Vote Mirroring White Paper?

Alex Rollin alex.rollin at gmail.com
Tue Jan 18 08:11:05 EST 2011


I just ran across a post by Steven Clift to an email list I'm a member
of.  Steven is part of e-democracy.org and that group is working on a
next generation app for neighborly interaction.

http://pages.e-democracy.org/Neighborly

I wanted to ask Steven here if he could parse our page on Vote
Mirroring to see if he could grok the relevancy.

http://u.zelea.com/w/User:ThomasvonderElbe_GmxDe/Vote_mirroring

Steven,

Here's the short brief on vote mirroring from that page:

Split consensus - Mirroring can unify a consensus that is artificially
split among pollservers. With mirroring, voters can reach consensus on
a particular political issue, even when they are unable to agree on
which pollserver to use. The problem is solved because a user of one
pollserver appears as a voter on all pollservers.

Irrational competition - Mirroring can rationalize the competition
among pollserver providers. With mirroring, the providers can only
compete for users on the basis of whatever features and services they
provide. They cannot compete for voters as such, and thus divide the
votes. All pollservers share the same voters and votes.

Steven, as your group considers taking further steps in providing
e-democracy tools I wonder if we can work together on how Vite
Mirroring could unify our intent and put some code towards that end.

Vote Mirroring isn't just about where people vote; this is also about
the fact that people Don't vote in one place, and so as more and more
tools are created we, the solution providers, are actually adding to a
bifurcation.

In the application area of neighborhoods, is it not possible that
many, many groups may spring up, and that their boundaries will
overlap, and that people will be presented with choices about where to
vote?   Vote mirroring also applies in this situation.

Steven, I've sent this email to you and our votorola email list, the
home group for discussion of the open architecture created to support
things like Vote Mirroring.  I've also cc'd Thomas who was the
originator of the concept.  I invite you to comment.

Also, of note: Votorola was originally created as a public opinion
deliberation system.  It is not specifically Only for Voting.  I hope
you feel invited to talk about the non-binding nature of neighborly
discussions, and understand that it is my own fault for seeing a
nascent opportunity here in what you are looking to build.  As I see
it, wherever people talk there is also the opportunity for them to
organize as a polity.
--
Alex
werk: http://commoning.net
me: http://alexrollin.com
mob: +31 (0) 6 31 56 96 88
“It’s no longer possible for a country to collapse in isolation. Now
we all collapse.  The only path to stability is to equalize the
consumption rates of the first and developing world. Our dream is no
longer possible in the new world.” - Jared Diamond





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