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WikiRulesOfOrder
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesThe CommunityWiki has turned up a valid point about decision making:
- "It is a set of rules for conduct at meetings, that allows everyone to be heard and to make decisions without confusion."
If at some point wikis (or online communities) want to enable decision making, then the technology and social norms must offer an complete (and hopefully simpler) replacement of the given parliamentary rules.
I think we might work this out technically and socially. -- HelmutLeitner
Links:
- Short Introduction (2 pages), http://www.robertsrules.org/rulesintro.htm
- Complete PDF (150+ pages), http://usa.uc.iupui.edu/docs/rror.pdf
I started thinking about a modified version of RobertsRules? for wikis on AnewGo at:
[AnewGo:CongressionalProcedure] and in [AnewGo:CategoryCongressionalProcedure].
I was trying for a system that could handle a "congress" consisting of millions of people. In essence, I tried to take RobertsRules? and "parallelize" them. I didn't finish describing the system. On smaller wikis, a simpler system might be feasible.
-- BayleShanks
- Bayle, I like your page. I would prefer to take this more lightly (not talk about millions of voters), take this to a "gameground" where we can test and refine the software and procedures until users know and trust the system.
What may be needed (brainstorming):
- Recent Decisions: it should be clear what decisions are in effect, and all the what, who, when and why of it. Maybe including open voting processes.
- A state engine for the whole process. What states are possible? How they advance? By time? By voting? By chair? The state engine should be configurable so that it is easy to change the process. Is the proposal in the DecisionSpace?
- Recent Proposals: all the current discussions. Maybe including open voting processes. Perhaps each contributor should have his own statement space which can be changed in parallel. Maybe an option to judge the quality of statements. Ordering of statements? Maximum length of statements? Implementation as subpages? Single page display of proposal, state history and statements?
- A technical voting system. Public or hidden. Various options. System must be able to identify "voting members". Maybe an option to allow changing a vote. Notification system to send e-mails to voting members.
- ...
- I would prefer to take this more lightly (not talk about millions of voters)
Sounds good. I didn't mean to say that we should only think about millions of people; just that that's what I was doing on those other pages.
- What may be needed (brainstorming)
By the way, there are a bunch of similar software efforts around, although most of them are not geared towards wikis. Some of them end up being similar to wikis in the end, though.
There is a list of many of them here:
-- BayleShanks
Robert's seems like an odd place to start. It is a set of rules for parlaimentary procedure used in the U.S. and perhaps elsewhere. (Does someone know whether it sees widespread use in the UK and throughout the world?) As such, it is intended to provide a deterministic process for making decisions, based on voting, in a finite amount of time. Much of its contents have to do with formalizing a set of discussion rules, providing mechanisms to limit discussion and debate, and balancing the need for effective decision making against wishes of various minority constituencies. Its usefulness to a deliberative body is essentially independent of the communications media used, be it wiki or otherwise, but it is of no use in consensus-driven decision making.