[MG] Roadmap for my involvement

[Michael Allan]

Thanks Ed,

We need a group of folks who are: a) two or three strong at the core;
b) actively engaged in an effort of consensus making or decision
making that has growth potential; and c) open to working with
prototype tools for that purpose.  We might then break off our current
work and start fitting the toolset to the needs of that particular
group.  This would be helpful to us.

We have observed that such groups do exist, from time to time.  Quite
often they form around (or attract the services of) other technical
sites and toolsets.  This suggests a possible strategy: *

  1. Let other sites/tool providers do the work of finding and
     attracting users.  Let them put their marketing dollars and other
     resources to work for this purpose.

  2. Employ Thomas's vote mirroring to image the votes from all such
     sites.  Combine the images at a single vote-server (the mirror).

  3. Lure the most active and competent users (= candidates) to the
     mirror by providing them with tools to attract voters (= users)
     from other sites and forums.

This is our fallback strategy, as I see it.  But we are open to other
forms of collaboration that are hands on, practical and promising.  We
are also open to critique of the fallback strategy.  Will it work?


 * For more information on vote-mirroring as a fallback strategy, see:
   http://listserv.aoir.org/pipermail/air-l-aoir.org/2011-July/024104.html

-- 
Michael Allan

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


Ed Pastore wrote:
> Michael and conseo: I requested you cross-post this because I am still  
> hopeful that others on the metagov list will be interested in helping  
> you out. The problem is that Votorola is still pretty developer- 
> oriented and I am not sure that the average person approaching it can  
> find a way to offer you assistance (in terms of users or reaching  
> out). Is there a way that can be done, and if so, could you detail it?  
> Or do we need Thomas for that. :)
> 
> 
> On Sep 5, 2011, at 12:15 PM, Michael Allan wrote:
> 
> > (cc metagov, as requested)
> >
> > Hi C,
> >
> >> Do you use procmail? We could use it to setup the scraper instead of
> >> cron for the mailing list. Since you use irssi to log and run your
> >> chat client this applies to it as well, as I guess that it supports
> >> scripting.
> >
> > Myself, I use http://www.postfix.org/local.8.html
> >
> >> Since this is a prerequisite for my planned usage and tests with the
> >> tools I think it would be best to help you with anything being
> >> necessary to make the resource management work as quickly as
> >> possible. I dive in today and you might point me to a part I could
> >> take care of. ...
> >
> > So far, I've identified two parts.  You're welcome to take either of
> > these, or to suggest something else.  I can provide more details if
> > you're interested:
> >
> >  1. Resources track stack.
> >
> >     It sits just under the toolbar, either in the votespace map or in
> >     embedded views: http://zelea.com/y/vw/xf/#c=DV&s=G!p!sandbox
> >
> >     Its purpose is described here: (Resources slice stack)
> >     http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-June/004075.html
> >
> >     That actually describes the tracks (formerly "slices") for
> >     crossforum extent.  But you'd just code the track stack itself,
> >     which is an empty container, plus the component tracks for vote
> >     and quantitative summation accounts.  Other developers would add
> >     their own tracks later, as needed.
> >
> >  2. Client cache of server requests.
> >
> >     Its purpose is to prevent redundant requests from hitting the
> >     server, especially from separate browser windows that display
> >     similar views.  We'll use the HTML 5 client store to cache server
> >     requests for the life of the session.
> >
> >     The need is not specific to resources, but it comes up now
> >     because the embedded view in the difference bridge is going to be
> >     hitting the server, too.
> >
> > My own rationale (briefly) for working on this stuff is: (a) we need
> > users, which for us means voters; (b) the people to get voters are
> > politicians broadly speaking, or candidates; (c) the places to find
> > voters are vote-servers and discussion forums; (d) the extent of a
> > vote-getting campaign across multiple servers and forums is therefore
> > a useful resource for the participants; (e) tools are needed therefore
> > to "cultivate and harvest" cross-server and crossforum extent.  So I'm
> > making a beeline for that.
> >
