Building consensus online
From:
Steven Clift
Date:
Jan 30 16:09 UTC
Short link
Simon Smith noted:
Local issues forums, to take one example, do often beget sharp differences of
opinion and little sign of consensus-building. But Wilhelm found that national
political discussion forums in the US have the opposite tendency, towards what
he called a "homogeneity of in-group members". Beware, then, of apparent
consensus, which may be undesirable!
Reply and outline ...
I am starting from our Issues Forum premise that you we are starting with
participants from across the political spectrum with diverse views on the topic
at hand. I am also suggesting that the event and the outcomes be described in a
way that make it clear the goal is to come to some agreement with a release
value that quantifies minority opinions/options.
So here is an example - Minnesota's Governor appointed a Climate Change
Advisory Group - http://www.mnclimatechange.us - with 56 members -
http://www.mnclimatechange.us/MCCAG.cfm - who recently approved 50
recommendations for the Governor and legislature -
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/24/climate/ - imagine
either taking what they have produced as fodder for a 1,000 to 2,000 person two
week online event (consultation) or step back and figure out what interactive
and accessible online infrastructure could be designed to support input into
such a report or the crafting of agreement among participants. You'll note that
they did an excellent job providing access to the documents generated to
support the in-person process, but how might we take it further. Up until now,
I've felt the Internet is better at getting issues on the table, but that
in-person/telephone connections are best when it comes to deciding or
negotiating. But why not push the Net a bit further?
Is anyone aware of a government or civil society task force making political
recommendations like this that used the Internet to gather input, allow two-way
interaction among interested parties, and/or use online tools between meetings
to accelerate or develop consensus or greater agreement?
So let's imagine a two week online event on what Minnesota should do about
climate change (or some other issue or a set of top themes at our 150th
anniversary as a state) ...
Minnesota Listens
A two week online exchange among Minnesotans about our future.
Topic and Panel Development - 3 Months Preparation
- Draft short discussion point documents
- Gather short videos, photographs and other mixed media to create contextual
starting point that is screen readable
- Secure two major keynote speakers - one to open the event, one to close
- Craft small set of expert panels for participant Q and A and high quality
debate
Pre-Event Promotion - Over 2 Months
- Attract 1000-2000 registered participants prior to the event
- Seek participation to better ensure diverse representation - geographically,
politically, ethnically, gender, age
- Recruit a mix of "average citizens," interest groups, community leaders, and
elected officials
- Pre-event interest/opinion survey
Open Online Event
Prime online event participants with e-mail newsletters/updates before and
daily through the event.
W-Th - Event Opening
- Keynote #1
- Panel #1
F-Sa-Su-M - "Home Room" Hello
- Start two-way interactivity in small private discussion spaces of 15-20
members
- Develop a format where everyone says hello (posts something) in this "safe"
environment
- Tell as story about X - topically related
- Assign participants in stratified manner based demographics to create a
diverse mix
Tu-W-Th - Major Thematic Debates
- Public, moderated and facilitated
- Hire writers to produce daily summaries sent to all participants via e-mail
- Produce issues summary and questions from debate for deliberation in the
small groups
F-Sa-Su-M - "Home Room" Small Group Deliberation
- Discuss issues summary questions as a group
- Answer preliminary survey questions individually with report to group
- Require group to development and report various agreements via structured
form aggregated across all small groups
- Allow path for "agree to disagree" or minority position reports
- Writer/staff rapidly synthesize small group results and report to all
participants
Note: Additional public or private group discussions could also be designed
such as a discussion among local elected officials, etc. A focus on the time
required for participation is essential.
Tu-W - Closing and Public Poll
- Final synthesis report release on website, to all participants via e-mail,
media promotion
- Final Keynote
- Allow broader public to rate/rank/vote on produced recommendations for X
weeks after the main online event closes
This is my rough cut at how one might craft a **well-funded** high e-touch
online event/consultation with the goal of moving the results beyond statements
of difference or a basic online survey based just on expert scoping of the
issues.
What would you do differently? What do you like about the format?
Would this be worth the $250,000 or $500,000 or $50,000 it might cost to
produce this?
Or better yet, share your outline for the online event/consultation you'd like
to see.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org