My earlier email lacked the attachment ... here are the details in ASCII

A few places are still available at this workshop.  Details and programme 
below in ASCII.  or see http://infodoc.escet.urjc.es/ted or email 
[log in to unmask]

European Science Foundation 
Towards Electronic Democracy: Internet-based Complex Decision Support 
(TED) 

Workshop on 

Human-Computer Interface Issues in e-Democracy 
Manchester Business School, 
Manchester, 
UK November 9th – 11th, 2005

Introduction 

The advent of web-technologies has brought the possibility of supporting 
geographically and temporally dispersed group decision making. Technically 
it is now possible to discuss issues, debate objectives, formulate 
problems, access data, analyse models, conduct sensitivity analyses, vote, 
decide and implement actions, all without the group meeting other than 
virtually. However, while the technology is available, it is not clear 
that valid methodologies for its use are. Indeed, even the concept of 
validity is not well established in this context. It is far from clear 
that untrained users interacting with web-based group decision support 
systems (wGDSS) will understand the cognitive tasks that face them. Hence 
neither may the system inform their judgements and understanding nor may 
their inputs inform the decision making process. With training such as can 
be provided within organisations, these cognitive issues may be overcome. 
However, when the context of use of a wGDSS is that of substantive or 
deliberative e-democracy, there is less opportunity to provide prior 
training in the use of the tools and the citizens’ interactions may be 
neither effective nor well founded. 

The European Science Foundation programme Towards Electronic Democracy 
(TED) is focused on the development of methods to address societal issues 
via the WWW using the methodologies of modern decision analysis and 
support to involve citizens and stakeholders in the actual process of 
decision making: a true step towards e-democracy rather than the e-
administration techniques that so far have lain at the heart of e-
government initiatives. At TED’s heart is a vision to develop 
methodologies which enable multiple decision analyses to be communicated, 
explored and, indeed, built over the WWW, thus providing the mechanism by 
which stakeholders may be drawn more closely into the decision making 
process. Technically, the vision is achievable, though many issues remain 
to be addressed fully. What is less clear is whether the many assumptions 
about the cognitive abilities of the users are tenable. Can we expect all 
citizens in society to be able to comprehend the decision model(s) and 
interact, inputting their understandings, perceptions and judgements and 
so contributing to decision making process? Do such uses of wGDSS in e-
democracy risk a modern version of GIGO – garbage in, garbage out? 

The workshop will focus on the human-computer interface issues of wGDSS, 
firstly seeking to identify the issues that need addressing and secondly 
to outline programmes of research. 

The workshop will be held over three days at Manchester Business School. 
There will be a mix of four keynote papers from invited speakers, 
contributed papers, a PhD Q&A session and a closing discussion session to 
map out a research agenda to define and assess the validity of interfaces 
of web-based decision support systems. Software demonstrations can also be 
arranged. There will be no parallel sessions so that the discussion of 
issues may grow continuously over the three days. Numbers will be limited 
to about 50 participants. 


Objectives of the Workshop 

• To bring together behavioural scientists, information systems engineers, 
decision analysts, political and social scientists, psychologists and 
others to discuss multi-disciplinary perspectives on the validity of web-
based decision support and e-democracy. 

• To map out a research agenda on valid design of valid and effective 
interfaces to substantive e-democracy systems. 

