A raised hand is a bid with the number scrubbed out.

§ 1 · The problem

Moderators have to guess.

Every discussion has one scarce resource: speaking time. Someone has to decide who gets it, and the usual signal — a raised hand — doesn't say how urgent the point is, what it would add, or how it compares with the other hands up. So the moderator guesses, and guessing has predictable biases: toward the confident, the familiar, and whoever is easiest to see.

The cost is invisible. When the most important point in the room goes unmade, nobody finds out.

§ 2 · The idea

Bid for the floor instead of raising your hand.

The twenty-dollar thought had the right form but the wrong currency: an auction in dollars would just favor the richest participants. So Palaver uses points. Everyone gets the same amount at the start of each discussion — 20 by default — and points buy one thing: speaking time. A high bid can only mean one thing: this person wants the floor right now.

§ 3 · How the market works — 1 of 3

You see where you'd stand before you bid.

Moving the bid slider shows your place in the queue before you commit anything — so move this one. If the price is high and your point can wait, wait for it to drop. Ties go to whoever bid first, so matching a bid never jumps you ahead of it.

Drag the slider on this page to see how it works.

Not a mock-up: the same previewPosition from @palaver/domain orders this queue and the ones the server settles.

§ 3 · How the market works — 2 of 3

You pay the runner-up's rate, and only for the time you use.

By default the auction is second-price: when you win the floor you're charged the runner-up's bid, not your own. That keeps the strategy simple — bid what the turn is actually worth to you — and it means you can't overpay for a turn nobody else wanted.

And that charge is a rate per minute, not a flat price, so the meter stops when you do. Making your point concisely is cheaper than holding forth, for you and for the room.

§ 3 · How the market works — 3 of 3

Speaking is free when nobody's waiting.

When the queue is empty the price to speak is zero, so the app stops asking for a bid and just offers a button. Press it and see: the floor is yours for a full turn, the clock runs, and nothing is charged for any of it. Even if you've spent every point, you can still talk when the queue is empty. A room can optionally reward whoever breaks a silence with a fraction of any bid their contribution sparks.

§ 4 · Try it

Free, and running now.

There's nothing to install or configure, and only the person who creates a room needs a Google account. Courses get a roster, a join code you can put on a slide, your choice of auction rules, and a ledger that persists across the term. A transcript records who spoke; the ledger records who wanted to, because a bid is a record of wanting the floor whether or not it wins.

Afterword · where this goes

The idea is bigger than the app.

Any group that takes turns talking is already allocating speaking time somehow, usually by guessing. A discussion market allocates it with information the group has but can't share without a market. Palaver is one implementation — seminars, Q&As, reading groups, and meetings could all run this way. If you run discussions, try one on a market and see what the ledger tells you.

— S.C.