Frequently Asked Questions

The key is alignment: “where” do we want to go? Alignment is critical for collaboration of any sort. Especially as collaboration crosses organizational boundaries. And the issues facing our society, large and small, cannot be solved by people or organizations working alone.

Teams/Slack/Google Workspace/Whatsapp etc. are all great for interacting and producing - but they do not put the change central. And having a clear shared understanding of the change is critical. Read more about this in our blogpost.

We believe that we can succeed in working on challenges, together. That is why Alkemio is an open source platform, to benefit everyone. Generally, Open Source software is software that can be freely accessed, used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. Open source software is made by many people, and distributed under licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition. The license used by Alkemio is the EU-PL license.

Alkemio is proud to be contributing as a practical example of how to do open source in a societal innovation context. Perhaps more importantly we are also keen to share our learnings on the challenges and barriers faced in our journey.

Explore our code base at the Alkemio Github repository.

Alkemio comes from the idea that to create something good that also works there is a need of mixed elements. Our new name reflects that solving complex challenges needs a mix of knowledge, collaboration, creativity, dedication and some magic. Alkemio started from an idea and some core values attached to it. The idea was to create an innovative web space where people can interact and cooperate on things they share interests in. The core values and purpose are explained in the Foundation page, but the sense of community is a core one. After consulting that page you will understand what do we stand for and what we want to achieve.

Public values should be central. We love tech. But not how it is often used. We do not want data and digital tools to exploit people. Interactions should benefit public values, rather than commercial or other interests.

The relationship between both websites is the following: Alkemio is the platform. It helps you make progress on challenges, together. It is backed by the Alkemio Foundation to guarantee its purpose.

You will therefore find all these challenges and contributors at alkem.io. Then, on alkemio.org you can find more about the foundation behind Alkemio, such as our Manifesto, the team and our partners, as well as relevant content such as blogposts and recent newsletters.

There are multiple levels on the Alkemio platform:

• Space: Frame of reference
• Subspace: Understanding the issues to be addressed within the frame of reference

It is hierarchical in that Spaces contain Subspaces, which in turn can contain further Subspaces - with the Alkemio Platform hosting many Spaces.

Each level has a Community around it. Individuals and Organizations can choose to join a Space to contribute to multiple Subspaces around a certain theme. It is also possible to join separate Subspaces in different Spaces.

Within all three levels, Users can discuss the topic, share relevant information in a structured manner, and brainstorm by using whiteboards.

You can use the search functionality of Alkemio to look for a topic you are interested in. Subspaces will also appear in the Spaces search results. In a Space, you can also look in the Subspaces tab. Here you can also use the search functionality, or click on any tag to filter for Subspaces that have that tagg.

You can access your profile settings by clicking on your profile picture in the top right corner and selecting your profile from the menu. Then, click on the :gear: icon to open the settings. Here, you can update your bio, keywords, skills, and profile picture, among other things.

Currently, only organizations that have a partnership or subscription to the Alkemio platform will have a verified label.

On the Space level, there is one Organization responsible for the content of the Space, the Facilitating Organization. However, on a Subspace level, multiple Organizations can be leading, the Leading Organizations.

Whether members can create Subspaces depends on the settings chosen by the Space administrators. By default, only administrators can create Subspaces and assign Leading Users to help manage them. However, admins can choose to allow all members to create Subspaces if that suits the purpose of the Space.

You cannot create a Space on your own but you can contact us and we can create it with you and guide you in the process.

Alkemio offers the possibility to create, share and get knowledge on topics that are meaningful to more than one person and it gives you the tools to connect with those people and figure out solutions together. The platform fulfils three functions: challenge management, social network and marketplace. Through these functions users willing to cooperate will be able to connect, communicate and cooperate to solve common challenges. Facing big challenges within a community increases the chances of solving the issues.

There is no "owner" of a Subspace :) But there are "Leads", either Users or Organizations that care about what is being addressed in the Subspace. You can find them under the Leading Users and/or Organizations.

