Online Deliberation Conference 2005

"The Second Conference on Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice / DIAC 2005, will bring together software developers, social science researchers, and practioners of online deliberation for three days of presentations and workshops on the Stanford University campus in May 20 - 22 of 2005." (from http://www.online-deliberation.net/conf2005/)

Refactored out below question from WikiFacilitation.

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Feb 2005

This is just the sort of thing that people will probably be discussing at the upcoming Online Deliberation Conference in may. Is anyone here interested in going to that? I'm thinking of proposing a workshop (small discussion group topic) on wikis. The deadline for submitting such a proposal is March 15, so let me know if you are planning on going and if we should plan a workshop together:

-- BayleShanks - 28 Feb 2005

Bayle, I am interested in participating in a workshop on Wikis. We could ask SunirShah and http://www.kwiki.org/?BrianIngerson.

Also, do you think a shortened presentation based on TWikiPresentation17Feb2005 would be of interest? I live 20 minutes from Stanford University...

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Feb 2005

Cool! I've floated a preliminary workshop proposal (with a somewhat broader focus) at http://communitywiki.org/OnlineDeliberationConference (under Extreme Decentralization).

I think TWikiPresentation17Feb2005 would be of some interest. As you've seen in the CFP, the conference is inviting submissions for papers, workshops, demos, or talks -- I bet this would fit in somewhere around there (how about a demo?). However, if this conference is like its predecessor ("Developing and Using Online Tools for Deliberative Democracy"), then the focus will be on using these tools to enable civil society rather than corporations -- so I'd suggest changing the slide "Wiki in the Enterprise". Maybe we could replace it with something about use cases for wikis in small nonprofits (not that I know anything about that).

-- BayleShanks - 01 Mar 2005

Good point, so lets focus on where we know most, our Codev development process

I tried to reach Sunir and Brian but did not hear back. So a workshop/panel is not feasable.

I intend to submit below demo/talk proposal on 15 May 2005 after getting feedback. Please provide your input, this is collaborative work   (BTW, I will be offline for a few days for vacation and will not read my e-mail until 15 May 2005.)

-- PeterThoeny - 11 Mar 2005

Minor grammar/spelling fixes. I have yet to see a success story for online voting, though the theory is good. -- CrawfordCurrie - 12 Mar 2005

The presentation looks good in covering the technical virtues of wikis and TWiki in particular. However I'd avoid the use of the term "consensus" since it's not an accurate description of the decision-making process on TWiki.org. I don't intend to push Taboo topics - just to request that we honor whatever community process we do have by being honest on the matter.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 13 Mar 2005

Looks mostly good. My only concern is that whoever reviews the abstracts and decides which ones to accept might think that your talk is more about software development than about online deliberation. In fact, though, the talk is totally relevant, because you are using a software development community as a case study for online deliberation. I would state this explicitly to avoid confusion. Something like:

"There are many online communities which deliberate and make decisions by using Wiki software. As a case study, this talk examines how Wiki supports online deliberation in the Twiki software development community."

I would place this just before "A Wiki is a natural fit for open source communities". I would also make a paragraph break there (right after "This improves the browsing experience") (unless you think abstracts should be one paragraph; I'm not sure, maybe they should be).

I would also consider rearranging stuff so that the words "online deliberation" come up in the first couple of sentences.

For example:

There are many online communities which deliberate and make decisions by using Wiki software. As a case study, this talk examines how Wiki supports online deliberation in the Twiki software development community. A Wiki is a natural fit for open source communities since Wikis are virtual rooms where people with similar interests meet and converse. Open source communities are virtual by nature, and they often work by conventions. It is possible to support these conventions and processes with a structured Wiki, where content is driven by Wiki applications.

A Wiki is a good vehicle to loosely organize discussion in a community. Content in a typical Wiki grows in an organic and free manner. People create many hyperlinks to related content, which is a natural process with WikiWord links. This improves the browsing experience.

This talk includes a live demo on the TWiki.org website showing how the TWiki developers communicate mainly through their Wiki. A workflow helps developers keep track of new features from brainstorming idea through finished implementation. Each feature is documented, discussed and status tracked on a page. Where needed, online voting comes into play to reach consensus on a feature. All the infrastructure helps keep the content organized and structured, e.g. a release dashboard can show the progress of the current release in real time.

-- BayleShanks - 13 Mar 2005

Here's some alternative wording for the sentence I questioned: "When needed, on-line polling comes into play to take the pulse of community opinion about a particular feature."

-- LynnwoodBrown - 13 Mar 2005

Just back from Cancun, Mexico. 5 days without computer; my wife did not believe me first that I would not take the computer along.

Thank you all for the considerate feedback. I will submit the revised proposal shortly, right at the deadline.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Mar 2005