Building consensus online/definitions?
From:
Peter Shane
Date:
Feb 07 15:23 UTC
Short link
I've been loosing following this thread, but find myself wondering -- is
everyone using "consensus" to mean the same thing? Some posts seem to aim
towards something like unanimous agreement. Others seem to mean something
like "general agreement," even if there remains substantial dissent. Yet
others seem to mean just a majority conclusion, so long as the dissenters
buy into the legitimacy of the process. What, exactly, are you all talking
about?
Best, Peter
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Thomson [mailto:<email obscured>]
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:12 AM
To: <email obscured>
Subject: Re: [Consult] Building consensus online
Michael, I think it was the word "force" that sparked my comment - I'm not
sure if it's really an objection. Miles has now clarified that he didn't
mean quite what I took it to mean.
Where I'm coming from, basically, is the relatively low level of
participation in almost all online spaces (low compared to, say, voting in
elections). It is about point (a) in Michael's labelling of my points:
individuals and interest groups are not under any pressure to participate.
That means that (1) there's not seen to be an active marketplace that's
worth selling into, and (2) legitimacy is weak so action is unlikely (unless
the forum is sponsored by an institution that's committed to acting on its
conclusions).
This may be getting a bit off topic from Steven's original question, which
is more about point (b). But actually I wonder whether one reason for
difficulty in reaching consensus is that the participants don't really
believe it matters. We may heckle the guy spouting off from the soapbox, but
the discussion with him won't change the way we vote.
Member profile for Pete Thomson:
http://groups.dowire.org/contacts/petethomson
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