Presentation at 2014 Build Peace Conference at MIT. more at SocialDeliberativeSkills.com

1. Working Group Session:
Supporting deep dialogue and deliberation
in socio-technological systems
Tom Murray tommurray.us@gmail.com
info: tommurray.us, socialDeliberativeSkills.com

2. Agenda: 1.5 hr. working session
• 10 min Theme of the workshop
• 20 min Discussion questions to seed the field
• 7 min presentation: UMass research--Murray
• 7 min presentation: NCDD resources--Murray
• 7 min presentation: Justify system--Fry
• Remainder – open discussion

3. Interdependent Quadrants
(Wilber’s Integral Theory)
singular
plural
interiors
exteriors
I
(skills, etc.)
IT
(material/
visible)
WE
(cultural)
ITS
(systems/
infrastructure)

4. Small group discussion:
Why do/don’t people get along?
Causes of peace and non-peace...
1. -
2. -
3. -
4. -
5. ....

5. Technology Supporting Peace & Justice
1 — Systemic change
Supporting grass-roots movements
• organizing actions and information flow
Citizen Reporting & Monitoring
• of crimes, conflicts, social injustices, of
governments, social trends, industry
Eliminating precursors to war & unrest,
• building precursors to peace: economic stability and
growth, education, health care, nutrition…
e-Civic engagement
• participatory budgeting; community forums

6. Technology Supporting Peace & Justice
2 — Supporting Dialogue and
Deliberation
Discussion, Argumentation, Critical
Thinking,
Voting & Decision Making tools
Supporting
Mutual Understanding and
Mutual Regard.
ThisSession
ThisConference
<- UMass

8. Dialog—Deliberation—Conflict
Resolution
What are the general skills?
• Civic engagement/public dialogue
• International & inter-group conflict
• Labor/management, consumer
disputes alternative dispute
resolution
• Interpersonal disputes / mediation
• Deliberative decision making
(school, work, home)

9. Software
Content vs. Structure/Tools
(& Beliefs vs. Skills)

12. A. What SKILLS are needed for
dealing with differences and
conflict?
1. -
2. -
3. -
4. -
5. ....
B. Example of a simple
tool supporting a skill...

13. Rationality:
Clear,
reasonable
arguments and
explanations,
decision
making
Leadership:
organizing,
inspiring,
teaching,
‘politicking’
Group process
skills:
facilitation,
mediation
Communication
skills
• Nonviolent
Communication
• Appreciative
Inquiry
• Others?
Skill domains
>> technology supporting each?...

14. Supporting Deeper Deliberative
Dialogue Through Awareness Tools
Tom Murray
University of Massachusetts
www.SocialDeliberativeSkills.com
MIT Build Peace Conference
April, 2104
Working Group Session:
Supporting deep dialogue and deliberation in
socio-technological systems

15. Global Citizen Skills
• “A good deal of research ...evidence of people’s
inability to understand and fairly consider other
people’s perspectives, to think critically about their
own position” (Rosenberg)
• “In times of increased global interdependence,
producing interculturally competent citizens who
can engage in informed, ethical decision-making
when confronted with problems that involve a
diversity of perspectives is becoming an urgent
educational priority…however these skills…are what
corporations find in shortest supply among entry-
level candidates." (King & Baxter)
• Engaging reciprocally with the perspectives where
"reasonable people can reasonably disagree" (King &
Kitchener)

16. Social Deliberative Skills:
Social/Emotional/Reflective
• 1.
Social perspective taking
(cognitive empathy, reciprocal
role taking...)
• 2.
Social perspective seeking
(social inquiry, question
asking skills...)
• 3.
Social perspective
monitoring (self-reflection,
meta-dialogue...)
• 4.
Social perspective weighing
(reflective reasoning; comparing
and contrasting views...)
16

