Mini-beta rollout and problems

[Michael Allan]

Thomas von der Elbe said:
> On Fri, 24 Aug 2012 4:42, Michael Allan wrote:
> > Apparently we need a navigation track that cuts across pollspace.
> > [...]  What would a good design look like?
> 
> An easy way (maybe not the best) would be just to write in the empty 
> space: " --- Select a specific poll ---"
>
> I picture the main entry point into the software through specific
> polls anyway, i.e. specific position pages or differences, don't you
> too?

If we could stage Metagov, for instance, then that might be the main
entrance.  Metagov gets more traffic.  We'd be casting a wider net.
Suppose someone lands on an unrelated page in the Metagov wiki, or in
the mailing list.  They see the stage and traces of the discussion
surrounding your question (bottom).  So they get funneled in.

I've been thinking about what could cut across different votespaces.
It's an interesting problem.  Remember our first attempt to visualize
a pollspace in Crossforum Theatre.  Here's the prototype still running
(Conseo's harvester doing nice job in the background here, btw):

    http://zelea.com/y/vw/xf/#c=DT

No real structure.  Polls are just spilled out like the contents of a
jewel box.  We have the same problem with discussion in the talk
track.  Things like polls/issues and discussion are heavy in content
and weak in form.  They can't stand on their own.  So rather than
attempt to contain them in dedicated tracks (polltrack, talk track), I
think we need other tracks and other spaces.  Just now, I think we
need a geotrack.  Geospace has interesting properties:

  * People can easily relate to it.
  * It can structure both issues and discussion.  For the latter,
    recall our geospace prototype: http://zelea.com/y/vw/xf/#c=DG
  * We can use it to navigate from votespace to votespace.

We mostly need political geospace.  It's a hierarchical and tree-like
space (not unlike votespace) with big regions, federations and states
toward the root, and smaller regions, cities and neighbourhoods toward
the leaves.  The leaves themselves are individual people, like in
votespace.  But unlike votespace, the whole is not a forest; it's a
tree with a single, universal root.

> I personally want to start to use it as soon as the mini-beta is
> ready.  What I personally have a lot of interest in is our
> longer-term future.  So I'd like to start a poll about that: What do
> we as mankind want our future on this planet to be like? For me this
> is one of the most exciting questions. And I also see this as a
> consciousness-experiment: Are we as mankind conscious of ourselves
> as one entity? Are we as mankind able to speak with one voice? What
> will our first words be? And if we are able to speak as one, we will
> also be able to act as one. I would even bet, that our first words
> will be about our first action.

Yes, this is a beautiful approach.  (Thomas told me of this a couple
of weeks ago.)  So the question is not, "What *ought* people first
agree to?"  But rather, "What *will* people first agree to?"

This is a wonderful question!

Mike