Skype Conference

[Its me Mario]

Hi All,

I stumbled across votorola a few weeks ago and I've been listening in on the
google group when time allows. I've been extremely busy so no time to get
involved so far (plus not sure what I can bring to the table at this point)
but this seems like a good time to poke my head in and say hello.

I'm studying voting-based interaction on the web towards a Sociology/Stats
PhD at a UK University, but the reason I got into that initially was a
strong interest in E-Democracy... I couldn't find any really interesting
examples of e-democracy to study two years ago, so I've been studying mostly
Social News sites until now.

I tried to make my own democratically run non-profit shop last year (still
up at www.socapital.org) before realising that I really don't have the
programming/web-dev skills to advance e-democracy platforms myself in any
meaningful way.

My background is in experimental psychology and I've produced a journal
article or two while I was doing that. Experimentation and analysis is what
I think I could bring to the Votorola project, although I don't know whether
that's on the current list of priorities...

At the point where there's some sort of prototype of the software up and
running I could recruit participants and run experimental instances of it
(provided I can play with some of the variables of how it works). Or, if you
get an instance of the software up and running for public consumption and
provide me with detailed data on how its being used I could analyse that to
see what I can learn. The goal in both cases would be to produce some
findings to publish in a journal article or present at conferences... so it
could conceivably help the project both by increasing understanding and
increasing awareness among academics.

Like I say I'm very busy these days, but I'll continue to follow the project
and if you think of some way that I can help out then let me know!

Richard

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 9:23 PM, Michael Allan <mike at zelea.com> wrote:

> Alex understands the top-level design of the prototype.  I think he
> also has domain requirements similar to yours David, because it
> appears that his use cases place similar stresses on the design.  You
> guys should talk, as Alex says.
>
> David you mention "common goals".  Just quickly, here are my
> longstanding goals:
>
>  1. Start building the theory.
>     a) Explore and document the theory in academic papers.
>     b) Open a discourse with academics and other theoreticians.
>  2. Finish prototyping the practice.
>     a) Put the architectural documents in proper form.
>     b) Prototype a UI client, such as crossforum theatre (hard).
>     c) Prototype free-range drafting (easy).
>
> Alex may also need 2a and 2b, so we're trying to coordinate.  I hope
> to start shifting my work in that direction by next week.  (Just need
> to catch up on emails Alex (including yours) and post a theory outline
> first.)
>
> Same for you David.  If you need anything under 1 or 2, then we can
> try to coordinate.  But my intial impression is that you have other
> priorities ("delivering an outcome for a client") and you see 1 and 2
> as premature.
>
> David Bovill wrote:
> > ... the scope of any such project can easily be limited to
> > delivering an outcome for a client - after which everyone can go
> > back to their own thing taking whatever code, assets and experiences
> > were generated by the work (as these would be open).
>
> Without a complete, functional prototype we have nothing in principle
> to deliver to anyone, never mind a paying client (if that's the hope).
> We're still exploring the design possiblities, still pioneering.  I
> doubt we're anywhere near any kind of a production stage, yet.  But I
> guess it depends on what we put into it.  So if you want to accelerate
> things, please consider putting stuff into the prototyping effort -
> "after which", as you say, "everyone can go back to their own thing" -
> you to your clients, Alex to his co-ops, I to my theory, and so forth.
>
> --
> Michael Allan
>
> Toronto, +1 647-436-4521
> http://zelea.com/

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