> > My development strategy has been to start at the two ends of the I/O
> > pipe: the input end in the pollwiki where the resource information is
> > entered by the users; and the output end in crossforum theatre where
> > it is viewed.  The middle bits, which mostly involve the count engine,
> > will be coded last.  Meantime the server spits out simulated data for
> > testing of the theatre UI.
> >
> >> ... Btw. do you have a method to mirror resources? It would be
> >> really handy to mirror stuff like http://www.kickstarter.com/ as
> >> raising then happens in forums. Anyway you have something similiar
> >> for the crossforum extent in mind, so I think we share a common
> >> interest here.
> >
> > No, I haven't pursued the idea.  Till I see a few alpha users, I'm
> > focusing mostly on candidates.
> >
> >> You already have pointed parts out to me, so maybe we can skype
> >> around 18:00 GMT today to figure it out more closely.
> >
> > OK.
> >
> >> You have also talked about bringing the resource view to the
> >> difference bridge, which is interesting, since we might want to
> >> visualize the difference here differently, not in the semantic wiki
> >> markup style.
> >
> > I'm coding that now.  It's exactly the same difference bridge as
> > before (Wicket), but with a resources view embedded at top (GWT).
> >
> >> I have talked on #opensourceecology btw. and they have told me to
> >> write a proposal about using our software on their Wiki. I can write
> >> it up and draft it together with you if you like. Can we use a draft
> >> pointer to a text in any MediaWiki atm. or do they have to support
> >> that?
> >
> > No, all they require is a recent version of MW with the write API
> > enabled.  It's enabled by default.  But I wouldn't put serious time
> > into it unless they had an immediate need we could fill.
> >
> > -- 
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > C wrote:
> >> Hi Mike,
> >>
> >> I have fixed the outstanding glitches in the diff feed. The rest of  
> >> the night
> >> I have thought about my interests and how to best continue on  
> >> something
> >> additional to the diff feed. My development setup runs here:
> >> http://whiletaker.homeip.net:8080/voff/xf/#c=DDum
> >>
> >> 1. DiffFeed
> >>
> >> Do you use procmail? We could use it to setup the scraper instead  
> >> of cron for
> >> the mailing list. Since you use irssi to log and run your chat  
> >> client this
> >> applies to it as well, as I guess that it supports scripting.
> >>
> >> 2. Further involvement
> >>
> >> I would like to use our software. As I have joined this project for  
> >> political
> >> reasons mainly, I am interested to use the tools to bridge forums  
> >> and bring
> >> discussion together. Especially now that I have seen the diff- 
> >> patching in
> >> action. But to make it interesting I need the resource management  
> >> stuff
> >> roughly working. I can then setup account types and draft positions  
> >> of
> >> organisations or forums and start posting there about common plans  
> >> and ways to
> >> organize available resources. So I'd like to become an activist  
> >> myself a bit.
> >> This will also give me a clearer understanding on the further  
> >> development of
> >> the difference feed, I hope.
> >>
> >> Since this is a prerequisite for my planned usage and tests with  
> >> the tools I
> >> think it would be best to help you with anything being necessary to  
> >> make the
> >> resource management work as quickly as possible. I dive in today  
> >> and you might
> >> point me to a part I could take care of. Btw. do you have a method  
> >> to mirror
> >> resources? It would be really handy to mirror stuff like
> >> http://www.kickstarter.com/ as raising then happens in forums.  
> >> Anyway you have
> >> something similiar for the crossforum extent in mind, so I think we  
> >> share a
> >> common interest here.
> >>
> >> You already have pointed parts out to me, so maybe we can skype  
> >> around 18:00
> >> GMT today to figure it out more closely.
> >>
> >> You have also talked about bringing the resource view to the  
> >> difference
> >> bridge, which is interesting, since we might want to visualize the  
> >> difference
> >> here differently, not in the semantic wiki markup style.
> >>
> >> I have talked on #opensourceecology btw. and they have told me to  
> >> write a
> >> proposal about using our software on their Wiki. I can write it up  
> >> and draft
> >> it together with you if you like. Can we use a draft pointer to a  
> >> text in any
> >> MediaWiki atm. or do they have to support that?
> >>
> >> c