General Motivation
Liquid Democracy is a buzzword created in 2003. While many use the term Liquid Democracy to describe internet-based Delegated Voting (a voting mechanism), Adhocracy goes beyond that. The essence of Liquid Democracy is the tight coupling of a networked voting system to an open system for the discussion and development of policy alternatives.
While traditional online discussion systems are a great way to generate new ideas, they frequently fail to prioritize and filter them. This leads to situations in which the most outrageous and absurd proposals receive the most detailed discussion, while more realistic options are drowned in the noise. A convenient method to filter such proposals is to allow users to vote on them. This way, the community can learn whether a proposal lacks essential support among its members, whether the proposal needs some more work or whether it is generally accepted and can become part of the group's policies or even of the political agenda of that organization.
Involving many users in an online poll can be hard, since the degree to which individual users engage in an online discussion is highly varied. Yet any meaningful poll must reflect not only the loud and ever-present voices, but also those who cannot and do not want to spare as much time on a specific debate as others. Liquid Democracy allows these users to make a simpler choice instead: they can name an agent whose position in one or many debates they want to support. This agent will be given the right to vote on their principal's behalf. Yet this delegation, unlike a proper voting proxy, is a soft connection which can be reviewed, overridden or entirely cancelled at any moment. In a way, delegated voting is a recommendation mechanism that works like the song recommendations a service like last.fm produces.
In Liquid Democracy, opinions are no longer just a private matter but instead become the subject of a dynamic network based around both topics and opinion leaders. This reflects the structure of a networked public implied in tools such as Facebook and Twitter.
