome, Italy.

AUGUST 2018

Launched a beta version of our app, UQvotes, with the help of 16 University of Queensland student volunteers, Australia.

SEPTEMBER 2018

Presented at the panel, What technology is making democracy more democratic? at the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy in Rome, Italy.

DECEMBER 2018

Launched a Woodfordia version of our app, alongside the six-day workshop and listening series, Redesigning Democracy held at the Woodford Folk Festival. Co-facilitated by Dr Lyn Carson of newDemocracy Foundation, and designer Bill Bannear of ThinkPlace, Singapore.

July 2019

Launched the community SpeakUP with the University of Queensland Student Union.

TODAY

We have over 14 communities and over 660 active users — including a for-profit business, a university, a political party, a nonpartisan ‘political observatory’ in Ecuador, a media platform and several other NGOs.