We don’t just name what’s going wrong, we build the alternative ourselves. Our approach follows the X: we tear down what holds us back and build what comes next. In everything, we ask the same first question: what does this do to power?
Our standard approach
In everything we do, these two methods are the starting point.
Transition management: the X-Curve. The model of two crossing movements: the phase-out of the old and the build-up of the new. This is where the X comes from. Not a branding gimmick, but a recognised transition methodology.
Power analysis. The standing question with every method: how is power distributed and how is it held to account? Who decides, who gets a say, who wins, who loses? An analytical lens that runs through all of our themes.
Tearing down what holds us back
Monitoring and looking under the bonnet. We gather evidence that puts the status quo under pressure: we measure, we check, and we look behind the scenes of systems that evade scrutiny. That’s how HEIO, the Democratie Monitor and our algorithm and disinformation research work.
Democracy-by-design. We design rules of the game and institutions so that rights are protected up front: prevention rather than repair after the fact. That translates into position papers, policy advice, and the principle of rules up front rather than checks after the fact.
Building what comes next
Imagining and storytelling: mobilising people. Without a story and imagination, you mobilise no one. We always put imagination in the service of the transition, through our narrative, the post-X frames and our events.
Experimenting and building it ourselves. As an incubator we build initiatives and let them become independent. See Vrije Cloud, MeshMedia and the software we make.
Connecting and mobilising: systems convening. We bring people and initiatives together around a systemic question, from our community meetups to the wider movement we help to organise.
Building resilience. We make people and communities digitally resilient, through our polarisation teaching pack, our workshops and counter-disinformation playbooks.
That’s how we work on both legs of the X at once. We back everything up with evidence, not gut feeling, and we share our methods openly and verifiably, so that others can build on them.