Building consensus online
From:
Pete Thomson
Date:
2008 Feb 07 15:10 UTC
Short link
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.