Pollee App
Screenshot: Pollee Project website index page
Copyright
Oethica Group Productions acknowledges copyright as both a civil right and enduring declaration of ownership for clients, partners and their respective cultural groups. This copyright may be assigned or enforced in the form of restrictions to the access, distribution and download of content, including requests for time-constrained embargo or password assignment.
According to the Australian Copyright Council, the personal expressions and creations of individual / group subjects who have participated in the co-production of photographs, film, audio and other digital media derivative of activities in this project are already automatically assigned exclusive copyright. This means copyright is incontestably acknowledged to that individual for sole, conjoint or other forms of ownership and status. To learn more about copyright as it pertains to the restrictions of use for any /all of the ‘Pollee’ project, refer to our Copyright Policy on this website. Likewise, we encourage you to better understand the difference between exclusive copyright and that of Creative Commons attribution, where share-alike principles guide what content is permissible to use, re-use and share.
Overview
The Pollee project aims to “… create a Digital Democracy environment that employs professionals to create and curate content used by members to stimulate debate, encourage and nurture contribution to make decisions within any constituency they have a legal right to vote in.”
The main objective of the Pollee project can be described as the delivery of a sustainable community engagement tool which is also providing an opportunity to vote on issues using a mobile device such as a smartphone. The main outcomes of the projects can be summarised as;
schematic wireframes and workflow mapping of a mobile voting application;
development and testing of a CONSUL project platform for community engagement;
development of a web presence in Squarespace which articulates the main marketing and membership profiles to build awareness of the product;
multi-media assets creation and use in social media awareness programmes.
Type
MOU - Fee for Service - This project was initiated through a professional referral and substantive claims which were negotiated according to the project parameters. Oethica group productions use the term “Fee For Service” to denote Memorandums of Understanding which are expedited as a monetary fee for professional services.
Consent
Oethica Group Productions seeks or obtains consent to conduct activities such as recording film or audio for productions in three (3) main forms; Subjects, Creators or Contributors. No consent was applicable in this project context.
Scope
Oethica Group Productions uses the term ‘scope’ in the context of consultation and agreements as broadly defining business-related activities in production and desired outcomes of those activities. Activities agreed upon and project managed by Oethica Group Productions in this project was focussed on consultation and web development, leading to decisions regarding information and data management advisory practices.
Team
Andrew Chambers
Founder of Pollee
Andrew has been writing, talking and presenting on the topic of democracy since 1985. Chambers recognised immediately the capacities for the Internet as a backbone to give voice to citizens and carry the votes to be counted toward a decision.
In 2001 Chambers (and a mate called Dave) ran in the Western Australian state elections under the #votedave banner, an early iteration of this Pollee process. Chambers subsequently also ran as a candidate for Online Direct Democracy Party (ODDP) and represented the interests of Democracy Earth Foundation as an “Ambassador”.
Professionally, Andrew is an Event Production Manager, Lighting Designer and has worked for many West Australian Festival organisations and Companies. Chambers currently resides in Broome, Western Australia.
Dr Alexander Hayes
BA (Education), BA (Art), BFA (Hons),
PhD (Computing & Information Technology)
Alexander is an internationally renowned researcher, veteran educator, skilled web designer, and an acclaimed author with over 20 years of project management experience.
His PhD endeavoured to share the importance of place-based, culturally considered and democratically imbued decision making for communities that are already subject to over-policing. The investigation engaged global leaders from transdisciplinary stakeholder groups in semi-structured interviews, conversations and events, situating a review of the social impact and ethical implications of body-worn cameras.
Hayes currently resides in Perth, Western Australia.
Paul Desmond Parker
Paul grew up on dairy farms in country Victoria (Australia) and had a keen interest in politics from a young age.
As an adult he leans toward Agorist solutions to social problems, believing that knowledge and skills should be as widely distributed in the community as possible.
Paul currently resides in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Budget
A generous budget including access to animation software was provided to enhance the outcomes of this project. A membership campaign on the Pollee website provided additional funds to offset the initial investments of project outlay.
Deliverables
The Pollee project was project managed using Google Workspaces, a Circle.so trial account and finally a CONSUl project local development install. Oethica Group Productions engaged in extensive consultation with different parties and subjects prior, during, and in the conclusion of the main production periods of a project.
Project deliverables are therefore those aims and objectives Oethica Group Productions sought to accomplish through our project engagement in the context of the Pollee App project including;
Extensive consultation by virtual engagement regarding the principles and policies of the CONSUL and Squarespace install of Pollee;
Rigorous testing of various wireframe and application emulation software seeking to develop logical sequence methodology for CONSUL adaptation;
Development of wireframes and style guides to use in both the website presence and animated presentations;
Logo development and graphic design of the Pollee website and CONSUl install;
Project management involving external third-parties and external SAAS services;
Consultation resulting in the development of policies and procedures including a highly developed Lexicon and historical timeline;
Alpha and beta testing of the website and forms functions built-in JotForm outlining the main features of the Pollee platform;
Engagement with third parties to develop a character testimonials slider for the Pollee website.
Screenshot: CONSUL community link page
Communications
Extensive and intensive use of the virtual Whereby web conferencing tool was used to engage with Andrew Chambers over distance. Numerous fallouts due to poor Internet coverage led to combinations of teleconferencing and emailing to achieve project communications. The use of the Signal.org app also proved useful when bandwidth was so low only text messaging would work.
The continued issue of timely communications hampered project timelines as did ill health with the project team. On a number of occasions, the use of asynchronous data repositories was also hampered by a lack of access to clear Internet, a vital part of this predominantly virtual project build. Despite these challenges, a clear and successful project set of outcomes were achieved.
Screenshots: Pollee App website
Details
The Pollee App project was initiated in late October 2020 whilst in discussions with Andrew Chambers at an event in which Oethica Group Productions was the event production lead. In early November 2020, a shared document folder was set up to share historical resources relating to the development of the Pollee platform.
The decision to migrate from an application development framework-only to that of an articulated and integrations rich website containing the key steps and processes of the Pollee App became apparent in early 2021 when PWA investigations identified the possibility of utilising Ruby on Rails as a platform that would be commensurate with CONSUL. The mutual application synergy was confirmed with the engagement of Paul Parker on the Pollee team.
Discussions regarding continued development in CONSUL resulted in a local install being instigated with the assistance of Paul Parker on a stand-alone server located in Broome, Western Australia. The impetus for this testbed server was to conduct alpha testing and continued investigations into the mobile application, in conjunction with feedback from membership and testing in Squarespace.
Alpha testing of the Pollee App website commenced on the 12th of April 2020.
Key Links
The Pollee App Squarespace website was located at https://www.pollee.net
The Pollee Collective CONSUL install was located at https://broomevoice.org:8443/
Attribution
Cultural attribution is noted for all contributions to the Pollee App project and ensuing connections that continue to grow as a result of this important historical narrative across First Nations in a global context. All communications in this regard must be directed to the Principal of enduring project management.
Attribution for photography or media developed used in promotional collateral is given to Alexander Hayes, co-Producer, co-Editor, and Manager of the Pollee App project. Key photos for the project can be viewed at Oethica Group Productions Flickr account, also licensed as CC BY Attribution Sharealike.
