Created several example entries; edited the .template.md; added to the Contribute page

docs/mediums/.template.md

@@ -1,21 +1,37 @@
 # TITLE
 
-OVERVIEW
+<!-- brief summary of the medium, no more than a handful of sentences
+
+(delete these comments as you fill in the sections) -->
+
+**Input:** <!-- what is required to use it? -->
+
+**Output:** <!-- what results does it produce? -->
 
 ## History
 
+<!-- brief historical reference points -->
+
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+<!-- what does this medium capture especially well? -->
+
 ### Oversights
 
+<!-- what does this medium overlook? -->
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
+<!-- what are some real-world examples in practice? -->
+
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+<!-- what software, methodologies, or organizations are available to facilitate implementation -->
 
-## Further reading
+## Further resources
+
+<!-- where should people look first if they want to learn more? -->

docs/mediums/bureaucracy.md

@@ -1,23 +1,41 @@
 # Bureaucracy
 
-OVERVIEW
+Bureaucracy is a portion of a governance system designed to be neutral and insulated from political pressures. Bureaucracies tend to function on the basis of professionalism and meritocracy, rather than popular preference. They can counterbalance more transient political formations, such as elected officials and referendums.
 
-<!-- continuity, professionalism -->
+**Input:** Externally defined priorities, meritocratic internal incentive structures, continuity through political change
+
+**Output:** consistency of service delivery, neutral expertise in the service of popular priorities
 
 ## History
 
+Perhaps the most famous ancient bureaucracy was that developed in China's Han dynasty (202 BCE - 220 AD), which used expertise in Confucian philosophy as the basis for securing government positions. Other ancient governments developed bureaucratic structures as well.
+
+Bureaucracy became a central feature of modern governments and corporations, providing operational continuity alongside policy changes from elected leaders.
+
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+* Handles matters that require expertise more effectively than elected officials or the population as a whole
+* Can implement controversial policies with limited vulnerability to public pressure
+
 ### Oversights
 
+* Can become self-perpetuating, expanding in reach to the point of subjecting political policy-making to undue constraints
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
+* Militaries under control of civilian government
+* Various government ministries throughout the world
+
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+* [Open badges](https://openbadges.org/) and other certification mechanisms
+* Standardized testing
 
-## Further reading
+## Further resources
+
+* Graeber, David. _The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy_. Melville House, 2015.
+* Weber, Max. _Economy and Society_. 1922.

docs/mediums/condorcet.md

@@ -1,21 +1,45 @@
 # Condorcet
 
-OVERVIEW
+Condorcet is an election method that selects the candidate, if such a candidate exists, that would win a [majority vote](majority_voting.md) against all other candidates. Ballots may take the form of either a single [preferential vote](preferential_voting.md) or a sequence of runoffs.
+
+There is not always a "Condorcet winner," and various implementations provide differing methods of determining a winner in such cases.
+
+**Input:** preferential vote or runoffs
+
+**Output:** Condorcet winner or circular paradox
 
 ## History
 
+The Condorcet method takes its name from an early promoter, the 18th-century French mathematician Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, who was the Marquis de Condorcet. The method itself was [first described by Ramon Llull](https://www.math.uni-augsburg.de/htdocs/emeriti/pukelsheim/2001a.html) in 1299. A version of it is used in Robert's Rules of Order, first published in 1876.
+
+Recently, it has attracted the interest of software developers and has been adopted by several prominent Free Software communities and Pirate Party groups.
+
+
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+* Prevents some potential for gaming that is possible in other voting methods
+
 ### Oversights
 
+* The complexity of the system may lead to confusion
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
+* Free Software communities
+    - [Debian Project](https://www.debian.org/vote/)
+    - [Python Software Foundation voting process](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-8001/)
+    - Wikimedia Foundation
+* Pirate Party of Sweden uses it for primary elections
+
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+* [Condorcet Internet Voting Service](https://civs.cs.cornell.edu/) at Cornell University
 
-## Further reading
+## Further resources
+
+* "[Condorcet method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorcet_method)" at Wikipedia
+* Schulze, Markus. "[A new monotonic, clone-independent, reversal symmetric, and condorcet-consistent single-winner election method](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00355-010-0475-4)." _Social Choice and Welfare_ 36, no. 2 (February 2011).

docs/mediums/majority_voting.md

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+# Majority voting

docs/mediums/referendum.md

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+# Referendum

docs/mediums/representation.md

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 # Representation
-
-OVERVIEW
-
-## History
-
-## Feedback loops
-
-### Sensitivities
-
-### Oversights
-
-## Implementations
-
-### Communities
-
-### Tools
-
-## Bibliography
-
-## Further reading

docs/mediums/secret_ballot.md

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 # Secret ballot
 
-OVERVIEW
-
-## History
-
-## Feedback loops
-
-### Sensitivities
-
-### Oversights
-
-## Implementations
-
-### Communities
-
-### Tools
-
-## Bibliography
-
-## Further reading

docs/mediums/sortition.md

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 # Sortition
 
-OVERVIEW
+Sortition is the random selection of people for positions of authority from a general pool. Those selected may serve individually or in juries and typically have the time and resources to become well informed on the questions they are chosen to decide.
+
+**Input:** census of community members, randomization method, appropriate training
+
+**Output:** advisory recommendation or binding decision
 
 ## History
 
-<!-- Beginning with the Greeks -->
+Sortition was a basic feature of Athenian democracy. During the medieval and early-modern period it was used for governing some Italian city-states, such as Venice and Florence.
+
+In recent political systems, it is used most commonly for the formation of citizen juries for trials. But it has had [other scattered uses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition#Modern_application) in recent history, from Amish communities to national constitutional reform processes.
 
 ## Feedback loops
 
 ### Sensitivities
 
+* Encourages deliberation insulated from external pressures
+* Can enable juries to gain a level of focused expertise on the issue at hand greater than what would be possible for the population as a whole or elected representatives
+
 ### Oversights
 
+* May not be fully representative of the population
+* May enable groupthink and negative internal dynamics among selected juries, especially in the absence of a [secret ballot](secret_ballot)
+
 ## Implementations
 
 ### Communities
 
-<!-- Chinese "deliberative democracy" -->
+* Citizen juries in judicial trials
+* "[Deliberative democracy](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=deliberative democracy china)" processes in China
 
 ### Tools
 
-## Bibliography
+## Further resources
 
-## Further reading
+* [Sortition Foundation](https://www.sortitionfoundation.org/)
+* "[Sortition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition)" on Wikipedia

docs/mediums/term_limits.md

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 # Term limits
 
-OVERVIEW
-
-## History
-
-## Feedback loops
-
-### Sensitivities
-
-### Oversights
-
-## Implementations
-
-### Communities
-
-### Tools
-
-## Bibliography
-
-## Further reading