VR-Participation & Dialogue: Towards Integrated Framework for Virtual Reality-Mediated Consensus and Community Building*

Abstract

Successful e-Participation requires a thriving community of userscitizens who engage and collaborate with governments and decision makers on key democratic and social maters. Effective community building and meaningful social interactions are contingent on strong, organic consensus achieved through engaging dialogue rather than discussions or argumentation.The emerging social Virtual Reality platforms offer new means of immersive communication that brings an opportunity to overcome some of the challenges identified to be hindering state-of-the-art e-Participation from supporting constructive citizen-to-government dialogue. In this paper we investigate the key concepts and explore the principles of dialogue and consensus building in the context of e-Participation. We match those principles with specific VR affordances and propose an Integrative Framework for Virtual-Reality-Mediated Consensus and Community Building. Finally, we discuss the application of the framework to e-Participation.

Facilitating Virtual Conferences: Reflections and Lessons Learned in Two Global Communities

“…In this commentary, we share a joint reflection on the implications of design and technology choices from two global communities that held their conferences virtually during the 2020 pandemic: the System Dynamics Society and the Digital Government Society. We guided our reflection using the integrative framework for VR-mediated consensus and community building proposed by Porwol and Ojo [2020]. Insights from these experiences, which corroborate and extend recommendations for virtual conferences by ACM [ACM Presidential Task Force 2020], may have immediate value for the design of other virtual events as public health imperatives for social distancing continue in the near term.…”

“…In particular, the framework leverages the Dialogue and Consensus building model [O'Neill & Peluso 2013], which proposes four principles of dialogue grounded in the tradition of dialogue research [Bohm & Peat 1987;Isaacs 2002]: (1) Listening, (2) Respecting, (3) Suspending, and (4) Voicing. Porwol & Ojo [2020] extend the model discussing ways in which the Serious Communication affordances of Virtual Reality (VR) -(1) Immersion, (2) Presence, and (3) Sense of Community-support each of the principles of dialogue. In the following paragraphs we define each of the VR affordances in terms of hardware, software, and socio-technical properties, briefly explaining how they support each of the principles of dialogue.…”

“…Our conceptual framework includes all modes of digital communication and builds upon communication research linking principles of Dialogue to the Serious Communication affordances of Virtual Reality (VR) [Porwol & Ojo 2020]. In particular, the framework leverages the Dialogue and Consensus building model [O'Neill & Peluso 2013], which proposes four principles of dialogue grounded in the tradition of dialogue research [Bohm & Peat 1987;Isaacs 2002]: (1) Listening, (2) Respecting, (3) Suspending, and (4) Voicing.…”