Tools
The Participatory Spaces was supported by a set of ICT tools and platforms open source and integrated in the overall design. The EuComMeet Project relied upon such set, built up on existing experiences and integrated with technological innovations devised to address the main project’s research questions and to further strengthen participatory processes.
The tools and platform selected enlarged the scope and depth of participatory spaces available to decision-makers and citizens in order to facilitate communication processes at the local, national, and European levels, creating the context for each other.
Towards fully-fledged Participatory Spaces
The M4D2 platform (aka Convivium)
Automated/ supervised moderation
Using the Convivium platform
Inventory of existing tools and platforms
An inventory of digital platforms for deliberative and participatory processes was developed to explore features and potential of existing platforms, while also assessing the capacity to meet the project’s requirements.
The M4D2 platform (aka Convivium)
To fulfill important requirements regarding privacy and customisation options, the M4D2 platform, named later Convivium, was developed by NetHood as a free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS) platform, based on NextCloud https://github.com/nextcloud/, and Jitsi https://github.com/jitsi, with additional features for supporting online deliberation according to the EuComMeet approach.
In short, Convivium is a collection of software tools that:
- can be hosted in any data centre (e.g. GARR) or web hosting environment according to the real needs,
- adhere to the EU legislation regarding privacy (GDPR),
- are continuously tested and updated by a huge community of developers,
- offer a very high level of customisation and design options, creating a collective learning environment for software developers, facilitators, and politicians,
- allow for easy integration with different implementations of the automatic moderation and translation functionality.
Key features of the Convivium platform include:
- Integration of the Nextcloud and Jitsi namespaces,
- Improvement of the Jitsi interface to facilitate deliberations, by visualising the speaking time of all users both in each turn and in total,
- Easy access to all shared files (eg. briefing materials) and chat history even after the call is ended. Asynchronous deliberations sessions (forum) are by design intertwined with synchronous deliberation sessions (videochat),
- A control room functionality where logs are sent about ongoing conversations, including the logs from abuse button, near every participant name, to signal inappropriate behaviour,
- A multiple-translation interface for the chatroom,
- Agendabot, a chatbot programmable by moderators to implement automatic/supervised moderation with three contemporary possible routines (three different files of instructions), according to three levels of deliberation: local, national, international.
Automated translation consolidation
One of the most innovative elements of this project was the integration of mechanisms of automated translations that were embedded in the platform in order to allow for interactions among citizens from different countries. This innovation built upon Dublin City Univercity (DCU) existing research efforts and maximised the synergies and interconnections across different research activities.
To ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform, a generic translation API was implemented that allowed the integration with alternative translation services, either public or commercial.
Automated/supervised moderation
One of the findings of the EuComMeet experiments was that there is always a need for human moderators or at least supervisors of online deliberation processes.
The automated part of the moderation task was implemented through a highly customisable agenda bot (called “Meety”), which can be programmed by the human supervisor to implement automatic/supervised moderation with three contemporary possible routines (three different files of instructions), according to three levels of deliberation: local, national, international.
Using the Convivium platform
If you want to use Convivium for the next deliberation process organised by your municipality, NGO, or other organisation, here is a quick checklist:
- Hosting: Remember that Convivium is a platform that you own, which comes with responsibilities and certain costs, the most obvious one being the server where it will be hosted. This could be already there, and make sure you ask your organisation. Did you know that GARR can host such services for public institutions tied to research, in Italy? Other NRENs (European National Research and Education Networks) could do the same in your EU country, see GÉANT, the collaboration of NRENs at https://geant.org. Otherwise, you will need to buy a virtual server whose cost is constantly decreasing. And if you don’t have already someone that knows how to do this, you would need some technical support for the installation and maintenance. Medium skills are required and maybe you can find a local expert? Still, as both Nextcloud and Jitsi are well-known services, you can find different commercial offers to be tailored on your needs.
- Specialised functionality: The automatic moderation tool needs to be adapted to the specific needs of your deliberation process. It was built as a prototype for the EuComMeet experiments and it doesn’t fit any context. The automatic translation is more straightforward as a service, but more expensive to run. Indeed, the EuComMeet translation servers have been already suspended – but as we generalised the translation proxy tool, it can be bridged onto different services. Also, there are many alternatives (ranging from established ones like Google and Deepl to FLOSS solutions), whose plus and minuses need to be evaluated.
- Maintenance: FLOSS platforms need maintenance and care, but the outcome is rewarding, like when one chooses to create their own vegetable garden. Being hosted locally, platforms like Convivium allow the engagement of local experts whose role in the process can be beyond the purely technical work needed. NetHood can help you find a local team, or even commercial solutions within a list of recommended hosting-services and partners in our network (communities, coders, training, etc.), to support you through the whole process, depending on the budget you have, the scale of your needs, the type of project you’re running or you want to start.
A demo installation of the platform is available at https://cloud.nethood.org/
Further reading:
Detailed documentation for users, facilitators, and developers
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