Guidance on Integrating Polis into Citizens’ Assemblies

Organisers of climate and other citizens’ assemblies have attempted to engage the broader public using a range of strategies and tools. The online platform Polis has proved an attractive option for experimentation.

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For example, the Austrian Climate Citizens’ Assembly used Polis in an attempt to link its work to a nationwide digital conversation – with mixed success.

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Liz Barry, Head of Partnerships at the Computational Democracy Project, has produced a short and engaging piece of guidance “Integrating Polis with Citizens’ Assemblies” that is a useful starting point for anyone considering using the digital platform.

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She offers six strategies for integration:

1. Begin with a preparatory phase to choose the topic
2. Improve topic framing through dynamic topic refinement
3. Improve representation by adding epistemic diversity as a selection criteria for members
4. Assist an assembly to understand themselves and their information gaps
5. Enable distributed deliberation
6. Support distributed review of text

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Access the guidance here:

https://compdemocracy.org/polis/book/lottery-selected-assemblies/