Read any useful research lately, unanswered research questions
From:
Michael Allan
Date:
Jul 18 00:30 UTC
Short link
> In a future speech at the Sept 29-30 EDem 08 conference in Austria -
> http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/edem - chock full of researchers I hope to address
> the research/practitioner divide with your input.
In summing up my own work, the divide appears to be threefold: code,
theory and practice.
I am currently developing a medium of assent in the form of an
electoral system for project Votorola. Its design may enable it
to serve, in certain instances, as a vector for the transfer of
decision-making processes; to move them away from centers of power
and into the public sphere. This possibility is raised by its
peer-to-peer architecture, which is specialized for community-wide
consensus building, and consists of several overlay networks that
are shaped to the structure of the communities in which they are
embedded. My initial work has focused on coding these networks:
namely a trust network for the authentication of voter lists, a
voting mechanism for the nomination of candidates, and a drafting
medium for the proposal of laws and other norms. At the same
time, I have been drawing correlations with social theory, in
particular with Habermas's theory of communicative action. The
next step is to introduce a measure of practice in a series of
beta trials.
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/d/outline.xht
Code came first. The original domain was not politics. The basic
concepts came out of biology (recombinant text) and were intended
for application in art (creative literature).
Theory came next. Once I discovered the e-democracy applications, I
began reading political theory, but I couldn't find any solid
connections there. Next I turned to broader social theory, and that's
where it connected. Combining code and theory has allowed me to
pedict the practice (at least dimly), especially in its broader
societal effects. Surprisingly none of that has reflected back on the
code - its design hasn't shifted from the original concept.
Practice has come last. As an engineer, this makes me uncomfortable.
I'd rather the code follow the practice - tooling it up - and not
vice-versa. But the code is simple (six man-months of effort) so any
design shift shouldn't be too painful.
That's my experience, to date,