This link has been bookmarked by 34 people . It was first bookmarked on 02 Aug 2006, by hochan.
-
15 Mar 10
-
23 Oct 09
Christopher AllenBLOGPOST: "Today Western culture especially values diversity of input when implementing any type of choice, believing that wide input from a variety of people provides the fairest result."
systems collective choice collaboration socialsoftware social software groups blog lifewithalacrity christopherallen
-
20 May 09
-
09 Jan 09
-
08 Oct 08
-
25 Jun 08
Ben ZevenbergenSystems for Collective Choice
article blog collaboration democracy howto internet socialsoftware reputation ratings trust
-
10 Oct 07
-
10 Aug 07
-
01 May 07
avivajazz jazzaviva"what makes this board game work?", to "how can we give our players more control of our online games?", to "how do we make decisions in our company?", and of course "how did we collectively make such a mess of decision making in America?".
-
10 Oct 06
-
05 Sep 06
-
04 Sep 06
-
03 Aug 06
-
02 Aug 06
-
31 May 06
-
05 Jan 06
-
22 Dec 05
-
Collective choice systems have been around for a long time. Since at least the birth of democracy in ancient Greece people have made joint decisions about important issues, and since at least the knightly tournaments of the late Middle Age people have competed to be ranked against their peers. Today Western culture especially values diversity of input when implementing any type of choice, believing that wide input from a variety of people provides the fairest result.
-
here is a need to analyze and study them further, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to evaluate their social impact. Fortunately, the social software and online games on the Internet provides the perfect petri dish for doing so.
-
In a deliberative system, individuals directly make a decision, rather than selecting a representative to do so. Deliberative systems do not have to include voting, and the subcategory of consensus systems described below technically don't, however most modern deliberative sytems do. A deliberative system is the heart of true democracy.
-
In consensus systems people jointly come to a consensus as a group through group interactions. This sort of decision making theoretically avoids the "tyranny of the majority" and likewise can produce more informed decision making. It's a variant of the broader deliberative systems, but one with more group and less individual power
-
Opinion systems are a clear subsidiary category to selection systems. An opinion system's main use is as a decision indicator, to show how people will decide or did decide in a representative system, a deliberative system, or both. Current opinion systems tend to be oriented toward actual votes, as opposed to more freeform selection systems (though the delphic polling system shows a more freeform version of the category itself). Opinion systems tend to be push-based (meaning people are asked for their opinions rather than actively offering them), but this isn't required.
-
Pre-voting Polling Systems: These are polls made before a vote is cast. They're often called "opinion polls" and tend to be conducted via phone. They try and isolate "likely voters" and determine how they will vote.
-
Post-voting Polling Systems: These are polls taken after a vote is cast. They're typically called "exit polls", as most are conducted as people are leaving a "polling" station (where they cast a vote)
-
Delphic Polling Systems: An interesting polling method applicable to all sorts of opinion systems is the "delphi poll". This is a specific method of polling which is iterative and anonymous and which supports confidence ratings and feedback
-
Comparison systems allow individual items to be measured up against each other.
-
Comparison Ranking Systems: In a ranking system, items in a hierarchy (most frequently people) rise or fall based upon specific, objective, and well-known rules. This is the heart of most multiplayer competitive systems.
-
Rating Systems: In a rating system, the value of individual items (most frequently goods) rise or fall based upon the largely subjective judgment of individual users.
Amazon and Netflix are two examples of stores which provide subjective rating systems.
-
Reputation Systems: Finally, reputation systems are very similar to ranking systems: items in a hierarchy (most frequently people) rise or fall based upon specific and well-known rules. However, unlike true ranking systems, reputation systems instead base their rules for rise and fall upon other user feedback.
-
Conclusion
There are a variety of ways to measure the collective choices of a large group of people. We've outline nine here: representative, deliberative, and consensus selection systems; ranking, rating, and reputation comparison systems; and three varieties of opinion systems. When developing social software it is important to understand the difference between these broad categories of systems and to use lessons already learned from the appropriate category in your own social software designs.
-
-
20 Dec 05
-
03 Dec 05
-
02 Dec 05
Page Comments
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.