The map is a to-do list
Every entry on this map names something buildable, fundable or decidable. Nothing here requires permission you don’t have. Pick a gap that matches what you can do and start, or find the people who already have.
Where to start: permission is mostly optional
Build now · 53
No permission needed. A competent team could start any of these this week, and for 53 of them the data is already available or sourceable. Don’t ask; ship, then show.
Build together · 42
No new law needed: these need a willing council, NHS body, union or regulator at the table. The dialogue page is our standing offer to public institutions: the ask, what we bring, what you gain, and a first step per gap.
State-led · 109
Only the state can ship these, but pressure, prototypes and evidence are permissionless, and many reduce to a commencement order someone has to keep asking for.
Who can act
Builders & founders
55 gaps are missing institutions; 22 are missing tools or datasets. Each entry is a product brief with sources.
- Browse buildable gaps
- Start small: an observatory, a register, a template library. Several entries are shippable by a tiny team.
- Tell us what you’re building and we’ll link it from the entry.
Funders
32 gaps are missing funding instruments; many are pooled vehicles no single funder could build alone, sized £1m–£50m.
- Browse funding gaps
- The recurring ask is patient, 5–10 year core funding, not another grant round.
- Talk to us about co-funding.
Organisers & communities
The civic gaps need people before money: neighbourhood boards, volunteer pipelines, community ownership, mutual aid that persists.
- Browse community gaps
- Adopt a gap locally: run the pilot your area is missing.
- Find others working on it.
Policymakers & officials
64 gaps are policy-shaped, and many are embarrassingly cheap: commencement orders for law already passed, registers already legislated.
- Browse policy gaps
- Check the watchlist for the live windows: consultations, break clauses, bills in passage.
- Ask for the underlying dossier.
Researchers & journalists
16 gaps are missing evidence; every entry carries sources that can be interrogated, extended or demolished.
- Browse knowledge gaps
- Correct us: entries that don’t survive scrutiny should die in public.
- Take the dataset and build on it.
Everyone
Sovereignty starts with defaults you control.
- Move one group chat, one backup, one login to infrastructure you control; the resource hub lists what works today.
- Put one gap in front of your MP via WriteToThem.
- Leave your contact and we’ll match you to a gap.
How we think about action
The doctrine behind this page is blunt: the binding constraint on better governance is not technology but participation. Showing up and building is how you put a hand on the tiller. Three working rules follow:
- Build, don’t only petition. Where a gap is buildable, the fastest fix is a working demonstration. Where it is a policy gap, the ask is usually embarrassingly small (commence the law, fund the register), and a working demonstration strengthens the ask.
- Expand a mission before founding an institution. The cheapest route to filling a gap is usually an existing community (a union branch, a co-op, a congregation, a professional network) adopting it, not a new organisation incorporating from zero.
- Fixing and building alternatives are complements. Reform makes existing institutions less brittle; parallel institutions are the pressure valve and the hedge. Exit disciplines voice. This map carries both tracks deliberately.
And three tests for anything you build, from the same source: does it minimise distrust (no unaccountable centre to take on faith)? Does it enable self-determination? Does it provide safe exit: can people leave with their assets and standing at bearable cost? See the full application of the book to this map in the about page.
Contact
It all runs through the repository: open an issue on GitHub. Say which gap (by number), what you can bring, and what you need. Claimed gaps get linked from their entries so effort compounds instead of duplicating.