Bring Something to the Potluck: A System for Inclusive and Reciprocal Online Discussion

Abstract

We present Potluck, a structured online commenting system that aims to promote the inclusion and reflection of differing views. It features a discussion flow that (1) elicits independent viewpoints through shielded discussion (2) collates and displays divergent viewpoints using automatic summarisation-aggregation and (3) encourages reflection through recursive question-and-answer. This paper describes work in progress, outlining the design motivations, features and user flow of a working prototype. A preliminary user study has shown encouraging results on the usability of the proposed system.