Met a guy called Anthony on the train the other day and thought his Opinion Collecting & Summarising Tool sounded quite interesting. Do we think it could be useful for co-ops?
"Got Opinions is a digital opinion box for communities that is an app and a website. People anonymously share their views on local issues (takes 30 seconds via voice or text, or could be 10 minute ramble!). AI breaks it out into the main points and why they think like that. They approve and that’s it. Super low friction. In exchange, everyone (community leaders and users) get weekly reports showing what their whole community thinks. The idea is to make it radically easier to get involved in the democratic process and break down echo chambers. Doing this captures voices excluded from traditional consultations - shift workers, parents, introverts, disabled residents, etc. A lot of people in my home town of Hastings want to get involved and find out what others think, but the friction is huge.
Website: got-opinions.com
The AI element handles transcription and pattern detection - spotting when, for instance, 50 people mention the same broken streetlight or finding consensus across different groups.
To address the likely co-op questions upfront:
Open source? No. But the backend analytics of how it works is deliberately transparent. Main concern is sustainability - need to cover AI processing costs (each opinion costs money to analyze). Happy to explore models that balance openness with viability. Ideally, I’d like to build this out as a platform for communities to understand each other and make it much easier for people to get involved in the democratic process. Fully aware this is threading a delicate needle, but the problem with toxic social media and flame wars between those that shout the loudest is real as we discussed!
Ownership structure? Currently just me as founder. Plan to make it a limited company with social values. I know this might clash with co-op values. I’m genuinely motivated by democratizing voice, not extracting value from communities. I was a documentary filmmaker for many years making human rights docs and I saw first-hand how echo chambers lead to civil fragmentation. Antony Butts - IMDb
Would love to explore whether there’s a model that works for everyone - maybe co-ops could use it for member engagement, or we could develop a co-op version together?
Building the MVP at the moment and exploring partnerships in Hastings where I live to do the pilot.
Happy to demo it and have an honest conversation about the ownership tension.
Best,
Antony Butts"