2,833 research outputs found
Towards cooperative urban traffic management: Investigating voting for travel groups
In den letzten Jahrzehnten haben intelligente Verkehrssysteme an Bedeutung gewonnen. Wir betrachten einen Teilbereich
des kooperativen Verkehrsmanagements, nämlich kollektive Entscheidungsfindung in Gruppen von Verkehrsteilnehmern. In
dem uns interessierenden Szenario werden Touristen, die eine Stadt besuchen, gebeten, Reisegruppen zu bilden und sich auf
gemeinsame Besuchsziele (Points of Interest) zu einigen. Wir konzentrieren uns auf Wählen als Gruppenentscheidungsverfahren. Unsere Fragestellung ist, wie sich verschiedene Algorithmen zur Bildung von Reisegruppen und zur Bestimmung
gemeinsamer Reiseziele hinsichtlich der System- und Benutzerziele unterscheiden, wobei wir als Systemziel große Gruppen
und als Benutzerziele hohe präferenzbasierte Zufriedenheit und geringen organisatorischen Aufwand definieren. Wir streben
an, einen Kompromiss zwischen System- und Benutzerzielen zu erreichen.
Neu ist, dass wir die inhärenten Auswirkungen verschiedener Wahlregeln, Wahlprotokolle und Gruppenbildungsalgorithmen
auf Benutzer- und Systemziele untersuchen. Altere Arbeiten zur kollektiven Entscheidungsfindung im Verkehr konzentrieren
sich auf andere Zielgrößen, betrachten nicht die Gruppenbildung, vergleichen nicht die Auswirkungen mehrerer Wahlalgorithmen, benutzen andere Wahlalgorithmen, berücksichtigen nicht klar definierte Gruppen von Verkehrsteilnehmern, verwenden
Wahlen für andere Anwendungen oder betrachten andere Algorithmen zur kollektiven Entscheidungsfindung als Wahlen.
Wir untersuchen in der Hauptsimulationsreihe verschiedene Gruppenbildungsalgorithmen, Wahlprotokolle und Komiteewahlregeln. Wir betrachten sequentielle Gruppenbildung vs. koordinierte Gruppenbildung, Basisprotokoll vs. iteratives
Protokoll und die Komiteewahlregeln Minisum-Approval, Minimax-Approval und Minisum-Ranksum. Die Simulationen
wurden mit dem neu entwickelten Simulationswerkzeug LightVoting durchgef¨uhrt, das auf dem Multi-Agenten-Framework
LightJason basiert.
Die Experimente der Hauptsimulationsreihe zeigen, dass die Komiteewahlregel Minisum-Ranksum in den meisten Fällen
bessere oder ebenso gute Ergebnisse erzielt wie die Komiteewahlregeln Minisum-Approval und Minimax-Approval. Das
iterative Protokoll tendiert dazu, eine Verbesserung hinsichtlich der präferenzbasierten Zufriedenheit zu erbringen, auf
Kosten einer deutlichen Verschlechterung hinsichtlich der Gruppengröße. Die koordinierte Gruppenbildung tendiert dazu,
eine Verbesserung hinsichtlich der präferenzbasierten Zufriedenheit zu erbringen bei relativ geringen Kosten in Bezug auf
die Gruppengröße. Dies führt uns dazu, die Komiteewahlregel Minisum-Ranksum, das Basisprotokoll und die koordinierte
Gruppenbildung zu empfehlen, um einen Kompromiss zwischen System- und Benutzerzielen zu erreichen. Wir demonstrieren auch die Auswirkungen verschiedener Kombinationen von Gruppenbildungsalgorithmen und Wahlprotokollen auf die
Reisekosten. Hier bietet die Kombination aus Basisprotokoll und koordinierter Gruppenbildung einen Kompromiss zwischen
der präferenzbasierten Zufriedenheit und den Reisekosten.
Zusätzlich zur Hauptsimulationsreihe bieten wir ein erweitertes Modell an, das die Präferenzen der Reisenden generiert,
indem es die Attraktivität der möglichen Ziele und Distanzkosten, basierend auf den Entfernungen zwischen den möglichen
Zielen, kombiniert.
