WeVotehttp://apps.facebook.com/we-

vote/

Presentation to Facebook Garage Miami

May 30, 2009

by Craig L. Simon, Ph.D.

The Mission: Lofty

Build Better Tools With Which to

Govern Our Governments

The Summary: EVoting on SteroidsAdvanced Online Polling Application

Interactive, Ranked-Choice Ballot.Rich Visualization of Results.Democratic commitment against “power

voting.”

Coalescent BubblingCollaborative ExpressionConsensus building

The Background: Eclectic

International Studies Ph.D. – Dissertation covered the rise of Global Internet Governance, identifying modes of rule construction common across historical epochs.

Database Application Specialist – Long experience as a self-employed developer of custom solutions for small and mid-sized businesses in South Florida.

The Problem: Noisy Polarization Online Rants – Shouters crowd out engaged listeners.

Echo Chambers – Steady contributors to online discourses tend to self-segregate in partisan venues.

Mobs, Swarms and “Freepers” – Internet straw polls and town halls are often captured by organized groups.

The Idea: An Online “Indaba”

Indaba – Zulu term for an “important meeting” where people sort out problems by finding a common story.

Democracy 2.0 – Immediate opportunity to build better tools with which to govern our governments.

Showcase Collaborative Work – Like Wikipedia, which channels input into consensus narratives.Design for Coalescent Bubbling – Unlike, say, Digg, where popular Topics may rise, float, or sink, but people don’t fizz together through intentional alliance.Respect Disciplined Lobbies – Like passionate grass roots activists, coalescing around their best arguments.

The Theory: Aggregated Signaling

The First Triumph: Indaba.org IRVing Chart – May 2007. Operational proof of concept for coalescent bubbling, via data-driven visualizations of Instant Runoff Voting.

The Demo: ChoiceRanker.com Live Straw Polls – Starting Summer 2007. Conducting weekly IRV straw polls ahead of the Presidential primaries.

The New Strategy: WeVote

Refactor for Facebook – Externalize the costs of upgrading user authentication and comment features. Simultaneously leverage access to a robust social graph while learning to work in an environment that fosters viral communication.

The Experience: Getting Ducks in a Row

Leveraging the Canvas: FBML vs IFrame FBJS, Tooltips, Translating DOM Calls, Line DrawingResources Books: Nick Gerakines, Jay Goldman Forum, WikiConnection Points About Page, Newsfeed, Templates, Tabs, Profile,

ConnectMock AJAX, FQL, REFThe Facebook Platform is a Moving Target

The New Target: Mass Entertainment

American Idol Voters – People already quite active in multi-candidate elections are now experiencing ranked-choice voting and coalescent bubbling.

Democratically Engaged Audiences – More groups will benefit from tools designed for interactive, multi-candidate elections as online voting proliferates in contests, reality shows, “People’s Choice”-style awards, and increasingly responsive government.

The Opportunity: Many Markets

TV Participation Voting – Segment leader Telescope has been slow to promote any kinds of web-based voting that would degrade its dominant investment in phone-based and SMS-based voting technologies.

Online Polling, Surveys, and Voting – Leaders such as Cogix have been slow to integrate with social networks, preferring a service vendor strategy.

Audience Response Systems – Leaders promote solutions based on their own proprietary devices, leaving a space wide open for off-the-shelf mobile apps.

Online Town Halls – The current platform of choice, Google Moderator, has no coalescent bubbling. The next phase of Google’s “10 to the 10th” contest has been delayed, surely indicating that Google has no internal applications capable of managing large scale multicandidate contests.

Next Steps: Find Natural AlliesWeVote is Available Now – US State Dept. “Democracy Is... “ Intel Science Awards. Local Award “Best of” Categories.

Use the Paradigm to Advance the Paradigm – Make Facebook’s own Town Hall Process into a

vanguard.

http://apps.facebook.com/we-vote/

Craig Simoncraig@rkey.comtwitter.com/gitis