The Argumentation Toolbox System Architecture Report, D2.1, is now complete and available for downloading.

The report defines the system architecture of the IMPACT argumentation toolbox, taking into consideration the results of a requirements analysis, the state-of-the-art of prior eParticipation systems, including results of prior European eParticipation projects, standards and emerging standards for content management systems (CMS), middleware standards for Web services, as well as available platforms and tools for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). This architecture will serve as the platform upon which all of the argumentation tools of the project shall be built, to ensure their usability, interoperability, portability and compliance with relevant standards. 

The IMPACT argumentation toolbox provides a set of web applications for helping members of the general public to participate effectively in policy deliberations. The toolbox will also provide applications to help analysts to construct models of policies and argument maps of policy deliberations. 

To the extent possible, the server-side of the web applications of the toolbox will be built upon the Java platform, for execution on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Tools can be implemented in any programming language with a compiler or interpreter for the JVM and the possibility to package the resulting artefact as an OSGi bundle, such as Java and Clojure. In exceptional cases, components which are not based on the JVM can be used, but this must be shown to be justified in order to meet requirements in the specifications of the tool. 

The tools will be packaged both as Java components, using the OSGi Framework, and as Web Services. The usage of OSGi will allow for the installation and updating tools of the IMPACT argumentation toolbox, without requiring the toolbox to be restarted. The use of Web Services will make it possible to access the services of the tools from other applications over the Internet, enabling independent developers to develop custom web applications and mash-ups. 

The persistent storage of documents and data on the server-side by the IMPACT toolbox will be managed using an abstract API for accessing the underlying Content Management System (CMS) independent of proprietary interfaces specific for a certain CMS solution. Using an abstract API like the CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Services) or WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) standards will ease the integration of the IMPACT argumentation toolbox with existing and future eParticipation platforms. 

The client-side of the web applications of the IMPACT toolbox will be implemented as Rich Internet Applications using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax). Web components may be packaged as web widgets using Googles iGadget specification. Gadgets are small web applications which can be stored locally on the client computer and run outside a browser in a special web container or may be included by other platforms supporting the gadget specification This will enable the web user interfaces of the IMPACT tools to be published on pages of eParticipation and other web sites and be used with any standards-compliant web browser, without requiring plug-ins. 

A possible exception is the IMPACT argument analysis, tracking and visualization tool. Further evaluation is required to determine whether Ajax libraries exist which are sufficient for implementing this tool. As a fall-back position, if necessary it may be implemented as a Java applet or a Flash component. 

To ensure that all IMPACT web clients have a common look and feel, they will all be implemented using the jQuery JavaScript library. The jQuery library was chosen because it is open source, mature, well documented and widely used. 

In addition to describing the technical platform of the IMPACT toolbox, this report also includes a set of guidelines and principals for the developers of IMPACT tools with regard to usability, ergonomics, accessibility, security, internationalization and other issues.