Online Deliberation Design: Choices, Criteria, and Evidence

Understand

This chapter reviews empirical evidence bearing on the design of online forums for deliberative civic engagement.

• Dimensions of design are defined for different aspects of the deliberation: its purpose, the target population, the spatiotemporal distance separating participants, the communication medium, and the deliberative process to be followed.
• After a brief overview of criteria for evaluating different design options, empirical findings are organized around design choices.
• Research has evolved away from treating technology for online deliberation dichotomously (either present or not) toward nuanced findings that differentiate between technological features, ways of using them, and cultural settings.