DEMOS

The DEMOS approach in the Hamburg trial aimed to powerfully support the public debate about the new Leitbild in Hamburg online and to jointly develop new ideas and concepts for Hamburg. As the project team worked closely with the responsible authorities the results of the discussion were aimed to get implemented in the political process.

In this template we focus on the online discussion “Metropolis Hamburg – Growing City” that was conducted in the context of the RTD project DEMOS funded under the 5th Framework Programme of the EU (IST)

DEMOS (Delphi Mediation Online System) was a RTD project under the 5th Framework Programme of the EU (IST) developed by a research consortium of eight organisations from five different countries. The result of DEMOS was an innovative Internet platform facilitating democratic discussions and participative public opinion formation successfully tested four times by the pilot users, the cities of Hamburg and Bologna. In the Hamburg trial “Metropolis Hamburg – Growing City” DEMOS was chosen for an online public engagement to discuss the implementation of a new ‘Leitbild’ - a concept called ‘Growing City’ to cope with an increasing competition among European cities. It comprises the following goals: increasing the number of inhabitants, increasing economic growth, improving the traffic situation, increasing available apartment and industrial areas, increasing the international attractiveness and awareness of Hamburg. The citizens of Hamburg were invited to discuss this issue and to collaboratively develop new ideas. The discourse was conducted on an ICT platform, guided by moderators and, from a methodological point of view, the underlying phase concept in order to lead to concrete results. The so called ‘DEMOS process’ provides support for three phases of online discourses: broadening, deepening and consolidating the debate in different online forums and is supported by technical features, i.e. surveys, group sharing documents (Wikis), ranking functions, point system.

• Web application

• Community building / Collaborative Environments
• Deliberation
• Discourse
• Information Provision