Beacon Platform Docs

Beacon Community Health Model

3 min read

Framework for measuring community satisfaction through sentiment and behavioral metrics.

Purpose

Beacon measures community satisfaction using sentiment analysis alongside other methodologies. It evaluates participation, trust, and governance health over time.

Community health is treated as an emergent property of behavior, combining sentiment insights with behavioral metrics.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Core principle

Healthy communities are not louder; they are steadier.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Model overview

Beacon Community Health is composed of six pillars.

graph TD
  A[Community Health] --> P[Participation]
  A --> E[Equity & Inclusion]
  A --> T[Trust & Safety]
  A --> C[Process Clarity]
  A --> R[Governance Responsiveness]
  A --> L[Outcome Legitimacy]

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

The six pillars

1) Participation Health

What we measure:

  • Participation rate.
  • Repeat participation.
  • Completion rate.
  • RSVP to attendance ratio.

Healthy indicators:

  • Stable or rising participation.
  • Broad distribution across community.
  • Low abandonment.

2) Equity and Inclusion

What we measure:

  • Participation concentration (top 10%).
  • First-time participant frequency.
  • Anonymous vs named participation.

Healthy indicators:

  • No dominance by small groups.
  • Regular new participants.
  • Anonymity by choice, not fear.

3) Trust and Psychological Safety

What we measure:

  • Return after inactivity.
  • Return after losing a vote.
  • Participation after controversy.
  • Anonymous engagement depth.

Healthy indicators:

  • Disagreement without disengagement.
  • People return after unfavorable outcomes.

4) Process Clarity and Friction

What we measure:

  • Abandonment rate.
  • Retry frequency.
  • Time to completion.
  • Clarification requests.

Healthy indicators:

  • Declining friction over time.
  • Faster completion.
  • Fewer retries.

5) Governance Responsiveness

What we measure:

  • Vote close to result time.
  • Percent of decisions with public outcomes.
  • Feedback to acknowledgment time.

Healthy indicators:

  • Predictable follow-through.
  • Visible accountability.
  • No black-box perception.

6) Outcome Legitimacy

What we measure:

  • Post-decision participation retention.
  • Appeals frequency.
  • Re-litigation of decisions.

Healthy indicators:

  • Acceptance without destabilization.
  • Few repeat challenges.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Implementation status

Currently tracked:

  • Participation rate.
  • Completion rate.
  • Time-to-result.
  • Repeat participation.
  • Anonymous vs named participation.

Future metrics:

  • Abandonment tracking.
  • Participation concentration.
  • One-click pulse checks.
  • Return-after-loss metric.
  • Outcome visibility flag.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Warning signals

Early indicators:

  • Declining repeat participation.
  • Fewer first-time participants.
  • Anonymous participation spike.
  • Increased retries or confusion.
  • Delayed outcomes.
flowchart LR
  A[Subtle Change] --> B[Participation Shift]
  B --> C[Trust Erosion]
  C --> D[Silent Disengagement]

Late indicators:

  • Public complaints.
  • Disengagement cascades.
  • Parallel organizing.
  • Legitimacy challenges.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Visualization concepts

Health dashboard

Community Health: Stable

Participation:      *****
Equity:             ****
Trust:              *****
Clarity:            ****
Responsiveness:     *****
Outcome Legitimacy: ****

Participation funnel

flowchart LR
  A[Eligible] --> B[Viewed]
  B --> C[Started]
  C --> D[Submitted]
  D --> E[Outcome Seen]

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Design philosophy

Sentiment analysis and behavioral metrics are complementary:

Sentiment analysis tells us:

  • How people feel (positive/neutral/negative).
  • What themes are present.

Behavioral metrics tell us:

  • If people keep participating.
  • If they trust the process.
  • If outcomes are accepted.

Together they provide a more complete picture of community health.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Strategic goal

Measure how collective decision-making is functioning through observable behavior and sentiment, not assumptions.

Sources: beacon-platform/apps/pulse-public/src/index.ts

Graph View

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