Outline Programme 
Tuesday 8th November 
16.00 – 19.30: Registration 

Wednesday 9th November 
9.00 – 9.45: Registration 
9.45 – 10.00: Welcome and Introduction to the Workshop Objectives. 
Professor Simon French (Manchester Business School, UK) 
10.00 – 11.30: Invited paper: Behavioural Decision Making and Risk 
Communication. Professor John Maule (University of Leeds, UK) Discussants: 
Dr Fabrizio Ruggeri (CNR-IMATI, Italy), Professor Jian-Bo Yang (Manchester 
Business School, UK) 
11.30 – 12.00: Coffee 
12.00 – 13.00: Contributed papers: Chair: Professor David Rios Insua ICT 
Support and the Role of the Facilitator in Citizen Engagement. Professor 
Linda A Macauley, Aref Alabdulkarim (University of Manchester, UK) 
Government Run Online Discussion Forums: Moderation, Censorship and the 
Shadow of Control. Dr Scott Wright (De Montfort University, UK) 
13.00 – 14.30: Lunch 
14.30 – 16.00: Contributed papers: Chair: Professor Linda Macauley Issues 
in Decision Support under Preferential Uncertainty and Group Decision 
Making based on Simple Interval MAVT Modelling with the WINPRE software. 
Jyri Mustajoki and Professor Raimo P Hämäläinen (Helsinki University of 
Technology, Finland) An Interactive Graphical Method for Multiple Criteria 
Group Decision Support over the Web. Dr. Roman Efremov and Professor David 
Rios Insua (URJC, Spain) Web-based Assessment via the Evidential Reasoning 
Approach. Dr. Dong Ling Xu (Manchester Business School, UK) 
16.00 – 16.30: Tea 
16.30 – 18.30 PhD Forum Chair: Professor Simon French 


Thursday 10th November 
9.00 – 10.30: Invited paper: Human Computer Interfaces Professor Chris 
Fowler (University of Essex, UK) Discussants: Simon French (Manchester 
Business School, UK), Robert Krimmer (University of Vienna, Austria). 
10.30 – 11.00: Coffee 
11.00 – 12.30: Contributed papers: Chair: Dr. Fabrizio Ruggeri Designing a 
Participatory Process for Stakeholder Involvement in a Societal Decision. 
Clare Bayley and Professor Simon French (Manchester Business School, UK) 
Challenging Expertise and Community: Designing Transparent e-Participation 
with and for Young People. Dr. Angus Whyte, Ella Smith and Professor Anne 
Macintosh (Napier University, UK) Some experiences in designing web-based 
group decision support systems to facilitate citizen participation. Carlos 
Grima, Jesus Ríos, Professor David Ríos Insua, Jose A. Rubio (URJC, Spain)
12.30 – 14.00: Lunch 
14.00 – 15.30: Invited paper: e-Democracy Systems Professor Steve Carver 
(University of Leeds, UK) Discussants Professor David Rios Insua (URJC, 
Spain), Professor Fiorella de Cindio (University of Milan, Italy) 
15.30 – 16.00: Tea 
16.00 – 17.00: Contributed papers: Chair: Professor Steve Carver 
Observations from Computer Supported Even Swaps Experiments using the 
Smart-Swap Software. Jyri Mustajoki, Professor Raimo P Hämäläinen and 
Petri Lievonen (Helsinki University of Technology, Finland) Promethee and 
e-Democracy (title to be confirmed). Jens Ludvig and Dr. Jutta Geldermann 
(University of Karlsruhe, Germany)

Friday 11th November 
9.00 – 10.30: Contributed papers: Chair: Robert Krimmer Evaluating e-
Participation (title to be confirmed). Nan Zhang and Professor Simon 
French (Manchester Business School, UK) Internet-based voting Machines in 
Finnish Elections. Maria Suojanen (University of Bradford, UK) Virtual 
Environments for e-Government. Anthoula Maidou, Michail Palatoglou and 
Hariton Polatoglou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) 
10.30 – 11.00: Coffee 
11.00 – 12.30: Invited paper: The e-Democracy Context Professor Stephan 
Coleman (University of Oxford, UK) Discussants Dr Frank Bannister (Trinity 
College Dublin, Eire) Dr Peter Kawalek (Manchester Business School, UK).
12.30 – 13.30: Lunch 
13.30 – 15.00: Facilitated discussion of Research Priorities 
15.00 Close of Workshop, Tea and Departure Registration 


Registration fees (including coffee, lunches, teas, Workshop dinner on 
10th Nov, handouts): £180 full registration; £105 student or young 
researcher registration.