We’re proud to announce that Frankly is now officially open source under the AGPL license — a major milestone in our mission to build public interest infrastructure for constructive dialog and collaborative decision-making. Read our press release on the BKC website.
In a time when democracy depends on our ability to work through differences constructively, we need better ways to talk. Frankly is our platform for structured, video-based dialogue, designed to help people deliberate effectively across divides and within diverse groups.
Today, we’re inviting the public to contribute to Frankly because we believe democratic tools should be built democratically. When the code behind Frankly is as open and participatory as the conversations it supports, we ensure the platform serves public—not private—interests. Our goal is a tool that is accessible, adaptable, and accountable to everyone, not locked inside proprietary systems.
A year ago, Harvard acquired the Kazm Video codebase from Lightning Rod Labs co‑founders Ben Turtel and Danny Franklin, giving us the technical foundation on which to build our new platform. By September of last year, we had quietly launched a closed beta of Frankly. Since then, we’ve worked closely with early users to refine the product and rebuild its architecture for greater modularity, maintainability, and a smoother contributor experience.
We’re incredibly honored that our first external code contribution came from Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador-at-large, who added support for internationalization. Her contribution lays the groundwork for Frankly to become truly accessible to participants worldwide, regardless of what language they speak. We’ve also been collaborating closely with Unify America, whose deep experience with citizen deliberation has proven invaluable as we work to make Frankly more intuitive and prioritize features that effectively support citizens assemblies and other deliberative processes.
How You Can Get Involved:
Developers: We need your help! If you’re a software engineer passionate about building tools for democracy, check out our Want to help? issue to get started. You can also support us by starring our GitHub repo and sharing it with your friends & colleagues.
Community Leaders: We’re particularly interested in hearing from civic organizations addressing local challenges, government agencies seeking citizen input, and organizations dedicated to bridging societal divides through respectful, constructive dialogue. If that sounds like your work, and you think your community could benefit from structured video dialogue, please email hello@frankly.org to request access to our closed beta. We’d love to talk with you!
Everyone: Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for the Deliberations mailing list to receive occasional news about Frankly’s progress and opportunities to get involved.
If you’re curious about our development process, check out the Frankly Public Workstream to explore everything from bug fixes to major feature launches. For a broader view, check out our Roadmap, which outlines our strategic priorities
As Frankly’s faculty sponsor Lawrence Lessig has argued—democracy depends not just on voting, but on the quality of our deliberations.
By making Frankly open source, we’re not just releasing code. We’re inviting a global community to help build the infrastructure for better democratic conversation. Whether you’re a developer, a community organizer, or simply someone who believes in the power of constructive dialogue, there’s a place for you in our community.
Frankly, I can’t wait to build it together.
Samantha Shireman
Product Manager for Frankly