Citizens' Assembly Deliberation Platform Development

Citizens’ Assembly Discussion and Deliberation Online Platform Development New Opportunities for Computer-supported Deliberation Citizens’ assemblies have power to develop informed and engaged citizens, and therefore the potential to lead to more representative policy. Face-to-face discussion provides the basis for deliberative activity, however F2F discussion has two major limitations: (1) only a limited number of people can participate in the discussion and (2) during discussion there is limited time for everyone to be heard. How might we overcome these challenges to allow wider audiences to participate in learning and deliberating about policy issues? Northwestern will lead Phase 2 of the Citizens’ Assembly project, with ForgeWorks providing consultant services to design and develop the online platform. The online platform to be used as a facilitation, communication, and data capture tool to be used in all phases of the project. The platform will focus on solutions to support each phase in the following key areas: learning, discussion, voting, sharing, evaluation, and event logistics. The online platform adds value by: ● Helping advocacy organizations shift opinion about political issues, by educating and activating a large number of citizens in a cost effective way ● Helping non-profit groups create stronger, more widespread civic innovation culture ● Helping academic institutions collect data more quickly and cheaply by collecting and coding opinion data