Wednesday, March 30, 2011

#ubcvotes #votermedia contest results

Voting ended last Friday (March 25) in the EUS-AUS-SUS rep elections and their 1-time votermedia contest. Two votermedia contestants were disqualified under rule #6 for insufficient election coverage. The remaining three won these awards:

- UBC Insiders: 38% x $1500 = $570

- AMS Confidential: 36% x $1500 = $540

- 11' Eleven": 26% x $1500 = $390

Congratulations and thank you for helping voters with your insight!

If you'd like to see the detailed vote tallies and award calculations, they're in this spreadsheet. More info on the algorithm here.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

#ubcvotes #votermedia contestants & rules update

We now have 5 contestants in the EUS-AUS-SUS rep elections 1-time votermedia contest:

- UBC Insiders

- AMS Confidential

- 11' Eleven"

- The Syrup Trap

- Radical Beer Tribune


Info for voters.

We are still accepting new entries -- more info here.

Rules update: We have added a 40% option to the votable shares menu. So rule #5 is now:

5. The planned total award pool is $1500, and voting menu options are 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%.

The award calculation algorithm will be Interpolated Consensus in 2% steps, with spread parameter = 8 as we have been doing in all Continuous VoterMedia ballots since February 15. Info on the spread parameter here and here.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

#ubcvotes #votermedia contest starting now! $1500 award pool

Win cash by blogging about the UBC undergrad society elections (Engineering, Arts and Science)! Engineering is already campaigning this week (see candidates list) and has an all candidates forum tomorrow (Friday March 11) at 3pm - 4pm in the Kaiser Atrium. Voting starts next Monday, March 14. Arts and Science are one week later.

Voting in these elections and on the votermedia (VFM) blogging contest will be on Webvote -- instructions here. Blogs entered will also be listed here. The contest coordinator is Rose Gambrel.

UBC students can enter their blogs by pasting this text with blanks filled in an email to mark[at]votermedia.org AND TO hb_t_[at]hotmail.com:
Name of Blog:

Blog URL (web address): http://

I am the main editor of this blog. I hereby apply to enter it in the 2011 UBC Votes VoterMedia Competition. I agree to the contest rules below. I am a UBC student. I request that any award this blog wins in this contest be paid to me as the representative of the blog's contributors. My contact information is:

Name:

Email:

Phone:

Mailing address:
-------------------

CONTEST RULES

1. Since there is no entry fee and we are still working out all the plans, we reserve the right to amend these rules. Any changes will be announced at http://votermedia.blogspot.com. Below are the current planned rules:

2. Any UBC student (including AMS Council members) can enter their blog in the contest with no entry fee.

3. All UBC Engineering, Arts and Science students will be eligible to vote in this contest via Webvote from March 14 through March 25, 2011.

4. There is no hard entry deadline, but we recommend entering as soon as possible, preferably by Friday March 11. We will try to add newly entered blogs promptly, but note that blogs added to the ballot on or after March 14 will start missing out on voters who have already voted by then.

5. The planned total award pool is $1500, and planned voting menu options are 0%, 10%, 20% and 30%.

6. The contest coordinator may require some basic minimum coverage of all three elections (Engineering, Arts and Science), for blogs to be eligible for awards.

7. The contest coordinator may require blogs to refrain from disrespectfully slandering candidates, especially in an over-the-top overt manner that causes the candidates extreme distress.

Monday, March 7, 2011

UBC continuous #votermedia award calculations suspended pending login system upgrade

We're finding that the non-automated voter registration system is too cumbersome, resulting in low participation rates. This is especially a problem for the UBC AMS funded ballot, because it tends to give award calculation results that do not fairly reflect an AMS community consensus. So we're putting the UBC AMS continuous votermedia award calculations on hold until we finish automating our registration and login system.

A better login system has long been needed and often requested for continuous votermedia. For the past few months we have been giving priority to building an automated system, including giving users the option of logging in via Facebook. It's taking longer than expected, but we're getting close.

In spite of the weaknesses of the no-login system we've been using for the past year or so, we have managed to produce reasonably meaningful award allocations so far. But 2 weeks ago I noticed an apparent hacking attempt from Europe, so I discussed with my AMS liaison (the Student Activities Committee Vice-Chair) that we probably need to implement a manual voter registration system temporarily, so as to keep the award results meaningful. We phased that in the following week, but it turns out to be too cumbersome to attract enough voters so far, so it can't produce meaningful results either. Hence the decision to suspend until the automatic system is implemented.

Meanwhile, the three UBC undergrad societies (Arts, Engineering and Science) are sponsoring a $1500 votermedia contest on their election ballot using UBC's Webvote platform, which uses the Campus-Wide Login (CWL) system. So it is secure enough to work well, and I'm working with them to make the contest successful. See more info in this earlier post.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Login system for #votermedia

By popular demand, we are finally implementing a better login system for the votermedia.org website. Voter registration works by email for now; we plan to upgrade soon to an automated system.

Anyone can still browse the website to see blog rankings, recent posts, past awards and other info. The main practical impact will be that a login is now required for voting on funded competitions like votermedia.org/ubc.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

$1500 for #votermedia coverage of #ubcvotes

Three UBC undergrad societies (Arts, Engineering and Science) have committed $500 each to reward competing bloggers who cover their upcoming elections. The funds will be allocated by students voting on the election ballots, so this is a 1-time VoterMedia (1VM) contest. [The AMS Continuous VoterMedia (CVM) contest is also ongoing with $1200/month.]

The 1VM contest rules are not quite finalized, but watch the UBC Votes website and #ubcvotes Twitter tag for news.

Engineering (EUS) elections start first: nominations close this Friday March 4, campaigning starts next Monday March 7, voting the following week March 14 - 18. Arts (AUS) and Science (SUS) elections are one week later.

You can start covering the campaigns even if you haven't officially entered the contest yet. So get ready!