Editing Selectricity
From WikiDotMako
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 3: | Line 3: | ||
:''What is this Selectricity? What might communities use it for?'' | :''What is this Selectricity? What might communities use it for?'' | ||
Selectricity is "voting machinery for the masses." It consists of a suite of tools to allow groups of people to make decisions | Selectricity is "voting machinery for the masses." It consists of a suite of tools to allow groups of people to make decisions through voting. While most voting projects are geared to government based decision-making, ''Selectricity'' aims to apply election method of voting research created for governments toward every day decisions (e.g., where should we go to dinner or who should be officers of a campus club). The system emphasizes preferential decision-making, cryptographic means of voter verifiability, and algorithmically complex election methods. | ||
Small group decisions are pervasive and persistent | Small group decisions are pervasive and persistent. Imagine the following scenario: | ||
:A group of friends needs to select a restaurant for a meeting. The group has strong, divergent feelings: half the group loves Chinese food but hates Mexican; half loves Mexican food but hates Chinese; everyone thinks Italian would be a good option. A simple voting will never select the Italian restaurant because it has the least votes. Forgoing a voting system altogether will usually result in a decision by the loudest in the group or the first person to speak up. | :A group of friends needs to select a restaurant for a meeting. The group has strong, divergent feelings: half the group loves Chinese food but hates Mexican; half loves Mexican food but hates Chinese; everyone thinks Italian would be a good option. A simple voting will never select the Italian restaurant because it has the least votes. Forgoing a voting system altogether will usually result in a decision by the loudest in the group or the first person to speak up. | ||
Using preferential election methods, Selectricity groups | Using preferential election methods, Selectricity can help these groups makes better decisions quickly and easily. Of course, Selectricity is not limited to mundane decisions --- it has been used both to schedule meeting times, poll friends on the name of a child, and elect non-profit boards of directors. | ||
Selectricity current includes the following different modules: | |||
* | * Selectricity QuickVotes: Simple, quick web-based elections. A QuickVote can be created in under 1 minute by a user with no experience with Selectricity. Voters usually vote in under 30 seconds during their first experience with the system. | ||
* | * RubyVote: A library that incorporates the algorithmically complex parts of election method. This makes it possible for software developers with their own applications to simple add advanced voting machinery and better election technology into their application. | ||
* | * Selectricity Anywhere: A simple SMS and mobile phone-based interface to Selectricity that allows users to create, vote, and view results entirely from a normal non-Smart mobile phone. | ||
== Current status == | == Current status == | ||
| Line 23: | Line 23: | ||
Selectricity is under active development and new features are added each month. That said, currently released features have already seen thousands of users of a variety of types and are well tested. We understand that we're building election software and, as a result, we're very conservative about releasing new features. Everything on the "live" site is tested in a large number of real world environments over weeks or months. | Selectricity is under active development and new features are added each month. That said, currently released features have already seen thousands of users of a variety of types and are well tested. We understand that we're building election software and, as a result, we're very conservative about releasing new features. Everything on the "live" site is tested in a large number of real world environments over weeks or months. | ||
Code is available, under a free software | Code is available, under a free software/open source license in a source code repository here. Released features are listed above. | ||
Features currently under testing include: | |||
* Selectricity Full Elections: A more sophisticated interface to to the voting machinery more suitable to more organized Election. These election can have voter rolls, anonymous and voter verifiable ballots, and more detailed feedback. | |||
* Selectricity Embeddable Election: We are currently testing a version of Selectricity that allows users to simply embed elections onto their own websites or blogs. Additionally, it allows users to upload custom themes so that the look and feel more closely matches their own communities web-presence. | |||
* | |||
* | |||
Up-to-date information on the precise state of current Selectricity development can be found on at [[Selectricity/Status]]. | Up-to-date information on the precise state of current Selectricity development can be found on at [[Selectricity/Status]]. | ||
| Line 36: | Line 34: | ||
:''Has it been tested in a community? Where, exactly, and what was learned?'' | :''Has it been tested in a community? Where, exactly, and what was learned?'' | ||
QuickVotes have been used by thousands of individuals and groups for a | QuickVotes have been used by thousands of individuals and groups for a variety of different decisions. Many users have used the system to select meeting times. | ||
Full elections, currently unreleased but being tested, have been used by several communities including the non-profit's Students for Free Culture and Sugar Labs to elect their boards of directors. We are currently in conversations with several universities about running student government elections. | Full elections, currently unreleased but being tested, have been used by several communities including the non-profit's Students for Free Culture and Sugar Labs to elect their boards of directors. We are currently in conversations with several universities about running student government elections. | ||
| Line 50: | Line 48: | ||
Many users have already contributed patches and functionality. For example, several new election methods (i.e., different ways of counting votes) have been contributed to RubyVote by volunteers and users who loved Selectricity but had a "pet" method that was, at the time, unsupported. | Many users have already contributed patches and functionality. For example, several new election methods (i.e., different ways of counting votes) have been contributed to RubyVote by volunteers and users who loved Selectricity but had a "pet" method that was, at the time, unsupported. | ||
== | == Whom can they approach for more information about this tool? == | ||
More information on Selectricity is available on this wiki page and on the Selectricity Blog. Additionally, users can email team@selectricity.org with bug reports, feedback, or with questions. | |||
== Other Pages == | == Other Pages == | ||
