Shadow Election is a tool that allows people to propose questions to political candidates, give and rate answers, and indicate support for candidates. It surfaces the best solutions and candidates based on crowd wisdom and ratings. The goal is to use social media to encourage constructive discussion and identify the right leaders and policies. It was first tested in the 2011 Finnish elections and partners with media companies to generate content. Cities and organizations can also use adapted versions to highlight issues and crowd-source solutions.

1. Shadow Election
finding the best candidates and solutions

2. salesforce.com, 2011
Social media is fundamentally changing the way people
are engaging with politics.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracia_real_YA_Madrid.jpg
Fed up with the limitations of current democratic
practices, people around the world are using social media
to make themselves heard – both online and offline.

4. Sustained peace
Social media has helped create
revolutions but how could it now
help support peace and democracy?
We believe that a solution lies in
using social media to encourage
people to constructively find the
best solutions and right people in an
open, simple and accountable way.

5. Current problems
Social media has proved an effective way
to communicate across vast networks;
however, there are currently few good
tools to help communities find the best
solutions to their problems.
How to make the message of the
“crowd” understandable?

6. Our solution
Shadow Election allows people to
propose questions to political
candidates and the general public.
• Propose questions
• Give answers
• Rate other people’s answers
• See the people with the best-rated
solutions move up the “live” chart
• Show support by indicating your
vote for one of the candidates

7. The benefits
As an end result you have the best
solutions and candidates.
You can then use this information
to help choose an official
candidate to vote for in real
elections.
Non-official candidates can also
be given a voice and the option to
become community leaders.

8. Initial trial
Shadow Election was first
trialled as Vaali.fi in the 2011
Finnish Parliamentary Elections.

9. Industry recognition
Vaali.fi (later Shadow Election)
was the first Finnish election
machine (vaalikone) to use open
data provided by the leading
nation newspaper (Helsingin
Sanomat).
This, together with the innovative
focus on solution rating rather
than only on the usual interests
matching, help RCM’s election
machine to garner some industry
recognition.

10. Media content
Media companies and organizations can use an embedded
version of the tool with their own questions to attract
visitors to their online spaces.

11. Data visualization
Media companies can also use the
data and statistics to generate
media news and content.
Shadow Election is partnering
with the info-graphic
specialists Flo Apps to create
visually appealing media
content.

12. Advocacy tool
Organizations can use it as an
advocacy tool by requesting that
candidates answer their specific
questions.

13. City Municipalities (alternative use case)
Cities can use an “adapted”
version of the Shadow
Election machine to highlight
issues and find solutions.
Here is how it would work:
• Questions/issues are entered
• People give solutions
• Solutions are rated by the
community

14. Crowd Wisdom
Given the right conditions the crowd is
on average smarter than the brightest
individuals.
The criteria and conditions for
successful crowd solution finding
were identified in James Surowiecki’s
seminal book The Wisdom of Crowds

15. Creating the right conditions

16. New findings in cognitive science are
be
showing that gut feelings can e”
thought of as “c ondensed experienc
an be
and in m any circumstances c
depth
m ore effective than in
analytical study.

17. The essence of the Shadow Election tool is to use
gut feelings and crowd wisdom to promote the best
candidates and find the best solutions.

18. Interested?
Find out more from:
Juha Mattila
CEO
tel +358 40 777 4925
email juha@realitycreatingmedia.com
www.realitycreatingmedia.com