Polly/Concept of Operation

Informal Discussion
People with Pseudonyms work through a process of Structured Disussion to transform issues into potential Policy and Action for Formal Voting. The goal should be for sufficient concensus to be achieved through this process, that the Formal Voting is just that; a formality.

Formal Voting
A variety of voting templates may be needed, depending on the type of decision to be voted upon. We should make it reasonably easy to extend the set of voting templates and algorithms. Some examples:
 * Voting a Person into a Role:
 * Structured as a ballot with candidates, preferential votes and evaluated using the Schulze Method (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method)
 * Quorum and majority thresholds may apply.
 * Voting for an Action or Actions:
 * Structured as a set of named People and Actions to be performed.
 * Vote Yes/No for the action to be upheld and supported by the party.
 * The named People must vote Yes for the vote to pass (can't vote to make someone do something against their will).
 * Votes may have a Reason attached. This may help to correct and reintroduce a failed Action vote.
 * Quorum and majority thresholds may apply.
 * Voting for a Policy:
 * Structured as a set of simple statements describing the Policy to be adopted.
 * Vote Yes/No for the action to be upheld and supported by the party.
 * Votes may have a Reason attached. This may help to correct and reintroduce a failed Policy vote.
 * Quorum and majority thresholds may apply.

On Startup - First View
First impressions are important and Transparency is a core value of our party, so the entry page to the system should be central hub of current high interest activity. Anybody and everybody should be able to see this without having to log on. They're just in anonymous browse mode. I envision that this main screen would be a tree view of the highest ranking informal discussion items, with one line per item with a 2D-Voting image drawn to the left of each, showing the current collective position. When any line item is selected, a list of the most active participants in that discussion (to the right of the screen) is populated. Allow participant list ordering by:
 * Delegated votes - therefore authority.
 * 2D-voting Concern - to find out who to engage with.
 * Alpha name - to find people

Presence
Once you decide to engage with the system, you need to log in as your unique primary identity. You may then activate one or more of your pseudonyms to start engaging with the system. This will indicate your presence in whatever roles that pseudonym has engaged and your willingness to engage in discussion.

Top Menu View
This is the central navigation point, with links to each major facility and is always shown at the top single line of the screen. The default pre-selected navigation direction is to the Discussion area. Selections include:
 * Discussion
 * Formal Voting
 * Delegation
 * Deals
 * Tracking and Statistics
 * Options
 * Customize your own environment
 * Add/Activate Pseudonyms

Discussion Tree View (AndrewD TODO: Draw a picture/mockup of this)
Lists Discussions - One line per item in a tree structure of issues/sub-issues. Each tree node shows:
 * +/- selector to open/close sub-discussions.
 * 2D-Voting image to the left showing collective voting position.
 * A cross-hair marker overlaid on the image that you can move to indicate your own vote.
 * Care/Agree dimensions need to be obviously indicated.
 * Discussion title
 * Participant/Presence Counters.
 * Links to persistent IRC Channels, Etherpad pages for detailed discussion.
 * Persistent IRC Channel means it's a proxy for regular IRC which maintains a 24/7 record of all conversation for all participants.
 * Counters on links show current active participants in these forums.
 * These links always open to a new tab.
 * Hilighted links to any related and active Formal Votes.
 * Links will be dimmed and unselectable if an administrator has blocked you from participation.
 * Quick Access links
 * Provide quick links to discussions you have participated in.
 * Listed across the top of the page in a single line.
 * First item is always a link back to the main list.
 * Rest of items are ordered by time of last access and/or most activity.
 * Participant List
 * Displayed to the right side of the screen, full length.
 * Displayed based on current selected Discussion Tree line/node.
 * Checking on/off of a presence filter to show only present participants or all.
 * Hide-able to increase screen reading real-estate for discussion lists.