The Common
Using Art and AI to depolarise conversations and rebuild trust in democracy.
To transform the engagement experience people have with democracy and in place. We aim to empower citizens as custodians because their voices and solutions are heard by those in power.
We are working with academic experts in deliberative democracy and leading AI software tools designers to create an exciting community platform with the purpose of providing the much needed way to connect what people want to those in power.
"The Common" is a deliberative democracy platform that positively engages citizens through the medium of art and music. It addresses the high cost of traditional assemblies by using easy technology to offer frequent, scalable engagement for unheard voices as well as a route for government and organisations to pose questions to its audiences in a fun, creative way.
The Challenge
72% do not feel like they have a say in how the country is run.
57% have low/no trust in government.
57% distrust business, media and NGOs.
High fear that leaders lie is at an all time high.
c.41M number of people that haven't shared their view on how they want to future-proof the country.
Up to £750k the cost to host a citizens' assembly.
The Approach
The progression of Ai as a technology means it is becoming easier to scale the way in which we hold online conversations as well as build replicas of market audiences.
"The Common" is a technology platform designed to engage citizens in an approachable way through art and music to:
• Increase engagement with democracy by using art and music to build community first
• Make democratic conversations easier, particularly for our unheard voices today
• Enable citizens to engage with conversation in a depolarised way, often promoted by traditional social media platforms
• Directly reduce the cost of citizen engagement so power can speak more frequently to its audience.
The Founders
Lauren Thompson, founding director of Roots and Futures and co-founder of "The Common" with over 10 years' experience in central government at the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Justice. Lauren has led large scale digital and people transformation programmes, including £1bn digital court reforms and Civil Service wide efficiency drives both covering a workforce 500,000 strong and £65m of corporate services budget for the Cabinet Office, including sustainability. Prior to government Lauren spent over 15 years in the private sector designing business process outsourcing approaches and contact centre business development. Read Lauren's story here.
Peter Southall, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of "The Common" with over 20 years' experience in testing, development and architecture design in trade compliance, aviation, rail, sustainability and engineering sectors. University of Nottingham alumni, expert in ant algorithms [AS/ASCO] and Ai.
v.1 launches in Spring 2026
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