Bringing an informed public into policy debates through online deliberation: the healthcare dialogue project

ABSTRACT

A year-long experiment was conducted to better understand the potential of web-based deliberations to inform public policy. Focused on health care reform, the project drew from periodic surveys and a series of online group deliberations to examine the interaction of policy elites and ordinary citizens in online settings, and to test hypotheses related to group composition, discussion processes, and decision making. This paper describes the project design and summarizes several key findings to date.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Computer-supported cooperative work

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Measurement, Reliability, Theory

Keywords:
digital democracy, health care policy, online deliberation