From apse
- Move beyond chat, premature endings and unresolved digressions
- Support groups who are already working for social change
- Try to mimic existing processes as closely as possible
- Further our understanding of PSCW (protocol supported cooperative work) (which predates CSCW)
- Modify the system after user feedback
- Use Roberts Rules of Order as the foundation for this effort
- Developed by Henry Robert over a 30 year period
"The majority can't prevent the minority from speaking, the minority can't prevent the majority from make a decision" (And the rights of large minorities [over 30%] have special rights)
- Used by 1000s of organizations every day
- A legal requirement in many cases
- Proposed in New Community Networks: Wired for Change (Schuler, 1996)
- Prototype developed by students of The Evergreen State College (John Adams, Amber Clark, Cory Dightman-Kovac, Neil Honomichael, and Matt Powell) 1999-2000
- Current version developed by Nathan Clinton (Evergreen and Public Sphere Project)
- Supported roles: Chairs, members, observers
- Testing with organizations has just started on current version (but stopped)
- Internationalization (into Italian) has begun (Greg Feigenson and Antonio Marco) (but stopped)
- Version 2.0 under development by Jodie Blaylock, Chris Cramer, and Nat Taylor
- Open source release planned after more trials (and cleanup)
