The book, 'We The People - Consenting To A Deeper Democracy' by John Buck and Sharon Villines is the definitive guide in English: http://www.sociocracy.info/we-the-people
The Wikipedia entry gives a really useful overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocracy as does the the Dutch Center
Some members have started to try to answer the question What is Sociocracy? personally, and we hope to add a variety of personal replies to this question over time. Why not add your attempt to explain it in one paragraph there? You might also find members' responses here useful, as well as musing over (and responding to) the personal development questions posed too. And here's a DecisionLab version.
Martin Grimshaw has also generated a basic 1 page graphic which gives a useful overview of the essentials, which you can download and use for free from here
"I'm on my own... how could I possibly introduce this big system to my team?" http://www.sociocracy.info/sociocracy-for-one/
There are some great short Videos here on our site, featuring Gerard Endenberg, John Buck and others.
Shortened version of 'Democracy as it might be'; first published in May 1945, by Kees Boeke (1884-1966) - the article that nearly cost him his life, and which touches on its Quaker influence: http://worldteacher.faithweb.com/sociocracy.htm
Sociocracy, a short essay by Lester Frank Ward, 1893
http://www.slideshare.net/dinugherman/sociocracy
More here on the history and development of Sociocracy, by Martin Grimshaw & Francois Knuchel.
Email discussion group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sociocracy/
The newly launched international centre, in English, with great links, community, and resources. Based in the USA, but directly an offspring of the former centre in the Netherlands, and borne of the first international conference that took place in Canada 2010: http://www.socionet.us
There are regular workshops for tools that are effective on their own, such as collaborative consent-based decision making but which also function as incremental steps in fostering a healthier, learning, Sociocratic organisation. Sign up to this network to stay in touch with regular offerings, or at the front page of this site.
What would you add ?
Replies
More information also available in What is Sociocracy Forum section.
In particular Who (what organisations) is using Sociocracy. Please to this forum by adding organisations you know are using sociocracy. Thank you.
The url (website address) link to the yahoo email discussion group is incorrect. it should be:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sociocracy.
There’s a new publication on the resources page!
“Dynamic Governance for Nonprofit Organizations,” by John Buck and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez, explains how the principles of dynamic governance, also known as sociocracy, apply to nonprofit organizations, and serves as a supplement to the article “The Creative Forces of Self-Organization.”
Great Radio Interview with John Buck: We The People: Consenting To A Deeper Democracy http://ow.ly/jM6SH : 4 April by Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio
Creative Forces of Self Organisation, a 25-page article by John Buck and Gerrard Endenburg describing the basics of Sociocracy with some live examples of how it works in practice (example of circle meeting).
http://www.sociocracy.com - English version of Sociocratie Zentrum website in Holland (Global Centre of Sociocracy), with a more continental European perspective on Sociocracy.