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+ <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheets/hc.css" />
+ <div id="top">
+ <h3>HyperChad Anywhere<br />
+ <font size="-1">Voting Machinery for the <em>Mobile</em> Masses</font></h3>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><em>HyperChad Anywhere</em> tries to help groups make better
+decisions in their everyday lives. It tries to make voting technology
+created for state elections and government use easily accessible for
+every day decisions.</p>
+
+<p><em>HyperChad Anywhere</em> is an email and SMS based interface to <a
+href="http://rubyvote.rubyforge.org">RubyVote</a> a full-featured
+election methods library with a focus on preferential decision-making.
+It is similar to <a href="http://hyperchad.media.mit.edu">HyperChad</a>,
+a flexible web-based interface to the same voting machinery.</p>
+
+<h2>Usage</h2>
+
+<p>You can use <em>HyperChad Anywhere</em> entirely by sending and
+receiving emails or short text messages (SMS). In the US, most mobile
+phones that cannot send email can send an text message or SMS to an
+email address. <em>HyperChad Anywhere's</em> is designed to minimize the
+amount of typing necessary to use the system while ensuring that answers
+are small enough that they can fit in a mobile phone text message.</p>
+
+<div class="warning">
+<h4>Important Note</h4> <p>By default, all decisions are made with the
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method">
+Schulze method</a> (Condorcet with Cloneproof Schwartz Sequential
+Dropping), although the system can support other preferential and
+non-preferential voting methods.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Please direct messages to: <strong><em><a href="mailto:vote@mako.cc">vote@mako.cc</a></em></strong></p>
+
+
+<h3>Creating a New Election</h3>
+
+<p>To create a new election, send a message of the following form:</p>
+
+<blockquote><tt>new <em>votename</em> <em>ABCD</em></tt></blockquote>
+
+<p>Replace <tt><em>votename</em></tt> with an identifier for your vote.
+All votes will need to be prefixed with this so pick something short and
+easy to communicate to the other voters.</p>
+
+<p>Replace <tt><em>ABCD</em></tt> with a list of letters, each of which
+represents a choice in the election. If you are going choose lunch
+between Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican and Thai, a good string might be
+<em><tt>CVMT</tt></em>. Capitalization is not necessary and does not
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>You will receive a confirmation message with information on how to
+vote.</p>
+
+<div class="warning">
+<h4>Warning</h4>
+<p>All votes will last only one hour. After one hour
+from creating your vote, you will not be able to view the results or
+vote in the election and your unique identifier will become available
+for use in new votes.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="example">
+<h4>Example Command</h4>
+<p><tt>new lunch CVMT</tt></p>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Voting</h3>
+
+<p>To vote in an election, send a message of the following form:</p>
+
+<blockquote><tt><em>votename</em> <em>ABCD</em></tt></blockquote>
+
+<p>Replace <tt><em>votename</em></tt> with an identifier for the vote you
+would like to vote in.
+
+<p>Replace <tt><em>ABCD</em></tt> with a list of the the choices <em>in
+the order that you prefer</em>. Please list all choices and do not
+include any letters that are not choices. Send the choices as one "word"
+-- do not separate them with spaces or punctuations. Capitalization is
+not necessary and does not matter.</p>
+
+<p>Each voter will receive a confirmation message for their vote after it
+is recorded.</p>
+
+<div class="example">
+<h4>Example Command</h4> <p><tt>lunch TVMC</tt></p> <p>This would vote
+express a preference of Thai over Vietnamese over Mexican over Chinese
+in the election created in the example above.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h3>View Results</h3>
+
+<p>To view the results of an election, send a message of one of the
+following forms:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+ <tt>results <em>votename</em></tt><br />
+ <em>.. or ..</em><br />
+ <tt>res <em>votename</em></tt>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Replace <tt><em>votename</em></tt> with an identifier for the vote you
+want results for.</p>
+
+<p>The results will be computed and sent to the address that you sent
+the message from .</p>
+
+<div class="example">
+<h4>Example Command</h4>
+<p><tt>res lunch</tt></p>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Information on a Vote</h3>
+
+<p>To receive information on a vote, send a message of the following
+form:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+ <tt>info <em>votename</em></tt><br />
+ <em>.. or ..</em><br />
+ <tt><em>votename</em></tt>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Replace <tt><em>votename</em></tt> with an identifier for the vote you
+want information on.</p>
+
+<p>Information will be sent to the address that you sent the message
+from.</p>
+
+<div class="example">
+<h4>Example Command</h4>
+<p><tt>info lunch</tt></p>
+</div>
+
+<h3>General Help</h3>
+
+<p>To receive help on using the system, send a message of the following
+form:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+ <tt>help</tt><br />
+ <em>.. or ..</em><br />
+ <tt>?</tt>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The system will respond with help information. However, the help is
+designed to fit inside a 155 character text message and will be
+<em>much</em> less extensive than the help on this page.</p>
+
+
+<h2>Advanced Usage</h2>
+
+<p>There are two advanced types of usages that users of <em>HyperChad
+Anywhere</em> might want to be aware of.</p>
+
+<dt><strong>Candidate Descriptions</strong></dt>
+<dd>
+<p>During vote creation, users can provide longer descriptions for
+candidates using a vote creation command of the following form:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+ <tt>new <em>votename</em> <em>ABCD</em> <em>A:description B:description C:description D:description</em></tt>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The first three arguments are from the standard vote creation. The
+second include a series of one-word descriptions which are prefixed by
+the vote character and a <tt>:</tt>.</p>
+
+<p>Voters can see the voting list by sending a message containing
+<tt>info <em>votename</em></tt> or <tt><em>votename</em></tt> as
+described in the section on getting <em>Information on a Vote</em>.</p>
+
+<div class="example">
+<h4>Example Command</h4>
+<p><tt>new lunch CVMT c:chinese v:vietnamese m:mexican t:thai</tt></p>
+</div>
+
+<h3>Alternative Voting Methods</h3>
+
+<p>During vote creation, users can specify a voting method other than
+the default (Condorcet with cloneproof Schwartz sequential dropping).
+
+<p>They do so using a vote creation command of the following form:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+ <tt>new <em>votename</em> <em>ABCD</em> method<em>:methodname</em></tt>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The first three arguments are from the standard vote creation.
+<tt><em>methodname</em></tt> must be the name of a voting method that is
+supported. Possible methods include:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><tt>plurality</tt>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plurality_electoral_system">Plurality Voting</a></li>
+<li><tt>approval</tt>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting">Approval voting</a></li>
+<li><tt>condorcet</tt>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method">Condorcet voting</a></li>
+<li><tt>ssd</tt>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schulze_method">Schulze method</a> (Condorcet voting with cloneproof Schwartz sequential
+dropping) <em>(default)</em></li>
+<li><tt>borda</tt>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borda_count">Borda count</a></li>
+<li><tt>runoff</tt>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_Runoff_Voting">Instant runoff voting</a> (IRV)</li>
+</ul>
+
+<div class="warning">
+<h4>Note</h4>
+<p>If you have selected approval or plurality voting, you
+do not need to include a list of each candidate with each vote.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Voters can see the voting list by sending a message containing
+<tt>info <em>votename</em></tt> or <tt><em>votename</em></tt> as
+described in the section on getting <em>Information on a Vote</em>.</p>
+
+<div class="example">
+<h4>Example Command</h4>
+<p><tt>new lunch CVMT method:approval</tt></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+<p><font size="-1">Copyleft 2006 ::
+<a href="http://www.media.mit.edu">MIT Media Lab</a> and
+<a href="http://mako.cc">Benjamin Mako Hill</a></font></p>
+</html>
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