A lower level Subspace, which you may need to further divide your tasks or work, lives in exactly one Subspace. A Subspace can have multiple lower level Subspaces. If you want to "include" a Subspace in another Subspace, then we suggest to just reference it with a link, as each Subspace has a dedicated URL that can be used to refer to it. For example, said link could be included in the “References” section or in a Collaboration Tool.

Each Space, and each Subspace, can choose (a) who can see the content (b) who can contribute. This is tied to membership, and how a user becomes a member of a Space or Subspace is also a setting. The default setup is that when a user is a member of a Space, then the member can access all content in Subspaces and can contribute to all Subspaces. So it is by default open as we want everyone to be able to contribute! However, each Subspace can then choose to (a) require users to become members of a Subspace to see the content in the Subspace (a "private" Subspace) (b) require users to become members to be able to contribute (add comments in a Subspace etc). There are also other settings available e.g. related to who can create a lower level Subspace in a Subspace.

Open-source refers to the source code that provides the functionality on the Alkemio platform. It does not imply that the data is open. The data, such as the content of the Space, can be only accessed by the users that have the right credentials. As a member of a certain Space, you will be able to access the data from the Space you’re a member of, but not from other (private) Spaces. The data is protected at the api level, with there being an explicit authorization model for all key pieces of data on the platform that determines who can access each piece of data. The platform adheres to GDPR, and the data is stored within the EU (in particular, using a Microsoft data center in The Netherlands). Note that the data for a Space is also accessible in a structured way for users of the Space (through this datamodel), which makes it very easy to transfer to a different environment.

You can only delete a Space for which you have the rights to, for example if you created it. To do so, click on your profile menu in the top right, go to "My Profile", and click on the Settings icon (the cog) near your name. From there, go to "Account" and check your Hosted Spaces. Click on the three-dots menu and then on Delete. You're set!

You can send a comment under any collaboration tool, just start the comment by tagging your Virtual Contributor and start collaborating.

Yes, of course that's possible! But for the Early Access Program, we encourage you to focus/start with one.

At the moment that is not possible. Agency will be added in the future so it can operate more independently. This will always be a setting, so you have the control to allow this or not allow it.

1. Currently, in each thread you can only interact with one Virtual Contributor. So if you have tagged one of your VCs in a discussion, you need to start a new one to interact with a second VC. At the moment, this is disabled because otherwise, two or more Virtual Contributors could collaborate together, which could get out of control. When we can control this, we will enable it on the platform!

2. Your VC will not respond to a message that is already a reply to another message. Thread replies will be enabled soon.

At the moment, the VC can read the information in the messages where it is tagged, and basic information about the Space it was tagged in. Later on, the VC will be able to read the entire context of the space and community (if you let it).

You can change the setting to public or private.

When you choose public, space admins of other spaces can see and invite your VC to join their space. You always have to accept or decline the invitation. You can also rent it out to scale up your reach/business.

When you choose private, only you can see your VC profile and add it to your space. When it is in a space, the community in that space can see it and collaborate with it. This means that when the space is public, everyone taking a look in the space can see your VC. You decide the levels of privacy and access.

Yes, you can! All VCs that have the setting to be seen publicly can be invited to join your space. It is up to the owner of that VC to accept this invite.

At the moment, you can post plain text in any collaboration tool and upload text-based PDFs, Excel files, and Word files. We are working to implement more file types and extensions!

The VC combines the information you train it on with the knowledge of the Large Language Model it runs on. We are working to make sure there are correct quotes when the VC answers by referencing information provided by the creator.

No, your inputs or data will not be used to train the Large Language Model on which the VC is based on.

We keep fine-tuning how the Virtual Contributors work and have built-in checks and balances to avoid AI hallucinations as much as possible. We also ensure the answers are professional and appropriate. However, the output of the VCs depends on the knowledge given by the user, and it may not always give correct answers. We do our best to provide the source from where the answer was given and keep fine-tuning the VC for a better experience as the technology improves.