From djb at tc.umn.edu Thu Jan 13 21:38:22 2005 From: djb at tc.umn.edu (Dave Bianchi) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 23:38:22 -0600 Subject: REMINDER: TCSA meeting January 20 Message-ID: The Twin Cities System Administrators (TCSA) group meets monthly to discuss topics of interest to system and network administrators in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. The meetings are free and open to the public. Check out our web site at http://www.tcsa.org/ TCSA meetings are on the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm. ----- Next Meeting: Topic: LISA 2004 Conference Highlights Speaker: LISA 2004 Attendees Date/Time: January 20, 2005 7:00 pm Location: France Place Synopsis: TCSA members and others that attended the LISA 2004 conference in November in Atlanta are invited to share their conference experiences with those of us who weren't able to attend. Please contact me at djb at umn.edu if you were at LISA 2004. We will meet at the France Place Building, 3601 Minnesota Drive, in a conference room one floor down from street level on level "P" (underground Parking). Our conference room will be the first one that you see. Tentative Meeting Schedule February 17, 2005 March 17, 2005 Directions: The France Place Building is at 3601 Minnesota Drive on the northeast corner of Hwy 494 and France Avenue in the Bloomington business district. From 494, go north on France Ave. to Minnesota Drive (the first streetlight north of 494). Take a right (east) onto Minnesota Drive and immediately take another right into the parking lot. The building sign is visible from 494 and shares a parking lot with Fuddruckers. France Place is a nine story brown brick building. - Parking Free parking is available in the main lot. - Web map is at: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=3601+minnesota+drive&city=bloomington&state=mn&zipcode=55435 For more information on TCSA, check out our web site: http://www.tcsa.org/ To subscribe to the TCSA or TCSA-JOBS mailing lists, follow the TCSA or TCSA-JOBS link from: http://list.onvoy.com/ For any other information, please send email to: djb at umn.edu or contact: Dave Bianchi 651-260-1770 -- Dave Bianchi djb at umn.edu 651-260-1770 From trey at sage.org Tue Jun 14 10:15:31 2005 From: trey at sage.org (Trey Harris) Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:15:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: SAGE BoD election: voting eligibility and passwords Message-ID: <20050614101511.V57492@bowser.eecs.harvard.edu> The SAGE Interim Board has extended the date by which you must be a member in good standing in order to be eligible to vote in the upcoming election for the SAGE Board of Directors. The new date is Monday, June 20, 2005, at 12 noon PDT. Please note the following: 1. Renewals take effect nearly immediately, but new memberships may take up to two business days--please allow extra time. 2. Whether or not you need to renew, please take this opportunity to ensure you know your password, by visiting the following page: https://db.usenix.org/cgi-bin/memb/cardverify.cgi 3. If you renew your membership OR change your password between Friday, June 3, 2005, and Monday, June 20, 2005, you will not be able to vote until Wednesday, June 22. 4. Password changes after Monday, June 20, 2005, at 12 noon PDT will not be reflected on the voting server. Trey Harris Interim Director From mizmoose at gmail.com Fri Jun 24 09:42:20 2005 From: mizmoose at gmail.com (Esther Filderman) Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 12:42:20 -0400 Subject: VOTE--BALLOTING ENDS TODAY! Message-ID: To all SAGE members-- A reminder that voting for the new corporation's Board of Directors ends TODAY, Friday June 24, at 5PM PDT (midnight UTC). If you have not yet voted, please visit https://secure.cyberiusnetwork.com/sagevote/ and do so now. The SAGE Leadership Committee: Esther Filderman Adam Moskowitz Mario Obejas Greg Rose (chair) From ggr at qualcomm.com Tue Jun 28 15:16:12 2005 From: ggr at qualcomm.com (Greg Rose) Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 08:16:12 +1000 Subject: SAGE election results Message-ID: <200506282216.j5SMGCnP022656@garie.qualcomm.com> [Resent to sage-announce