[MG] Social mapping in crossforum theatre

[Alexander Praetorius]

""There's a larger problem, though.  How to do this in cross-project
fashion?  We want the theatre app to remain open and inviting to all
projects.  But unlike the dynamics (or more so), the structural aspects of
consensus and governance are closely tied to particular mechanisms of voting
and promulgation.  That means that any structural map we code is going to be
tied to a particular vote-server [4].  How can we get around this?""

Although I cannot prove it, I have a strong feeling it might not be possible
to use a single visualization from top to bottom. So in the end, the
crossforum theater is at the top of a topdown perspective on the whole
process and it's visualization has to stop at a "certain level". If someone
decides he wants to dig deeper into the voting process that led to the
results shown by the crossforum theater, he has to do it separately for all
the different voting tools which were involved.

This leads to the insight, that each voting tool needs its own visualization
mechanism and its very likely, that voting tools that do not provide good
visualization mechanisms might only be used by very few voters.

It might also lead to the insight, that a visual interface is needed, which
allows voting-tool-visualizations to dock into the
crossforum-theater-visualization.

Doing such a thing as a crossforum theater is very daring all by itself,
because of the problem that led to this question. I still cannot grasp how
it might be possible to unify the results of different approaches from
different voting tools.
Nevertheless, if the crossforum theater succeeds, everyone will benefit from
it.



-----Original Message-----
From: start-bounces at metagovernment.org
[mailto:start-bounces at metagovernment.org] On Behalf Of Michael Allan
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 6:32 AM
To: Metagov
Subject: [MG] Social mapping in crossforum theatre

A proposal for a social-structural map for crossforum theatre; also a
request for ideas on how to keep it open for all projects:

Ed and Thomas suggest that we must actually start doing collaborative
governance - or consensus making, or whatever we call our objective -
at some point [1].  Alexander Praetorius reminds us that we won't make
much progress till we can visualize the matter at hand, especially in
its particulars [2].  Conseo is working on a visualization of one
aspect of this.  His diff feed is designed to reveal the dynamics of
consensus making, as it happens.

Those are social dynamics.  To complete the picture, we need a
visualization of the corresponding structural aspect, namely the
particular social structures in which those dynamics are embedded.
Then if we put both aspects (dynamic and structural) side by side in
the theatre app (as feed and map [3]), we'll be able to see the
governance we are collaborating on, or the consensus we are making.
That's the crucial thing.

Technically, what we'd need for this is a social-structural "map" in
the theatre app.  We could start working on it right away, posting
mockups for the visuals, and so forth.  (It'll be a bit of challenge
to design.)

There's a larger problem, though.  How to do this in cross-project
fashion?  We want the theatre app to remain open and inviting to all
projects.  But unlike the dynamics (or more so), the structural
aspects of consensus and governance are closely tied to particular
mechanisms of voting and promulgation.  That means that any structural
map we code is going to be tied to a particular vote-server [4].  How
can we get around this?


[1] Tunisia and activism in general.
 
http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-January/00
3491.html

    Home page redesign competition.
 
http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-January/00
3520.html

[2] Tunisia and activism in general.
 
http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-January/00
3486.html

[3] http://zelea.com/project/votorola/a/crossforum/theatrePlan.png

[4] For example, here's a social-structural visual (outside of the
    theatre app) for a Votorola vote-server:
    http://u.zelea.com:8080/v/w/Votespace?u=Test-be-ZeleaCom&p=G!p!sandbox

    That's a snapshot of the communicative structure of consensus and
    dissensus for a particular (simulated) issue.  A map to visualize
    that kind of thing in crossforum theatre would have a similar
    logical structure (tree-like).  But it would be different (maybe
    not tree-like) for other vote-servers.  That's the problem.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/

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