Guidelines for Designing Deliberative Digital Habitats: Learning from e-Participation for Open Data Initiatives

Abstract

This paper discusses issues in designing deliberative digital habitats. It identifies three dimensions that define them: the gemeinschaft dimension, the gesellschaft dimension, and the technology dimension, the latter with four different spaces. While not a how-to manual, this conceptual framework, rooted in both existing literature and field experimentation, should prove helpful to digital democracy designers, either for public institutions or grassroots movements. As a contribution to the growing body of scholarship on online deliberation, it organizes critical issues so that they will not be overlooked. Examples from field cases illustrate such issues.