17. [CURRENT] WEEK 1: Discuss the pros and cons of leg...
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[CURRENT] WEEK 1: Discuss the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana.[CURRENT] WEEK 1: Discuss the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana.
To focus the conversation, we invite you to assume you are on an advisory panel for the state
legislature, having some preliminary conversations online, and you will eventually be drafting
a group recommendation. Consider not only your own preferences but what is best for the
state (or society).
edit delete
CONTRIBUTE YOUR THOUGHTS
14:53 EDT Sunday, November 13 by tomm
tomm has joined the conversation
23:53 EDT Saturday, November 12 by ines-v
ines-v added a resource: 'Getting a Fix'
23:52 EDT Saturday, November 12 by ines-v
I have to disagree with your third point that marijuana is a gateway drug. Of
all the people I know that smoke marijuana, they do not do any hard drugs.
I do agree that gateway drugs exist, however I feel like that typically
happens from one hard drug to another when one doesn't seem to be
enough. But if you want to talk about gateway drugs we would also have to
mention alcohol and cigarettes which many people consume and smoke.
Alcohol and cigarettes are also drugs and often considered gateway drugs.
They are both legal so that option is void in regards to marijuana.
You also mentioned cancer and other lung related issues. Marijuana is a
natural plant. Cigarettes are made up of extremely harmful chemicals that
cause lung related issues and cancer much faster than marijuana ever could.
Yet, they are still legal. If anything, cigarettes should be illegal when
considering public health. Marijuana is a lot safer than cigarettes.
I do appreciate you playing Devil's advocate though!
I'd like to explain how I see it differently (ines-v)
18:26 EDT Friday, November 11 by arthur-x
It seems like the vast majority is supportive of the legalization of marijuana,
so I'm going to play devil's advocate in order to bring the opposition's side
to the table.
First off, research has demonstrated that marijuana use reduces learning
ability by limiting the capacity to absorb and retain information. A 1995
study of college students discovered that the inability of heavy marijuana
users to focus, sustain attention, and organize data persists for as long as 24
hours after their last use of the drug. Earlier research, comparing cognitive
abilities of adult marijuana users with non-using adults, found that users fall
short on memory as well as math and verbal skills. Although it has yet to be
proven conclusively that heavy marijuana use can cause irreversible loss of
intellectual capacity, animal studies have shown marijuana-induced
structural damage to portions of the brain essential to memory and learning.
Furthermore, when someone is under the influence of marijuana, they
should not be allowed to operate heavy machinery like motor vehicles,
right? Sure, if marijuana becomes legalized, Congress will definitely enact
laws to prevent drivers from being under the influence of marijuana. But,
ines-v
arthur-x
joseph-t
laura-t
rtwells
matthew-s
tomm
DIALOGUE TABLE
Everyone (no demographics set)
17

18. 18
Mediem
Opinion
Sliders

19. Experimental Trials
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
0.55
TotalSkill
REFLECTIVETOOLS SLIDERS VANILLA
Experimental_group
All Pairs
Tukey-Kramer
0.05
19

20. 20

21. Linguistic
Features –
LIWC
21
80+
features
5
categories
Linguistic
process (e.g.,
total words per
sentence, % of
pronouns)
Psychological
process (e.g.,
affect, cognition)
Paralinguistic
dimensions (e.g.,
assents, fillers)
Punctuation (e.g.,
quotation marks,
exclamation
marks)
Contents
(excluded from
this study)
100+
features
8
categories
Narrativity
Referential
cohesion
Syntactic
simplicity
Word
concreteness
Causal
cohesion
Verb
cohesion
Logical
cohesion
Temporal
cohesion
Discourse
Features –
Coh-Metrix

22. E-commerce: LIWC
Automated Text Analysis
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
Neurtal
Seller
Buyer

23. Text Analysis Pane
23

24. Dashboard Text Tagging
24

25. Future: Additional Metrics
Common problems encountered in online
facilitation
• Low or no participation of individuals or groups, or
silences or lulls on the part of individuals, the entire
group, or sub-groups
• Conversation domination by an individual or group
• Inappropriate or disrespectful behavior
• Off-topic conversation
• Tension-filled disagreements, or high emotional
content
• Too much agreement or politeness
• Misunderstanding due to missing communication
skills normally available in face-to-face communication

26. Social Network Measures
• In-degree (prominence)
• Out-degree (influence)
• Degree centrality/hub (key
player)
• Closeness centrality
(independence)
• Betweeness centrality (potential
of control)

27. Code Frequencies in Several Domains
Exp. Group
Total_
SD_Skill
Intersubjective
speech acts
Vanilla (N = 8)
0.29 (0.07)
0.20 (0.09)
Reflective Tools (N = 8)
0.40 (0.08)
0.30 (0.08)
27
• A significant difference and main effect
between Total-SD-Score and grouping, F(1,
14) = 6.89, p = 0.02*, d = 1.46 (a large
effect) in favor of the Reflective Tools group
• A significant relationship between Intersub
and grouping, F(1, 14) = 4.81, p = 0.05*, d
= 1.05 (a large effect) in favor of the
Reflective Tools group

28. Presentation #2 —
National Coalition for
Dialog Deliberation
Technology Resources

29. see NCDD.org

30. collaboration.grantcraft.org

31. by
Laura Black
ncdd.org/rc/item/6612

32. Examples:
• Group brainstorming and decision-
making
• Citizen engagement and e-government
• Inter-group and inter-cultural commun.
• Argumentation and Debate tools
• Idea network visualization tools
• Conflict Resolution tools
• Gaming for skill building

