[okfn-discuss] IdeaTorrent for incubator.okfn.org

Thu Dec 3 16:30:56 UTC 2009

On Nov 28, 2009, at 5:22 AM, Jonathan Gray wrote:

> The incubator project could let people propose, vote and comment on
> ideas. Mike Chelen recently suggested we could use IdeaTorrent (GPL)
> for this:
>
>  http://www.ideatorrent.org/

As an alternative, may I suggest Vilfredo? The difference is in the  
view of voting. IdeaTorrent allows groups to identify the most popular  
answers. However, the most popular answer is not always the best  
answer. Often a much better answer comes from ingenious thinking and  
doesn't make sense to everyone at the outset. And just as likely, the  
best answer might be none of the proposed answers, but rather  
something which blends and synthesizes various answers proposed by  
different people. Or a great answer might come along late in the game,  
and not be able to get enough votes since a so-so answer already has a  
lot of support.

Vilfredo is a tool (admittedly in, roughly, late alpha) which actively  
promotes idea development.

It allows everyone to propose answers to a question and then vote on  
the answers. It does not pick the most popular answer, but rather  
winnows down the answers to a "Pareto front." Or in lay terms: to the  
minimum set of answers where everyone's votes are represented. it then  
repeats its process ad infinitum until it reaches a consensus. You can  
read how it works in detail here:
http://metagovernment.org/wiki/Vilfredo#How_it_works

As rounds of voting progress, people end up morphing their answers,  
integrating bits of other answers, or even developing entirely new  
ideas based on the answers provided by others.

Again, the tool is still in a somewhat early stage of development, so  
it takes a little getting used to, but you can use it without any  
setup (other than a login):
http://vilfredo.org/
Though you may wish to read the FAQ before you dive in, or the  
metagovernment.org link above.

It also supports "rooms" so that you can make a dedicated OKFN room  
that is not visible to the general viewer.

Ed Pastore
http://metagovernment.org/wiki/User:Ed_Pastore