Public consultations are a weak but institutionally embedded form of civic participation in
political decision-making. Their input and output are often a cause for concern. This has
motivated the authors to design the inDialogue platform to help transmit knowledge about the
methodology of public consultations. It follows the deliberative public consultation model and
recognizes the value of social inclusion in knowledge-sharing and argument exchange in building
an open political community. In this book researchers as well as practitioners in their
respective fields discuss various aspects of the inDialogue software¿s development and
implementation. They document the complexity of the work that was carried out in an applied
interdisciplinary project in the area of democratic innovation. «The value of this volume is
not only in its presentation of inDialogue as an innovative application enabling those with
disabilities to access public debate and consultation but also in raising important questions
about the introduction of ICT for debate and consultation. These questions are answered from
both the perspective of the technical and social sciences.» Jerzy Bartkowski Professor at the
Institute of Sociology Warsaw University «ICT for Dialogue and Inclusive Decision-Making is a
splendid contribution to the literature concerning online deliberation and civic engagement. It
usefully bridges the academic world of theory and empirical studies and the practice of
citizen deliberation carefully documenting both the design and experiences of the In Dialogue
project in Poland.» Todd Davies Associate Director and lecturer Symbolic Systems Program
Stanford University