by request. Apologies to anyone bothered by receiving two copies. -- Greg.] The election results are in. Congratulations to Andrew Hume, Chris Palmer, David Parter, Doug Hughes, Geoff Halprin, Pat Wilson, Stephen Potter, Tom Perrine, Trey Harris. Many thanks to Matt Okeson-Harlow for running the election. The detailed output of the pSTVprogram, provided by Matt, appears below. Further down, I've done a fairly detailed description of the counting process. To all candidates: thanks for your efforts and willingness to run! regards, Greg. ---------- Election: Sage Vote 2005 Method: Meek STV Number of Ballots: 219 Threshold Name: Droop Dynamic Fractional 13 candidates running for 9 seats. R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom|Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre --+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- 1|31.0|11.0|24.0|19.0| 3.0|47.0| 5.0| 6.0|22.0| 1.0| 9.0| 5.0|36.0| 0.0|50.5|21.9 2|25.8|14.5|29.7|22.9| 4.1|24.1| 7.2| 7.7|28.7| 2.1|12.9|10.0|28.7| 0.6|28.7|21.8 3|23.5|16.9|24.4|25.1| 5.6|23.8| 8.8| 9.1|24.6| 3.0|14.7|13.6|25.1| 1.0|15.6|21.8 4|22.8|18.2|23.5|23.1| 6.4|22.9| 9.7|10.0|23.3| 3.4|15.8|15.5|23.2| 1.2| 8.1|21.8 5|22.3|18.9|22.5|22.5| 6.9|22.3|10.2|10.5|22.5| 3.6|16.4|16.5|22.5| 1.4| 4.1|21.8 6|22.0|19.3|22.1|22.1| 7.1|22.0|10.5|10.7|22.1| 3.7|16.7|17.0|22.1| 1.4| 2.0|21.8 7|21.9|19.7|22.1|21.9| 7.2|21.9|10.6|10.9|22.6| |18.7|18.1|21.9| 1.5| 1.9|21.8 8|22.8|20.4|22.1|22.5| |22.2|11.6|11.1|23.7| |19.5|19.1|22.4| 1.5| 5.3|21.7 9|22.1|20.9|22.3|22.2| |22.1|12.1|11.4|22.1| |20.1|19.9|22.2| 1.6| 2.5|21.7 10|21.9|21.2|22.0|22.0| |21.9|12.3|11.6|22.0| |20.3|20.3|21.9| 1.7| 1.2|21.7 11|21.8|21.4|21.8|21.8| |21.8|12.4|11.7|21.8| |20.5|20.5|21.8| 1.7| 0.6|21.7 12|22.4|23.4|23.0|23.3| |22.0|14.4| |22.5| |21.4|21.6|22.8| 2.3| 7.6|21.7 13|22.3|22.4|22.3|22.4| |22.2|15.1| |22.4| |22.3|22.8|22.2| 2.5| 6.5|21.6 Round 1: Count of first place rankings. Candidate Andrew Hume is elected. Candidate David Parter is elected. Candidate Geoff Halprin is elected. Candidate Pat Wilson is elected. Candidate Trey Harris is elected. Round 2: Transferring surplus votes. Candidate Doug Hughes is elected. Round 3: Transferring surplus votes. Round 4: Transferring surplus votes. Round 5: Transferring surplus votes. Round 6: Transferring surplus votes. Round 7: Transferring surplus votes. Eliminating candidate Steve Misrack. Round 8: Transferring surplus votes. Eliminating candidate Gabriel Krabbe. Round 9: Transferring surplus votes. Round 10: Transferring surplus votes. Round 11: Transferring surplus votes. Round 12: Transferring surplus votes. Eliminating candidate Matthew Barr. Candidate Chris Palmer is elected. Round 13: Transferring surplus votes. Candidate Stephen Potter is elected. Candidate Tom Perrine is elected. Winners are Andrew Hume, Chris Palmer, David Parter, Doug Hughes, Geoff Halprin, Pat Wilson, Stephen Potter, Tom Perrine, Trey Harris. ---------- A more detailed explanation of the above results (my apologies if the long lines get broken... just put them back together and view with a constant-width font): First, the basic premise of a "single transferrable vote preferential system" is that every ballot (that isn't exhausted, see later) goes towards electing one person. That one person will be the highest ranked candidate on the ballot who was electable. Sometimes the candidate with the highest preference on the ballot has more votes than they needed to get elected, so the leftover fraction of that ballot will flow on to the next preference. (This fractional flow is the "Meek" variant, and except in trivial cases you need a computer to do it; in paper elections they redistribute by taking a random sample of the bits of paper.) An explanation of the columns: "R" is simply the round number. The counting happens in a number of rounds as people get eliminated, elected, or votes get moved around. There are then 13 columns, one per candidate. It is purely a coincidence that in this case there are also 13 rounds needed to settle the election. "Exha" (exhausted) is the number of ballots that have gone through all the candidates who were voted for, and still haven't elected anyone; these are now out of the running. For example, there was