Is there an online or software version of Dotmocracy?
So far the closest things to Dotmocracy online are
MixedInk.com - MixedInk allows users to post ideas and rate them on 5 point scale of agreement. You can also post comments, and copy, combine and redraft ideas. It is a free tool and I recommend trying it out.
Dialogue App - Yet another great online tool from the people at Delib (UK). Similar to MixeInk, but maybe a bit simpler and more traditional blog/forum type interface, users post ideas rate on 5 star scale and post comments. Price is about $6400 per year, with unlimited participation but max 8 topics. Delib is focused on "digital democracy" tools for government, whom would find this price quite reasonable.
Alternatively there are many other online tools that allow users to post ideas and to rate them. Below are a few of the better options.
- UserVoice
A sophisticated forum tool where users can post ideas and vote on them with a limited number of votes, similar to traditional dot-voting. Price starts at free. - KindlingApp
Submit ideas, vote (+ / -) limited number of votes. Post & reply to comments. Watch, edit, view changes, approve and volunteer for ideas. Grouped by "rooms". $49 month for 40 user. $99 month 100 users $416 month ($500 year) for 100 users Enterprise version. Designed for organizations. -
IdeaScale
Post, reply and vote (up / down) on ideas, although not their comments. $15 - $99 a month. Unlimited users and content. - Google Moderator
Free to use and simple to set-up this new Google application has a lot of potential. Unfortunately you need to have a Google Account to participate and voting is only limited to "yes" "no" "skip" or "flag as inapproriate". - dialogr.com
dialogr free web service allows user to quickly register, create topics, post ideas on a topic, rate each idea out of 5 stars and post comments on ideas. - FacilitatePro
An excellent collection of tools for brainstorming, categorizing, priortization / voting, action planning, surveying and documenting. Unfortunately you are looking at around $19,240 USD for license fees and training. - CoVision's WebCouncil
This is a key application used by AmericaSpeaks for their 21st Century Town Hall Meetings. They don't tell you much about the software on their public site but I can tell you it cost over $10,000 USD for set-up, training and license. You can peak at a demo at www.webcouncil.com/wcapps - GroupSystems.com
Software and services for live large group decision-making. Their latest application called ThinkTank looks quite ideal, except for the price, which was around US $35 seat/day, $105 seat/week, or $200 seat/month (a seat is required for every logged in user). - Delphi Decision Aid
This is a free-ware application for hosting a basic Delphi method which has similar characteristic to Dotmocracy. Unfortunatly the usability is lacking in the software interface. - Discussion
Forums (phpBB, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups)
The free bulletin board software phpBB includes an optional module for rating postings. Both free Yahoo groups and Google groups allows users to post topics, comment and to rate each comment. - Ning.com
Ning is a free social network tool that includes options for user five-star rating of content. - Drupal CMS with VoteAPI module
Drupal is a free content management system that is very flexible. Drupal savvy web developers can implement a website that includes rating of posted content using the VoteAPI and relate modules.
