Vector consensus: Decision making for collaborative innovation communities

Abstract

To achieve a general agreement in relation to a specific proposal, members of a community must participate in the formal consensus process. This paper describes a web-based system (the Vector Consensus system) for supporting an ad hoc consensus process. The system was implemented in a collaborative innovation community with the aim to discuss how this organization understands some drivers affecting collaboration practices. The results have shown that Vector Consensus system enhance ultimate consensus and canalize personal contributions to the organization. Furthermore, the possibility to compare the one's personal opinion with respect to the rest of the community, given as a real-time feedback, appeared to have a positive impact on the group, augmenting the context knowledge awareness. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.