Als weiteren Anwendungsfall von Wahlverfahren betrachten wir ein Verfahren zur Treffpunktempfehlung, bei dem eine
Bewertungs-Wahlregel und eine Minimax-Wahlregel zur Bestimmung von Treffpunkten verwendet werden. Bei kleineren
Gruppen ist die durchschnittliche maximale Reisezeit unter der Bewertungs-Wahlregel deutlich höher. Bei größeren Gruppen
nimmt der Unterschied ab. Bei kleineren Gruppen ist die durchschnittliche Verspätung für die Gruppe unter der Minimax-Wahlregel hoch, bei größeren Gruppen nimmt sie ab. Es ist also sinnvoll für kleinere Gruppen, die Minimax-Wahlregel zu
verwenden, wenn man eine fairere Verteilung der Reisezeiten anstrebt, und die Bewertungs-Wahlregel zu verwenden, wenn
das Ziel stattdessen ist, Verzögerungen für die Gruppe zu vermeiden.
Für zukünftige Arbeiten wäre es sinnvoll, das Simulationskonzept anzupassen, um reale Bedingungen und Anforderungen
berücksichtigen zu können. Weitere Möglichkeiten für zukünftige Arbeiten wären die Betrachtung zusätzlicher Algorithmen
und Modelle, wie zum Beispiel die Betrachtung kombinatorischer Wahlen oder die Durchführung von Simulationen auf der
Grundlage des erweiterten Modells, die Berücksichtigung der Rolle finanzieller Anreize zur Förderung von Ridesharing oder
Platooning und die Nutzung des LightVoting-Tools für weitere Forschungsanwendungen.In the last decades, intelligent transport systems have gained importance. We consider a subarea of
cooperative traffic management, namely collective decision-making in groups of traffic participants. In
the scenario we are studying, tourists visiting a city are asked to form travel groups and to agree on
common points of interest. We focus on voting as a collective decision-making process. Our question is
how different algorithms for the formation of travel groups and for determining common travel destinations
differ with respect to system and user goals, where we define as system goal large groups and as user goals
high preference satisfaction and low organisational effort. We aim at achieving a compromise between
system and user goals.
What is new is that we investigate the inherent effects of different voting rules, voting protocols and
grouping algorithms on user and system goals. Older works on collective decision-making in traffic focus
on other target quantities, do not consider group formation, do not compare the effects of several voting
algorithms, use other voting algorithms, do not consider clearly defined groups of vehicles, use voting for
other applications or use other collective decision-making algorithms than voting.
In the main simulation series, we examine different grouping algorithms, voting protocols and committee
voting rules. We consider sequential grouping vs. coordinated grouping, basic protocol vs. iterative
protocol and the committee voting rules Minisum-Approval, Minimax-Approval and Minisum-Ranksum.
The simulations were conducted using the newly developed simulation tool LightVoting, which is based
on the multi-agent framework LightJason.
The experiments of the main simulation series show that the committee voting rule Minisum-Ranksum
in most cases yields better than or as good results as the committee voting rules Minisum-Approval
and Minimax-Approval. The iterative protocol tends to yield an improvement regarding preference
satisfaction, at the cost of strong deterioriation regarding the group size. The coordinated grouping
tends to yield an improvement regarding the preference satisfaction at relative small cost regarding the
group size. This leads us to recommend the committee voting rule Minisum-Ranksum, the basic protocol
and coordinated grouping in order to achieve a compromise between system and user goals. We also
demonstrate the effect of different combinations of grouping algorithms and voting protocols on travel
costs. Here, the combination of the basic protocol and coordinated grouping yields a compromise between
preference satisfaction and traveller costs.
Additionally to the main simulation series, we provide an extended model which generates traveller
preferences by combining attractiveness of the points of interest and distance costs based on the distances
between the points of interest.
As further application of voting, we consider a meeting-point scenario where a range voting rule and a
minimax voting rule are used to agree on meeting points. For smaller groups, the average maximum
travel time is clearly higher for range voting. For larger groups, the difference decreases. For smaller
groups, the average lateness for the group using minimax voting is high, for larger groups it decreases.
Hence, it makes sense for smaller groups to use the minimax voting rule if one aims at fairer distribution
of travel times, and to use the range voting rule if the goal is instead to avoid delay for the group.
For future work, it would be useful to adapt the simulation concept to take real-world conditions and requirements into account. Further possibilities for future work would be considering additional algorithms
and models, such as considering combinatorial voting or running simulations based on the extended
model, considering the role of financial incentives to encourage ridesharing or platooning and using the
LightVoting tool for further research applications
Platform Advocacy and the Threat to Deliberative Democracy
Businesses have long tried to influence political outcomes, but today, there is a new and potent form of corporate political power—Platform Advocacy. Internet-based platforms, such as Facebook, Google, and Uber, mobilize their user bases through direct solicitation of support and the more troubling exploitation of irrational behavior. Platform Advocacy helps platforms push policy agendas that create favorable legal environments for themselves, thereby strengthening their own dominance in the marketplace. This new form of advocacy will have radical effects on deliberative democracy.
