Group decision making

The current version of the CoLab enables members of the Community to vote in two ways:

* Proposals Members of the Community can select which proposal to address climate change they believe is best.
* User posts They can also vote on posts in argument maps, to indicate that they believe a particular post is useful and/or insightful.
Future versions of the CoLab may incorporate other mechanisms for enabling group decision making:

* Identification of expert opinion In selected areas, the votes and comments of certified experts could be shown separately from the votes and comments of Community members as a whole. For example, the votes and comments of client scientists could be shown separately in sections of the system where their perspectives may be especially valuable or relevant.
* Rating Ratings of the prior votes and posts of Community members may be incorporated to allow the Community to identify which users are the most credible.
* Proxy voting In proxy voting, Community members can assign their vote on particular issues to a party of their choosing. For example, a Community member might assign their vote on issues related to climate modeling to the IPCC and their vote on issues related to policy to USCAP. Proxy voting is a variation of representative democracy, with voters choosing whichever representative they wish and representation occurring at as fine-grained a level as voters wish.
* Belief aggregation This method is used to gauge user’s support for particular proposals or particular positions in debates.