Rules of Order for Electronic Group Decision Making - A Formalization Methodology

This paper reports on an ongoing research project, consisting of formalizing rules of order for group decision making, and implementing them as a procedural component of automated mediation systems for group decision making. The component should ultimately assist a human mediator in maintaining order at electronic meetings, and in giving advice to the participants on their options, rights and obligations in the decision making process. A main requirement for the system is that order can be maintained in a flexible way, allowing to set the rules aside when needed. This paper presents the first research result of the project: a way of formalizing rules of order that makes it possible to maintain order in such a flexible way.