eParticipation discussion forums

Description:
Web applications for an online discussion group where users, usually with common interests, can exchange open messages. Users can pick a topic, see a “thread” of messages, reply and post their own message.

eParticipation areas:

• Community building / Collaborative Environments
• Consultation
• Discourse
• Electioneering
• Mediation
• Spatial planning

Stage policy cycle: Appropriate stages in policy cycle are (1) agenda setting [includes awareness and problem perception], (2) policy formulation [analysis + information], and (5) policy evaluation). They have the potential to support interaction, thought, deliberation, debate and allow for a full discussion, potentially useful for the development of complex policy.


Specials:
A clear ‘conditions of use’ statement is required which can be followed by both moderators and participants. Besides it should be described (and planned before starting) how the results will be used for the further political process, a commitment of the political authorities is helpful. Discussion forums are distinguished from chat rooms by structured interaction around the threads and that extends normally over a period of days or weeks rather than hours. When used for consultations, each forum should last between 4 to 12 weeks to increase participation and also to re-visit the forum and reply to others with a definite time restriction to keep discussion focussed as potential users know that they have to make their statement within a specific time-horizon. For some discussion forums, registration is necessary. Staff time and skills are required to moderate (at least for legal reasons), support and facilitate such discussion, as well as the content analysis skills to analyse contributions and produce reports to embed the results into the political process and to give feed-back to the users.


Channel:
Mainly access over PC-based web browsers

Technology:

• Collaborative environment

Evaluation:
Content analysis of what is said in the forum is sometimes necessary but time consuming. Statistics are helpful about specific page uses.

Additions:
http://www.tellparliament.net http://www.civicinfo.bc.ca/phpbb2/index.php http://www.danmarksdebatten.dk