Online Deliberation Platform

Details

The Online Deliberation Platform is a video discussion platform for groups of 8-15 people. The platform is designed to facilitate a structured and equitable conversation with better opportunity for participants to speak up. It is currently in limited alpha mode: there is limited capacity available to test/use the platform.

The platforms runs in Chrome or Firefox without installing any additional software on desktop platforms and Android. The convener defines a structured agenda (e.g., "Electoral Reform") with topics (e.g., "Move all primary elections to after Labor Day") and a balanced set of pro's and con's for each topic.

After a brief set of instructions, the platform invites participants to introduce themselves, and walks them through the agenda, displaying for each topic the set of arguments. Participants take turns speaking for up to 45 seconds, and join a queue when someone else is speaking. The platform manages both speaking time and queuing, allowing brief interruptions. When the group thinks all arguments have been discussed, they can propose and vote to move on to the next topic. When all topics are discussed, the group enters the optional concluding phase, where they collaboratively develop open questions, which are discussed, edited and voted on as the outcome of the conversation.

Because of its dynamics, the platform enables more equitable participation from all participants, and will nudge participants that have not spoken much. When the system detects toxic behavior, or when a participant is reported, the automated moderator asks the group to validate this and takes action accordingly. The convener can monitor the conversation live, and record the session’s audio and interactions.

The platform is under active development, and has recently been successfully deployed in Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, and at Stanford with 15 parallel groups each. We have supported deliberations with up to 1250 unique participants. So far, we have hosted over 1450 hours of group discussion with 7000 unique participants.

You can read our demonstration paper at HCOMP and our news coverage here.

This work is supported by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence through a seed grant, the Stanford Research Institute and previously by the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation through a Magic Grant and the National Science Foundation.

Examples

Our platform has been used in several deliberations in various contexts.
Some examples include:

• A Tokyo city-wide deliberative poll on solar energy options in April 2020 (3 sessions, 15 parallel groups, 150+ participants)
• A Hong Kong city-wide deliberative poll on solar energy options in July 2020 (3 sessions, 15 parallel groups, 170+ participants)
• A national deliberation in Chile in collaboration with the Senate of Chile on constitutional reform in March 2021 (5 sessions, around 30 groups, 470+ participants)
• Two deliberations on Stanford's new School for Sustainability for faculty and students in January (faculty: 2 sessions, 15 parallel groups, 230+ participants) and May 2021 (students: 25 groups, 210 participants)
• America in One Room 2021, on various national issues in September 2021 (4 sessions, 132 groups, 1250 participants)

Contact Us

If you are interested in hosting a small-group conversation on the platform or want to learn more about it, please email us at deliberationplatform@lists.stanford.edu

• Bhargav Dindukurthi, M.S. student in Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• James Fishkin, Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication; Professor of Political Science (by courtesy); Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Director, Deliberative Democracy Lab, Stanford University
• Lodewijk Gelauff, Ph.D. candidate in Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• Ashish Goel, Professor of Management Science and Engineering and (by courtesy) Computer Science, Stanford University
• Ruochen(Chloe) Liu, M.S. student in Computer Science, Stanford University
• Kamesh Munagala, Professor of Computer Science, Duke University
• Sukolsak Sakshuwong, Ph.D. candidate in Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• Alice Siu, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; Associate Director, Deliberative Democracy Lab, Stanford University

We would like to thank our past members, who have made significant contributions to the platform: Nikhil Garg, Xinyu Hu, Daniel Kharitonov, Isa Liang, Arafat Mohammed, Liubov Nikolenko, Shouzhuo Sun, and Sravya Yandamuri.