Structured reasoning to support deliberative dialogue

Deliberative dialogue is a form of dialogue that involves participants advancing claims and, without power plays or posturing, deliberating on the claims of others until a consensus decision is reached. This paper describes a deliberative support system to facilitate and encourage participants to engage in a discussion deliberatively. A knowledge representation framework is deployed to generate a strong domain model of reasoning structure. The structure, coupled with a deliberative dialogue protocol results in a web based system that regulates a discussion to avoid combative, non-deliberative exchanges. The system has been designed for online dispute resolution between husband and wife in divorce proceedings involving property. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.