The World’s first Organic poll - BigPulse.com
SYDNEY – December 2000 – Sydney-based BigPulse launches BigPulse.com, a
radical new concept in public opinion polling.
BigPulse automatically detects, ranks and publishes leading public issues in
all regions continuously. Yet no questions are asked, no surveys are produced
and no pollster is involved.
Fifteen months in development, BigPulse uses an open free floating technique
called "Organic Polling". The term Organic signifies a natural, unconstrained
polling process that produces clean, "unpolluted" expressions of public opinion.
"Central to the technique is the elimination of the pollster – continuous
polling without a pollster. This means it’s free from personal, corporate or
institutional bias and interference," said BigPulse founder Ralph McKay.
It’s an automated process that merges the many opinions from the public at
large to form a concise expression of leading public issues, ranked in order of
priority. A real time "issue meter" sensitive to minute by minute changes in
public opinion.
Everyone online has equal opportunity to express a view and instantaneous
access to results.
"It’s fascinating to watch. It’s like seeing the thoughts of a collective
intelligence," said McKay.
"BigPulse has got me hooked. I'm intrigued by it. Every day I have a vote and
check out what's been going on. I've even put in a few placards . . . I think
it's great and it will only get better," said businessman Domenic
Alessi.
How BigPulse Works
BigPulse works by continuously harvesting from all regions opinions expressed
in the form of electronic placards. These placards are short statements of
opinion such as "Freedom for Tibet", "Look after environment" or "Count All
votes in Florida". Each placard is created by an online user.
Others then see these placards, vote their support for them, which boosts
their ranking relative to other placards.
BigPulse uses a competitive free market principle analogous to the stock
market. A company’s value is known when it’s floated and allowed to compete
freely for capital. Similarly, the "value" or ranking of a placard, representing
a public issue, becomes known when it’s allowed to float freely and compete for
votes. It reflects reality; issues compete for attention.
An issue engine continuously processes, ranks and publishes the popular
placards in a leaders ladder in the website – the issue meter. It shows the
dynamics of public opinion changing through time in reaction to social,
political and natural events.
It’s a totally fluid measurement of the dynamics of public opinion.
Automation also means that all regions in the world are "scanned"
simultaneously – the website includes an "issue scanner" used by visitors to
pinpoint the leading issues in any place or constituency.
Unlike yes/no and multiple choice polls people here are invited to vote for
their preferred placards daily. This enables people to express their changing
sentiments through time anonymously to the world.
"We wanted to make it very easy for people to use, so we incorporated the
issue meter, issue scanner and voting booth into the home page – everything is
there on one screen," said McKay.
Private Polling and Web Issue Feeds
The technology is also being licensed to commercial groups and organizations
such as schools and local government authorities wishing to run their own
organic polls for market research activities.
BigPulse is providing live hot issue feeds to webmasters.
About
BigPulse is a subsidiary of Sydney-based innovation group GarageMoguls Pty
Limited.