In the age of constant digital noise and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to detect and analyze new forms of political power. This Article will contribute to our understanding of one such new form and provide a way forward to ensure the exceptional power of platforms do not improperly influence consumers and, by extension, lawmakers
Qualified exceptionalism: the US Congress in comparative perspective
The framers of the American Constitution devised a singular bicameral legislative body, which invested substantial power in both a broadly representative lower chamber and a second "deliberative" chamber that was both insulated from the voters and unrepresentative of the population as a whole. Until the early 20th Century, the singular U.S. Congress changed little, but
with growing national responsibilities, it sought to construct organizational forms that could address a consistently stronger executive. Since the 1980s, the Congress has relied increasingly on stronger parties to organize its activities. This development, embraced in turn by Democrats and Republicans, has led to changes that have edged the Congress in the direction of parliamentary democracies. We conclude this analysis has real, but limited utility, as congressional party leaders continue to barter for votes and, in the context, of narrow chamber majorities, often rely heavily on presidential assistance on divisive issues that are important to their party brand. Yet, the
traditional features of the American separated system - bicameralism, the committee systems, and the centrifugal forces emanating from diverse congressional districts, increasingly complex policy issues, and the fear of electoral retribution - also remain strong, and effectively constrain the influence of leaders.'Qualified exceptionalism' thus most aptly describes the contemporary American Congress, which remains 'exceptional,' but less than unique, as it responds to many of the same forces, in some of the same ways (e.g., strong parties), as do many other representative assemblies around the world
Utah Middle-Level School Community Councils: An Evaluation of Compliance, Processes, and Perceived Impact
The historical perspective of schools in our democratic society provides a framework of tension between local parent and community control and professional and state control of public school decisions. Today, federal and state requirements demand increased student achievement. One school reform effort enlisted to help meet the challenges is the creation of site-based decision-making councils that involve school administrators, teachers and parents. The state of Utah requires each public school to have a School Community Council that is responsible for the development of plans for school improvement. Limited funds are provided to each School Community Council through the School LAND Trust Program. The funds are to be used to assist in the implementation of the developed plans for the purpose of increased student achievement. Three Utah Middle level SCCs participated in this qualitative strength-based process evaluation. Two of the SCCs were identified as exemplary, and the third SCC was just beginning to function as an SCC. Based on the three questions guiding the evaluation, the evaluation learned that SCCs identified as exemplary were compliant with the law, employed strategies identified in the literature for effective site-based decision-making, and implemented plans that were perceived to impact student achievement. In addition, themes emerged from the strength-based approach to learn what SCC processes influenced an effective balance between the professional expertise and the democratic involvement in decision-making. The emergent themes deal with processes related to membership and elections, sources of confidence, use of data to drive school improvement decision, and communication
Pyramidal deliberative democracy
This dissertation has two main objectives. First, to outline an ICT-facilitated model of democracy called ‘pyramidal democracy’ that reconciles deliberative democracy with mass engagement. Second, to suggest how this model of democracy might engender the democratisation of the global economy and thus the provision of a basic level of economic security for all global citizens. At the core of the model is the pyramidal deliberative network, a means of organising citizens into small online deliberative groups and linking these groups together by means of an iterative process of delegate-selection and group-formation. The pyramidal network enables citizens to aggregate their preferences in a deliberative manner, and then project social power by authorizing the delegates at the top-tier of the pyramidal network to communicate their social demands to elected officials or to other points of authority. The envisioned outcome is the democratisation of the public sphere by means of the proliferation of deliberative networks in the government, market, and civil society spheres. Transnational pyramidal networks may make it feasible to instantiate a new citizen-based schema of global governance and, thereby, facilitate the reform of the United Nations and enable a transition towards global peace, sustainability, and distributive justice. Distributive justice might be achieved by means of implementing the six components of a democratised economy: participatory budgeting, fee-and-dividend taxes, a basic income, monetary reform, workplace democracy, and the sharing economy. Taken together, these components might enable the universal provision of a social minimum – a universal basic income sufficient for basic security and real freedom. Taken to its logical conclusion, a democratised economy may also enable a transition towards a post-scarcity economic order characterised by a maximal stock of humanmade and natural capital that would not exceed the sustainable carrying capacity of the earth
Cycling Through the Pandemic : Tactical Urbanism and the Implementation of Pop-Up Bike Lanes in the Time of COVID-19
Provides an international overview on how tactical urbanism was implemented to give more space to cycling
Demonstrates the conceptual framework surrounding tactical urbanism and how it plays out theoretically
Proposes new methodological insights to understand the effects of tactical urbanism intervention
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