33. Facilitate.com – Decision making

34. ConsiderIT

35. Zing: Large Group Brainstorm

37. Structured Dialog (consrv / liberal)
The Public Conversations Project

38. CitiZing
6/5/10 12:13 PMActivities - CitiZing!
Show recent activity
Copyright © 2010, Citizens League
About • Contact • Privacy Policy
ContactAboutCalendarCitiZing Home
Parks and Trails Legacy Project
Join Project
Home About Blog Online Activities Calendar Workshop Summaries Participants
OngoingIntroduce Yourself
Apr 13 to Jul 1Discussion: What's Your Vision?
Apr 13 to Jul 1Survey: Vision for Parks and Trails
Aug 1 to Oct 1Rate Key Ideas from Survey Discussion
Dec 1 to Dec 31Final Revisions and Comment on Draft Plan
Mar 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011Final Plan Unveiled - Help Advocate For It!

39. Acsentum – Civic Dialogue
Circles

41. Gaming for skill building

42. AgreeDis.org

43. TomMurray|
www.perspegrity.com|June
07
CPSR’s e-Liberate
Robert’s Rules for online
deliberation

44. TomMurray|
www.perspegrity.com|June
07
Actics.com

45. DebateGraph

46. Compendium

47. MctIBIS
Multicentric Issues-Based Info. Sys.

48. Dispute Resolution/mediation
Juripax
Intake
and see:
Modria.com

50. Supporting Deeper Deliberative
Dialogue Through Awareness Tools
Tom Murray
University of Massachusetts
www.SocialDeliberativeSkills.com
tommurray.us@gmail.com
THANK YOU

51. extra slides

52. Online Deliberation and DR
Potential Pros
• Lower emotional reactivity
• More time to think about what
you will say
• Permanent record of
conversation
• More access, over distance
• Lower cost (travel)
• More people from more places
can participate
• Easy to configure different
processes to meet needs
• Efficiency--easy to get online
and participate
• Faster fuller access to links on
web to reference and info
• Easy and safer for participants
to report problems and rule-
breaking / manipulation
Potential Cons
• Less emotional info
• Less body language, tone,
gesture
• More impersonal
• Increases 'digital divide' for
those without computer
access or skills/literacy
• Less accountability than F2F
• In dialog with distance people,
more chance of confusion or
error from unfamiliar cultures
or jurisdictional rules
• Vulnerable to cyber attacks/
hacks
52

53. Text Coding
53

54. Social Deliberative Skill:
application of HOSs to me/you/we
Higher Order Skills
• argumentation
• critical thinking
• explanation clarification
• inquiry/curiosity
(question asking
investigation)
• reflective judgment
• meta-cognition
• epistemic reasoning
Apply these skills, not to
EXTERNAL REALITY (“IT”/
problem domain) but to
the
INTERSUBJECTIVE domain
Higher Order Skills applied to:
SELF
goals; level of certainty;
feelings, values, assumptions…
YOU
goals, assumptions, feelings,
values; perspective taking;
believing cognitive empathy…
WE
agreements, goals; quality of
the discourse/collaboration;
differences and similarities in
values, beliefs, goals, power, roles…

55. Project Overview
55

56. Examples of Social Deliberative
Skills/Behavior
From authentic dialogues in our online corpora
“ I am probably extremely biased because I am
under 21 years old and in college. I wonder if as a
45 year old I will feel differently. ” (self reflection)
“I can’t help but imagine what that is like, for her
and for her family.” (perspective taking)
56

57. Samples from online dialogs
EBay (e-commerce):
• “This seller is fraudulent and should be
removed from eBay. Why should a eBay buyer
have to be put through this.”
• “…my good feedback be tarnished by these
bottom feeders. That lay and cheat honest
people out for there hard earned money.”
57

58. Workplace dispute:
Intake summary
Boss (Grieta) ! Moderator
“Ryker has created a situation in which a continuation of the
work relationship is no longer possible. What I am
concerned, we are talking about terminating the work
relationship. I will of course cooperate fully with a constructive
mediation and hope for the best. It is unlikely that I myself can come
to a solution with Ryke.r”
Employee (Ryker) ! Moderator
“Since late last year it has been a mess in the company.
Management is unclear and inconsistent. The work relationship is
disrupted. They want to get rid of me. I am literally sick
of it. My confidence in the company has been shaken to such a
point that I am not sure if I want to stay.”

59. Kitchener King Reflective
Judgment levels
59
From E. Whitmire / Information Processing and Management 40 (2004) 97–111