Benefits of Voter Decision Support Systems

Voter Decision Support Community Group,

I started working on the group wiki at: https://www.w3.org/community/voter-decision-support/wiki/Main_Page . Please feel free to contribute to the wiki – simply log in with your W3C account to do so (https://www.w3.org/community/voter-decision-support/wiki/index.php?title=Special:UserLogin&returnto=Main+Page). You may also make any comments or suggestions regarding the group’s wiki content in the mailing list (public-voter-decision-support@w3.org<mailto:public-voter-decision-support@w3.org>).

For purposes of discussion, here are some initial thoughts regarding the benefits of voter decision support systems:

Rationality
Using voter decision support systems, voters can make more rational decisions with respect to their individual interests and the interests of their communities.

Depth and comparability of information search
Using voter decision support systems, voters can explore political information with more depth of search and more comparability of search. See also: Measuring Voter Decision Strategies in Political Behavior and Public Opinion Research by Richard R. Lau, Mona S. Kleinberg and Tessa M. Ditonto.

Number and complexity of deliberation topics
Using voter decision support systems, voters can consider a larger number of more complex topics simultaneously.

Government accountability
Using voter decision support systems, voters can better hold their governments accountable, taking notes throughout the terms of elected officials, notes of use during elections.

Privacy
Using voter decision support systems, and thanks to technologies such as Solid, voters’ data privacy and political privacy can be preserved.


Best regards,
Adam