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A live report of what your city actually thinks

Every two weeks we ask a representative mix of residents what’s on their minds and publish a report based on their words — helping keep local conversations focused on what matters to all, not just the most vocal and powerful.

orRead the Live Report

Takes about 2 minutes. Easy. No spam. Your data’s never sold.

  1. Your voice

    Once or twice a month, we invite you to share what’s on your mind about Burlington.

  2. Understood

    We read it closely to understand it and tag it by key issues.

  3. Shaping the Live Report

    Your words are counted by issue and drawn together into themes, alongside a representative mix of your neighbors.

  4. Guiding the Conversation

    The Live Report helps keep civic conversations focused on what matters most.

How it works

You shape the report.
The report shapes the city.

We text you open-ended questionnaires called Pulse Ballots. You can write about the burning issue you’ve been thinking about for weeks, or we’ll help you think about what’s useful to share.

  1. You register

    Once, in about two minutes.

    What we ask for

    • Your cell number

      So we can text you Pulse Ballots — and confirm you’re a real person.

    • Basic demographics

      Used only to make sure all voices are heard, checked against Census and other public data.

    What we guarantee

    • We never spam you

      We only contact you with invitations to respond — never anything else.

    • Your personal data is never sold

      Not to advertisers, not to campaigns, not to anyone.

    • Never traced back to you

      Just like voting on election day — your voice is counted publicly, and you’re verified as a real person — but your vote is never tied to you directly. That’s our approach to your responses.

  2. You respond

    A text, once or twice a month at most.

    Every two weeks we invite a different representative sample of residents to respond, ensuring no one hears from us too often or too little. We’ll ask a simple question like:

    DemocracyOSBTV-1739

    Thinking about your life in Burlington lately, what’s been on your mind?

    Only two rules: be honest, and be human.

    Rents keep going up faster than paychecks. I want my kids to be able to stay in the city they grew up in.

  3. We turn it into the Live Report

    Every response counted, every two weeks.

    Our system reads every response and distills them all into a clear picture: which issues come up most often, and what residents are actually saying about them.

    Rents keep going up faster than paychecks. I want my kids to be able to stay in the city they grew up in.
    HousingWard 3
    Housing

    of voices

    We update the city’s Live Report every two weeks: giving everyone — residents, representatives, and reporters alike — a data-backed, methodical, and neutral source to point to when shaping discourse and governing.

    Read the Live Report →
Why

Because a government can’t serve people it can’t hear.

We’re building DemocracyOS to be a publicly funded resource that makes the honest, thoughtful will of the public clear — helping make government more responsive to the needs of real people.

Our goal is to make elected, representative government work better everywhere.

Redesigning democracy

We believe the effective government of the future will need a trusted and reliable way to:

  1. Gather

    Collect honest, thoughtful input from every person and perspective.

  2. Understand

    Make sense of it all, and turn it into clear insights that are accurate enough to be trusted.

  3. Act

    Use that insight to genuinely inform government decision-making.

First

Register now.

We verify you’re real, then your responses are anonymous. Spamless, easy, and your data’s never sold. Publicly funded, for the public.

2 minutes to register · 1–2 texts a month · Stop anytime

Not in Burlington, VT? Preregister anywhere in the United States and we’ll alert you when your city goes live. Global preregistration opens in 2027.

Then

Make it possible.

DemocracyOS keeps the Live Report running solely with funding from residents like you — people who know that making the public’s voice clear, reliable, and easy to understand is a prerequisite to government that actually serves it.

Add your funding. You won’t get extra access or features — just the knowledge that you’re contributing to something larger than yourself.

Contribute →