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The Pollite Lens is a free Internet opinion database
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The Pollite Lens is a database service supporting long-term
debate of issues of interest to many people.
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The "Pollite Lens" is so called because it is designed to focus respectful
debate while providing a refined form of opinion polling.
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The Lens exists to provide a semipermanent, and free place for each
person with access to the internet to inscribe their opinions, periodically
change those opinions, and to read and respond to the opinions of others.
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It is intended to increase the ability of groups of people to coalesce
into agreement or at least come to common understanding of complex issues.
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For more on these ideas, please read the
Mission Statement
of the nonprofit
Pollite Organization
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The Lens stores claims, positions, and platforms
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The Pollite Lens is a website and database allowing any person to:
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1) Enter any statement or question as a semipermanent
claim.
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2) Enter a detailed response (called a position)
to any claim of any person, including both votes and reasons.
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3) Interactively research the entire set of claims and positions.
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The claims and responses (positions on claims of others) of each person
make up their platform, which is meant in the same sense that a
political party has a platform. The difference here is that each
person can focus attention on the issues that matter most to her.
Each person's platform can be unique.
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| Claims can either be Proposals or Surveys | |
A proposal is an assertion (i.e. a statement). For example,
"The tax on flamboozles should be 22%." This is like a bill in congress or parliament. There are
a limited number of ways people are allowed to vote on a proposal claim.
They may vote to agree, disagree, comment, or revise the proposal.
However, unlike a bill in congress, the voting continues
indefinitely and people may change or take back their votes at any
time.
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A survey is a question you want to poll for responses on.
For example, "Who should be the next snorkwhistle ?" .
This is like a poll taken by a television network. People may
enter any vote they choose when responding to a survey claim.
Again, the voting continues indefinitely and people may change or take
back their votes at any time.
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The Lens is not split into topics
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The Lens is not organized using topics or other groupings, as most discussion
databases are. Instead, you search the lens for keywords matching your interest.
This may seem strange at first, but the Lens fulfills a different need than the ones met by Internet
newsgroups, email lists, or other discussion applications. For details, please see
rationale for the Lens.
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Lens claims are semipermanent
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Anyone can change or delete their response to a claim at any time.
However, there is currently no mechanism for Lens users to explicitly delete claims stored in the
Lens database.
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Currently, claims and positions stored in the lens are kept for as long
as server resources allow, or until all people (including the author) have deleted their responses
to the claim.
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We are currently developing a quota system that will regulate the amount
of space each user has to express her opinions.
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Commercial use is prohibited
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The Lens is a tool for individual people to debate public matters, not
for businesses or any private commerce, or any other communication
that is not suitable for viewing by all people.
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This means,
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1) Don't try to sell things on the Lens
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2) Don't pass your secret messages using the Lens
facility, because they will be the opposite of secret !
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The Lens is free of charge and contains no advertising
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The Lens service is provided at no charge to any person with internet and
email access.
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The Lens is provided by the nonprofit Pollite Organization, which is
supported by private donations, and not by any revenue directly associated with operating the Lens
Opinion Database, or the information stored in it.
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The sponsors of our organization do receive a mention on the sponsor
page.
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The Lens site does not accept, store or send advertising or commercial
solicitations, except for the sponsor page just mentioned, which web users must explicitly select
to see.
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Technical thumbnail sketch
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Currently the Lens is provided as a barebones HTML service.
There is no use of frames, images, or active content in the Lens interface.
However there is extensive use of tables and forms, and some use of color.
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The Lens should work well in any browser with table support, including
Netscape Navigator and MS Internet Explorer.
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To obtain an account you must have a valid email address.
Without an account, you can still browse the Lens.
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