IMPACT Integrated Method for Policy Making Using Argument Modelling and Computer Assisted Text Analysis IMPACT is a European Framework 7 project (Grant Agreement No 247228) in the ICT for Governance and Policy Modeling theme (ICT-2009.7.3). The project began January 1, 2010 and will run for three years. IMPACT will conduct original research to develop and integrate formal, computational models of policy and arguments about policy, to facilitate deliberations about policy at a conceptual, language-independent level. These models will be used to develop and evaluate innovative prototype tools for supporting open, inclusive and transparent deliberations about public policy. To support the analysis of policy proposals in an inclusive way which respects the interests of all stakeholders, research on tools for reconstructing arguments from data resources distributed throughout the Internet will be conducted. Prior research on using argumentation schemes to generate focused surveys, minimizing noise and the need for manual moderation, will be extended in this project to support argumentation schemes needed for policy deliberations and generate surveys in multiple languages. Research will also be conducted on how to visualize arguments about policy, building on previous research by the participants, but extended to visualize relationships between arguments and policies, in multiple languages. An abstract Application Programmers Interface (API) for the services required by the toolbox from content management systems will be defined, using existing standards whenever feasible, and validated by integrating the toolbox with an Open Source content management system which has been successfully developed or used in European eParticipation and other “Web 2.0” or “Social Web” projects. The tools in the argumentation toolbox will be designed and implemented as advanced Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) or widgets to increase usability and help overcome the digital divide and facilitate consultations across languages and cultures. |