Gov/en/Portal:Onboarding/Create-User-Group
💡 In simple words: A User Group is a team that runs one part of WikiDeal, like babysitting in a city. They say what they need, and the foundation helps build a smart app for them. This page shows how to start your own group.
⚠️ Not yet approved. This page describes a proposal that is still under community review. It is documented here so it can be discussed, improved and endorsed.
Launch a User Group
WikiDeal scales horizontally through User Groups. A User Group runs a specific portal (for example, babysitting in Geneva, or web design globally) and writes the contracts governing its members. A service is something offered within a portal — the portal is the unit a User Group is built around, not an isolated service.
Purpose
Every User Group has a clear purpose. The most common one is to develop a dedicated smart app for the group's portal. The User Group expresses its needs; the Ynternet.org Foundation builds the complete smart app for them during the early use-case phase. If the Foundation judges the project worthwhile, it develops the app, provides resources, and helps bring in lawyers who endorse the relevant contracts.
In short:
- The User Group edits the wiki (its portal, contracts, use cases).
- The Ynternet.org Foundation realises the smart app (with its prototype) when it includes the use case, and makes resources available — especially lawyers who endorse and recognise the contracts.
Steps
- Identify yourself. Members must be logged in and identified. A User Group is built on people who take responsibility, not anonymous accounts.
- Choose your portal. Define the portal your group will run (a service category, a region, a language community). It should be clear and legally definable.
- Define your region and language. Decide whether your group operates globally (digital) or locally (physical), and which language governs the contracts: local, national, or language-based.
- Recruit founding members. WikiDeal requires a minimum of 3 founding members (at least one coordinator) to establish a new User Group and prevent abandoned portals.
- State your purpose and needs. Describe what your group wants to achieve — typically the smart app and contracts you need. This is what the Foundation reviews to decide whether to develop for you.
- Board of Audit review. When a User Group is created, the Board of Audit reviews it — for alignment with WikiDeal's principles (AGPL v3 licensing, non-extractive model, applicable laws). The review is meant to stay flexible and fluid, not a fixed waiting period.
- Launch your portal. Once endorsed, your User Group gets its dedicated portal, autonomous treasury tracking, and voting rights in WikiDeal governance — and, where the use case is taken up, its smart app.
Ready to start?
Before submitting an official proposal, discuss your idea on the wiki. You must be logged in and identified to submit a proposal draft.