Enabling consensual articulation -- towards a synthesis?

Multi-option Technical Facilitation of Public Debate (Part #6)

Following the early experiments by Stafford Beer, as indicated above, an articulation of the possibilities can be presented in the following form (Meta-Conferencing: Integration of the Concept Structure of Debate, 1992). One initiative towards consensual articulation has been that of the Dropping Knowledge project (Berlin, 2006) which made use of a variety of experimental approaches to elicit and record comments presented verbally from a gathering of 100 people -- subsequently rendered accessible through an online facility.

Proposals made at the time for insight capture and processing remain indicative of possibilities which have yet to be further explored and developed (Complementary Knowledge Analysis / Mapping Process, 2006). The latter details the following with indication of examples and software (for which more recent variants have no doubt been developed):

real-time transcription techniques -- computer aided transcription ("CAT") technology to deliver text to computer screens within a few seconds of the words being spoken - notably as used at ICANN meetings.
concept analysis
mind mapping / concept mapping (now a feature of the periodic Concept Mapping Conference)
"harmonizers" through which a higher level of editing and integration could be allocated to specialists in terminology and language, possibly aided by text analysis / summarization packages
mapping of all the "voices"

As noted above, potentially far more ambitious in scope has been the progressive organization of the online Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential to provide a context for the issues and solutions variously articulated by organizations and groups of every kind -- as profiled in the Yearbook of International Organizations. Somewhat ironically, from the French perspective noted above, the former could be appropriately termed Cahiers de Doléances et Espérances Mondiales.

Of particular relevance is the use of software in that context to cluster issues, both in hierarchical and systemic terms -- susceptible to use of visualization over the web. Many further possibilities remain to be explored, as can be variously argued:

Possibilities are evident from experimental analysis of problems profiled in the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, as presented by Tomás Fülöpp (Loop Mining in the Encyclopedia of World Problems, 2015).

Screen shots of visualizations on Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential
Hierarchical articulation	Vicious problem loops (or cycles)
Fragemented planning of community life	Selective view of 179 loops containing 3 nodes.	Selective view of 1212 loops containing 6 nodes.

Reproduced from interactive representations developed by Tomás J. Fülöpp on the EWP Editing Platform

Alienation of the public: However, the current situation in French society suggests that meaningful consensus needs to address the amazing alienation of the public from French officialdom, as indicated by the most recent survey (Institutions, elites: la grande defiance des Francais, Le Figaro, 11 January 2019; Enquête Cevipof: flambée de défiance contre les institutions politiques, Liberation, 11 January 2019). The latter indicates that 85% of the population consider that French politicians are uninterested in the real concerns of the public.

Confidence: Understood in terms of trust, this suggests that the elusive subtleties of meaning and confidence are closely intertwined in enabling effective governance -- especially in society highly vulnerable to crises of confidence in the financial system. How such subtleties are to be further explored is clearly an issue of fundamental importance in France and elsewhere, whether the emphasis of the "head" is placed on meaning and the emphasis of the "heart" is placed on confidence:

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