Internet fora are on-line discussion platforms that give ordinary citizens the chance to express a view on a particular issue in writing and to discuss the issue with others.

Suitable

 

• as additional channel of information and communication for ordinary citizens, independently of place and time
• for sounding out public opinion on a particular issue or project

Sequence of events

An internet forum is set up with editors taking care of it; to get the discussion going, these put initial questions or publish newspaper articles, comments and “letters to the editor” about the issue to be discussed. People participating in the forum can comment on all this and/or react to other people’s comments. If the forum becomes too confusing, it may be necessary for the editors to segment the discussion in a number of strands / subsections, to reallocate contributions, to post summaries etc. Given that all contributions can be archived, the transparency and intelligibility of the discussion is pretty well assured.

Participants

Interested citizens with computing skills and access to the internet

Points to note

 

• Only persons with the necessary computing skills and access to the internet can participate in an internet forum. As a result, some segments of the population are excluded from this form of participation. Internet fora can work well as a supplement to “classical” methods of participation, but are of questionable value on their own.
• It is important to tie internet fora into actual decision procedures – otherwise they may end up as mere “playgrounds” with no practical relevance.