Abstract
Argument visualisation (AV) tools enable structured debates around issues, positions and arguments. These tools have the potential to substantially improve transparency e.g. by enabling understanding complex legislation and debating. In this paper we present the results of the evaluation of an AV platform by experts and policy makers. The results suggest the potential of such tools is large particularly for understanding complex legislation and debates. The results indicate an AV tool can be also potentially used for massive deliberations when however usability is further improved. They further suggest an AV tool seems particularly relevant to the analysis and policy formation stages of policy making, where identification, elaboration and presentation of complex topics are needed. In this paper we employed a mature AV tool and concentrate on evaluating general aspects of such platforms hence we believe the results can also apply to other AV platforms.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
European Commission, Better Regulation – Simply explained (2006), http://ec.europa.eu/governance/better_regulation/documents/brochure/br_brochure_en.pdf
European Commission, Smart Regulation in the European Union, COM, 543 final (2010)
Panopoulou, E., Tambouris, E., Tarabanis, K.: eParticipation initiatives: How is Europe progressing? European Journal of ePractice (7), 15–26 (2009)
Rittel, H.W.J., Webber, M.M.: Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Sciences 4, 155–169 (1973)
Shum, S.B.: Cohere: Towards web 2.0 argumentation. In: Hunter, A. (ed.) Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Computational Models of Argument (COMMA). IOS Press, Amsterdam (2008)
Van den Braak, S.W., Vreeswijk, G.A.W.: AVER: Argument visualization for evidential reasoning. In: The Nineteenth Annual Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems, JURIX 2006, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 151–156 (2006)
Atkinson, K., Cartwright, D.: Political Engagement through Tools for Argumentation. In: Proceedings of COMMA 2008, pp. 116–127 (2008)
DEMO-net Deliverable D5.2: eParticipation: The potential of new and emerging technologies (2007)
Lee, D., Menda, Y.P., Price, D., Tambouris, E., Peristeras, V., Tarabanis, K.: Platforms To Facilitate Online Political Debates: The Wave Platform. In: Chappelet, J.L., Glassey, O., Janssen, M., Macintosh, A., Scholl, J., Tambouris, E., Wimmer, M.A. (eds.) Electronic Government and Electronic Participation: Joint Proceedings of Ongoing Research and Projects of IFIP EGOV and ePart 2010, pp. 303–310. Trauner Duck (2010)
Macintosh, A., Whyte, A.: Towards an evaluation framework for eParticipation. Transforming Government. People, Process and Policy 2(1), 16–30 (2008)
Aichholzer, G., Westholm, H.: Evaluating eParticipation Projects: Practical Examples and Outline of an Evaluation Framework. European Journal of ePractice (7), 27–44 (2009)
MOMENTUM Deliverable D2.5: e-participation projects evaluation methodology (2008)
Chess, C.: Evaluating Environmental Public Participation: Methodological Questions. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 43(6), 769–784 (2000)
Lawrence, D.P.: Quantitative versus Qualitative Evaluation: A False Dichotomy? Environmental Impact Assessment Review 13(1), 3–11 (1993)
Thomas, D.R.: A general Inductive Approach for Analyzing Qualitative Evaluation Data. American Journal of Evaluation 27, 237–246 (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Tambouris, E., Dalakiouridou, E., Panopoulou, E., Tarabanis, K. (2011). Evaluation of an Argument Visualisation Platform by Experts and Policy Makers. In: Tambouris, E., Macintosh, A., de Bruijn, H. (eds) Electronic Participation. ePart 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6847. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23333-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23333-3_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23332-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23333-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)