one person who voted for only one candidate; when that candidate got elected with more votes than were needed, the leftover fraction of this ballot became exhausted, because there were no more people listed on it to pass the fractional vote on to. "Surp" (surplus) is how many (fractional) votes were left over after candidates who were already elected had all the votes they needed to be elected. These are the ones that go to their next preference in the next round. "Thre" (threshold) is the number of votes needed to elect someone at this round. (More traditional people call this a "quota".) Initially, this is the number of ballots divided by the (number of seats plus 1), but it will gradually reduce as ballots get exhausted because there are less ballots remaining in the pool. So, the process starts by first counting all the #1s. | R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom |Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre |--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- | 1|31.0|11.0|24.0|19.0| 3.0|47.0| 5.0| 6.0|22.0| 1.0| 9.0| 5.0|36.0| 0.0|50.5|21.9 |Round 1: Count of first place rankings. | Candidate Andrew Hume is elected. | Candidate David Parter is elected. | Candidate Geoff Halprin is elected. | Candidate Pat Wilson is elected. | Candidate Trey Harris is elected. The threshold starts off as 21.9 votes, being 219/(9+1). If you get more than this many votes, you're elected. Five candidates did. Let's look at two of them in particular, though. First, Pat Wilson got 22 votes, just squeaking in to this round. Essentially, anyone who voted 1 for Pat has pretty much had their vote used up to get her elected. On the other hand, Geoff Halprin has lots more votes than he needs -- he got 47, but only needed 21.9. So, each of these votes has some "leftovers". Even though Geoff is now elected, a fraction (0.534 or so) of each of these votes have not yet been used. These partial votes will, in the next round, be shared out among the second preferences of the people who voted for Geoff (and similarly for the others who have been elected, even the .0045 leftover from each of Pat's votes). | R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom |Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre |--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- | 2|25.8|14.5|29.7|22.9| 4.1|24.1| 7.2| 7.7|28.7| 2.1|12.9|10.0|28.7| 0.6|28.7|21.8 |Round 2: Transferring surplus votes. | Candidate Doug Hughes is elected. All the leftover fractional votes from the 5 elected candidates have been moved over to their second preferences. The first thing to note is that the person who voted for only one candidate voted for one of the elected ones, so when it came time to move that vote over, it became "exhausted". This has the side effect of slightly lowering the threshold, as there are now less votes in play (the new threshold: (219 - .53) / (9 + 1) = 21.8). The second thing to note is that, not surprisingly, many of those second choices went to other people who were already elected -- by way of example, Pat's vote has significantly increased. But Pat (and the other four) have already been elected, so those fractional votes need to move over to other people too. Third, Doug Hughes has now exceeded the threshold for the first time, so he too is elected, and leftover fractions of votes for him (whether they voted for him first or second) now need to be re-distributed. | R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom |Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre |--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- | 3|23.5|16.9|24.4|25.1| 5.6|23.8| 8.8| 9.1|24.6| 3.0|14.7|13.6|25.1| 1.0|15.6|21.8 |Round 3: Transferring surplus votes. | 4|22.8|18.2|23.5|23.1| 6.4|22.9| 9.7|10.0|23.3| 3.4|15.8|15.5|23.2| 1.2| 8.1|21.8 |Round 4: Transferring surplus votes. | 5|22.3|18.9|22.5|22.5| 6.9|22.3|10.2|10.5|22.5| 3.6|16.4|16.5|22.5| 1.4| 4.1|21.8 |Round 5: Transferring surplus votes. | 6|22.0|19.3|22.1|22.1| 7.1|22.0|10.5|10.7|22.1| 3.7|16.7|17.0|22.1| 1.4| 2.0|21.8 |Round 6: Transferring surplus votes. | 7|21.9|19.7|22.1|21.9| 7.2|21.9|10.6|10.9|22.6| |18.7|18.1|21.9| 1.5| 1.9|21.8 |Round 7: Transferring surplus votes. | Eliminating candidate Steve