Enabling Public Discourse

The importance of public engagement and awareness concerning environmental issues has been widely recognised in the development of a sustainable community. Recent efforts by authorities and development agencies towards enabling public information access have increased the potential for members of public to take part in the decision-making process. However, dissemination of information should be accompanied by the capability to engage in a dialogue, and there are many obstacles to facilitate its implementation, including the lack of support for effective participation and discussion management. In this paper, we describe two approaches to achieve higher levels of public participation in discourse concerning environmental issues: facilitating the collection of community information, and offering tools for visualising discussions. Through the development and usage of these tools, we attempt to address issues in enabling individuals in social decision-making and the reconciliation of diffe...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2001
• Where: JSAI
• Authors: Keiichi Nakata
• Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Environmental Issues, JSAI 2001, Public Engagement, Public Information Access