Brief Description

This Online Deliberative Debate Participation and Analysis Tool is developed for an Internet Community Solutions provider in the UK. It serves as a platform for presenting a case for or against a suggested policy and for describing an issue. In this sense, this application is an educational tool that can be effectively used in a variety of domains, be it Communities, Councils, Schools, Government and Organisations.

The text in this online application can be the result of collaboration, where officials, students, teachers, community workers or citizens can work together to create arguments. The debates can be on any subject. Here the users can simply write the arguments in Microsoft Word and upload it. They even have the option of directly performing this task online within the tool itself.

The Online Deliberative Debate Participation and Analysis Tool generates various arguments prompting the user to decide, before prompting for a final decision. It links the user to discussion forums or references for further interaction. This application resembles a poll where it poses a question and respondents can answer as yes or no. However, rather than delivering results in percentage, the system generates arguments for or against the topic, based on the user’s choice/decision. Essentially, any argument can be attached to any response. There are reports that track choices and arguments that convince or dissuade.

It is a very user friendly and smoothly manageable interface. Moreover,It is very easy to change and manage the whole interface, look and feel without any technical knowledge.

Tools and Platforms

Internet Information Server 5.0, SQL Server 2000, Active Server Pages