Locust or Bumblebee raises votermedia design issues

This morning I received an application for the blog Locust or Bumblebee to enter the UBC AMS votermedia contest. This raises some big issues about the design and administration of votermedia – hence the long post below.

Locust or Bumblebee is an impressive blog promoting sustainability, created by UBC students Anthony Stal and Sam Wempe:

"Through this gateway we hope to inform Vancouver’s populations of the decisions and activities occurring around them that negatively affect them, the environment, or even some distant population. ... Once we gain a larger readership in Vancouver, we hope to spread to other cities around the world."

This entry poses a challenge for votermedia.org, because we have not yet built a login system that identifies whether a voter is a member of the community they are voting on. The lack of login is not a serious problem as long as the blogs listed on a community's ballot appeal primarily to members of that community. But if a blog attracts many voters from outside the community, then award funds may be directed in ways that the funding community may not want.

VoterMedia enters $5 million funding competition

The Knight News Challenge is a media innovation contest that aims to advance the future of news by funding new ways to digitally inform communities. As much as $5 million will be given away this year.

I just submitted an entry for VoterMedia.org, requesting $200,000.

You can:

1. See the VoterMedia entry, vote on its rating, and participate in its comment discussion.

2. Enter the contest yourself! Deadline is December 1.

Planning to tweak the votermedia award algorithm

As I've been watching how the contest is working at votermedia.org/ubc, it seems to me we can tweak one of the model's parameters to make it work a little better. This parameter affects the trade-off between two things we'd like to achieve, both of which encourage competition but in different ways:

1. Limit the maximum share each blog can win. Currently with 5 or more competitors, the maximum votable amount is 30%. This ensures that at least 4 blogs can get funding, thus enhancing competition that way.

2. Even though their shares are at or near the 30% cap, we'd still like the top blogs to feel some incentive to keep making an effort. If the top 3 are all up against a hard ceiling at 30%, they may have little or no incentive to keep working at their blogs.

New video: VoterMedia Should Be Continuous

We released our third video today at votermedia.org: "VoterMedia Should Be Continuous"

In it, students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) talk about changing VoterMedia from a once-a-year system to a continuous year-round system for funding blogs about their student union, the Alma Mater Society (AMS).

"I think it’s something that I hope will only grow and prosper, you know, not just during the season where people elect their AMS executives, but the entire year." (Justin McElroy, Coordinating Editor, The Ubyssey)

It's the third video down at votermedia.org.

Media Democracy Day: tomorrow at VPL

Media Democracy Day is on Saturday November 6 from noon to 5pm at the Vancouver Public Library main branch. It's free, fascinating and important -- see you there! Info at www.mediademocracyday.org/vancouver

Revised Terms for votermedia.org

Occasionally we revise the terms of use for our website votermedia.org, and notify users via this blog. Yesterday I posted revisions primarily to support the upcoming UBC AMS Continuous VoterMedia contest at votermedia.org/ubc, but which should also serve for similar sponsored contests in the future.

So there's a new section at the bottom entitled "Contest Sponsor Discretion". There are also two new references to our security measures in the section headed "Administrator Discretion".

Launching UBC Continuous VoterMedia Contest

The University of British Columbia Alma Mater Society seems ready to start funding the Continuous VoterMedia competition hosted at votermedia.org/ubc. Watch for official confirmation from AMS Elections Administrator Erik MacKinnon, hopefully via a comment on this post.

Erik and I have discussed contest plans with AMS council, executives and staff. Like last year, we are aiming to run two contests:

1. Continuous VoterMedia (CVM): This year with $6,000 of AMS funds, starting at [revised: $20/day] from November 1, with varying amounts through August 31, 2011 -- see [revised] planned award schedule. Continuous voting year-round at votermedia.org/ubc is already underway.
2. 1-Time VoterMedia (1VM): This year with $2,000 of AMS funds. Voting on the same ballot as the AMS elections in January 2011.

To make it easier for new blogs to get started, we're planning no entry fee for CVM, and free entry into 1VM for the top ten CVM blogs as of January 15, 2011. Enter now -- see CVM entry form and rules. All blogs currently on the ballot must submit a new entry form by this Saturday October 30 if they want to stay in the contest.

Please note that all these plans may evolve and change through time!

Your comments & advice are welcomed.