Berkeley's Opinion Space maps views visually

US-- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a visually way of mapping people's opinions.

Opinion Space, created by the Berkeley Center for New Media, asks users a series of questions to determine their opinions on various subjects. Participants respond using a sliding scale, and the overall results are used to position them on a map in relation to others.

The user appears on the map as a glowing dot, with those holding similar views nearby, and those with different views further away. The size of the dot indicates how a user's views have been rated by others.

Users can share and compare their opinions with others who have taken the survey, and with politicians, whose positions are determined by their public statements on the issues in question.

At present the questions are limited to US politics, but Ken Goldberg, one of the team behind Opinion Space, said: “New tools are needed to actively engage online groups in dialogue and decision-making on topics ranging from art to public policy to zoology.”

Author: Robert Bain