Misrack. For the next four rounds, the redistribution process continues; every time a vote moves to someone who's already been elected, the fractional leftovers get transferred in the next round. The number of exhausted votes increases a little bit each time (some people voted for two, three, or four candidates), with a slight (not shown because of rounding) reduction in the threshold required. The "Surplus" must decrease in each round, as more and more votes come to rest in the bucket for a candidate who hasn't yet been elected. After round 6 this process can not make any more progress: The candidates elected so far have just over the needed number of votes and moving their fractional votes can't make enough difference to any unelected candidate to get them elected. So, we try something else. The lowest ranking remaining candidate now gets eliminated (sorry Steve Misrack), and his 3.7 full and partial votes get redistributed to their next preference. | R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom |Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre |--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- | 8|22.8|20.4|22.1|22.5| |22.2|11.6|11.1|23.7| |19.5|19.1|22.4| 1.5| 5.3|21.7 |Round 8: Transferring surplus votes. | Eliminating candidate Gabriel Krabbe. Even all of Steve's votes still aren't enough to get anyone else elected, though. So, we eliminate the next lowest candidate, and redistribute Gabriel Krabbe's votes. Now, he had 3 full-power votes still unused from the first round, and they go to their second preferences. He also had a total of 4.2 partial votes gathered as second or subsequent preferences from other people. These need to be redistributed, and re-redistributed, until something interesting happens... | R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom |Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre |--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- | 9|22.1|20.9|22.3|22.2| |22.1|12.1|11.4|22.1| |20.1|19.9|22.2| 1.6| 2.5|21.7 |Round 9: Transferring surplus votes. |10|21.9|21.2|22.0|22.0| |21.9|12.3|11.6|22.0| |20.3|20.3|21.9| 1.7| 1.2|21.7 |Round 10: Transferring surplus votes. |11|21.8|21.4|21.8|21.8| |21.8|12.4|11.7|21.8| |20.5|20.5|21.8| 1.7| 0.6|21.7 |Round 11: Transferring surplus votes. |12|22.4|23.4|23.0|23.3| |22.0|14.4| |22.5| |21.4|21.6|22.8| 2.3| 7.6|21.7 |Round 12: Transferring surplus votes. | Eliminating candidate Matthew Barr. | Candidate Chris Palmer is elected. Still not enough votes in any unelected candidate's bucket, nor enough surplus to make a difference any more, so the lowest-ranking candidate (Matthew Barr) again gets eliminated. But redistributing other votes is, now, enough to get Chris Palmer elected. | R|Andr|Chri|Davi|Doug|Gabr|Geof|Lore|Matt|Pat |Stev|Step|Tom |Trey|Exha|Surp|Thre |--+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- |13|22.3|22.4|22.3|22.4| |22.2|15.1| |22.4| |22.3|22.8|22.2| 2.5| 6.5|21.6 |Round 13: Transferring surplus votes. | Candidate Stephen Potter is elected. | Candidate Tom Perrine is elected. Redistributing all of Matt's votes, remembering that he still has 6 full-power votes from round 1, and the small leftovers from Chris, is enough to push both Stephen Potter and Tom Perrine over the threshold. At this point, the seats are filled, the election is over, and Lorette Cheswick is implicitly eliminated. If the election had been run as "Vote for one person, and the top nine get elected" (and assuming that the person ranked first is who would have got that vote), Matthew Barr would have been elected instead of Tom Perrine. If it had been run as "Vote for up to nine people" (as has been done in the past, and assuming again that the people would have been the up-to-nine top ranked on the ballot), the result would have been the same as the STV process. This isn't terribly surprising; the STV process is expected to be fairer to minorities in the face of party politics, and I couldn't really identify any parties in this election. Greg Rose INTERNET: ggr at qualcomm.com Qualcomm Australia VOICE: +61-2-9817 4188 FAX: +61-2-9817 5199 Level 3, 230 Victoria Road, http://people.qualcomm.com/ggr/ Gladesville NSW 2111 232B EC8F 44C6 C853 D68F E107 E6BF CD2F 1081 A37C