Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!oliveb!sun!ecotopia!raburns
From: raburns%ecotopia@Sun.COM (Randy Burns)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Delphi Method
Message-ID: <114039@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 6 Jul 89 20:44:23 GMT
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Lines: 20


I've read some interesting things about using the Delphi Method to 
make forecasts.  My understanding is that a group of people are 
asked a question (often about a predicted event unknown to them).
The group then votes about what they predict the outcome will be,
repeating until the group doesn't change its position from the 
previous vote.  

I've seen this topic dealt with in some novels (e.g. Shockwave
Rider).  What other research are folks familiar with?

I am interested if anyone has seriously considered adding
this functionality to USENET. This might consist of a program
which would be active at a host site. A user might post a question
via a program like postnews, except that all replies would be 
sent to a special account. Replies to  the questionair sent to
that account would be tabulated and a report would be sent out 
automatically (say weekly until a final report was made). Perhaps
it has already been done?