Right Of Choice

It's All About Choice

We are always making individual choices. All we really need is information. Probably the most influential piece of information we want to know is "What did other people think?". In fact, if we're going to be misled, convincing us as to what other people thought is probably the most effective way: "Millions of happy customers can't be wrong".

Making collective choices however, is not quite so easy. To do this we really do need to know "What do other people think?". We make collective choices all the time; it's called "voting with our feet". But we don't do it consciously and we rarely know the outcome. Companies soon know if their sales are surging or suddenly declining, that their customers are making a collective choice.

To make collective decisions in a conscious and conscientious way we need a lot of things. We need first to be able to express and share our opinions with others, to discuss and argue a case for certain points of contention. Importantly, particularly if we want to have any influence, we need to know the opinions of others and what informs them. More importantly than that, to know the current state of collective opinion.

Now that's a difficult problem, a problem I've been thinking about since before there was an internet.
Now I have a solution; the RoCPOOL application. RoCPOOL (RightOfChoice Public Opinion On-Line) provides for expression of opinions, commenting on opinions, nominating the Issues, Topics and Key Questions, referencing and uploading videos, websites, books, on-line articles or your own (pdf) documents. Most importantly everything can be rated and listed in order of the ratings. So you can easily see the most highly rated Issues, Topics, Opinions, Comments and Documents and see the responses to Key Questions.

This is a powerful tool. Separating opinions from comments on them improves focus, rating and ranking everything radically improves efficiency and having access to EVERYTHING that shapes the discussion is empowering.

Soon, you will be able to provide On-Line and sponsor your own instances of RoCPOOL on any Subject and for any group of users to access either open or restricted in a variety of ways (Open, Open to a specific domain, by application, nomination or invitation). But for now, you can read the User Guide and use the the RoCPOOL application itself to discuss it and share your views about it.