InstaGov

Overview

InstaGov is software to aid very large groups in the process of decisionmaking and evaluating a large number of items which are entered into the system collaboratively. The philosophy behind its primary purpose (collaborative governance) is discussed in great detail on Issuepedia, but there will probably be other uses for it as well.

InstaGov has two primary functions:

• vote tallying: collecting votes from each member and presenting aggregated data showing overall sentiment towards each issue
• issue management:
  • aggregating individual rankings to determine which issues should be propagated to more people and which should be allowed to die out
  • organizing issues into a hierarchical topic system to allow users to filter in or out areas in which they have no interest

InstaGov will probably first be written as a plug-in for MediaWiki; it may later be available in other formats. It is entirely open source, so others are free to adapt it to their own uses or add their own features.

Preliminary Table Design

problem

<mysql>CREATE TABLE `problem` (

  `ID` INT  NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `Page` varchar(127) COMMENT "wiki page describing problem",
  `WhenCreated` DATETIME NOT NULL COMMENT "when this problem was entered",
  `WhenExpires` DATETIME DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "when this problem expires (NULL = never)",
  `Pos_Text` VARCHAR(63) DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "optional: text to show at the 'yes' end of the scale",
  `Neg_Text` VARCHAR(63) DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "optional: text to show at the 'no' end of the scale",
  PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
)
ENGINE = MYISAM;</mysql>

Not sure if we'll actually need Pos/Neg_Text; it may be just a frill.

solution

Any problem may have zero or more solutions. Solutions can be proposed as long as the problem is active (not expired).

<mysql>CREATE TABLE `solution` (

  `ID` INT  NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `ID_Problem` INT NO NULL COMMENT "problem.ID of problem for which this is a solution",
  `Page` varchar(127) COMMENT "wiki page describing solution",
  `WhenCreated` DATETIME NOT NULL COMMENT "when this solution was entered",
  `WhenExpires` DATETIME DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "when this solution expires (NULL = never)",
  PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
)
ENGINE = MYISAM;</mysql>

approval

Records each user's current level of approval of each proposed solution.

<mysql>CREATE TABLE `approval` (

  `ID` INT  NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `ID_User` INT COMMENT "user.ID of user who gave this rating",
  `ID_Solution` INT NOT NULL COMMENT "solution.ID of solution for which this is a rating",
  `ID_Proxy` INT DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "if this approval was proxied, records who the proxy was",
  `Value` INT NOT NULL COMMENT "rating value",
  `WhenDone` DATETIME NOT NULL COMMENT "when this rating was posted",
  `Remark` VARCHAR(255) COMMENT "comments on this rating (can include link)",
  PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
)
ENGINE = MYISAM;</mysql>

• Proxy approval is a concept I keep coming back to. Rather than trying to prevent vote-buying by secret ballots, which cause their own problems (make recounting more difficult, inhibits discussion of personal voting record), it goes exactly the opposite direction and encourages them while documenting every occurrence for further analysis.

approval log

Records every time a user submits an approval rating, including revisions.

<mysql>CREATE TABLE `approval_log` (

  `ID` INT  NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `ID_Approval` INT NOT NULL COMMENT "approval.ID of approval to which this rating was applied",
  `ID_User` INT COMMENT "user.ID of user who gave this rating",
  `ID_Solution` INT NOT NULL COMMENT "solution.ID of solution for which this is a rating",
  `ID_Proxy` INT DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "if this approval was proxied, records who the proxy was",
  `Value` INT NOT NULL COMMENT "rating value",
  `WhenDone` DATETIME NOT NULL COMMENT "when this rating was posted",
  `Remark` VARCHAR(255) COMMENT "comments on this rating (can include link or redirect)",
  PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
)
ENGINE = MYISAM;</mysql>

escalation

This is for escalating problems; solutions are escalated solely by their approval ratings rather than via a separate mechanism.

<mysql>CREATE TABLE `escalation` (

  `ID`        INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `ID_User`   INT NOT NULL,
  `ID_Problem INT NOT NULL,
  `ID_Topic   INT DEFAULT NULL COMMENT "optional: this rating applies only within the given topic",
  `Rating`    INT NOT NULL     COMMENT "-10 to +10, or whatever range we end up using",
  `Remark`   VARCHAR(255)      COMMENT "comments on this rating (can include link or redirect)",
  PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
)
ENGINE = MYISAM;</mysql>