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European Science Parliament

Europe energised - Will lights go out in 2050?

The «European Science Parliament» is a project initiated by the City of Aachen and Aachen University in the framework of a cross-border initiative for regional development.

The «European Science Parliament» is both a permant online platform and a biannual discussion forum, a space for dialogue between science and society.

The «European Science Parliament» leads to a paper called the «Aachen Declaration» containing recommendations to be handed over to European organisations and institutions.

1000 Questions, 1000 Discussions, 1000 Words

1000 Questions, 1000 Users // Within the first six weeks or so, new users will be encouraged a. to invite colleagues, friends, partners and enlarge the platform and b. to put forward questions related to the theme, which we will begin to explore and discuss together. This year's main topic is "Europe energised - Will lights go out in 2050?". It is divided into five thematic areas: technology, society, geography and politics, economy, and individual responsibility.

1000 Users, 1000 Discussions // Many users and many questions should hopefully lead to many informed debates and discourses between April and October (with a summerbreak in July and August). Through a system of voting, the best contributions will be identified by all users -- and their authors will be invited to attend the October session of the «European Science Parliament». This competitive element will conclude on May 31, to allow for sufficient time to organise travel etc.

1000 Discussions, 1000 Words // In preparation of the discussion forum on October 9 and 10, 2008 in Aachen -- where 120 of the platform users will meet in person -- the essence of all online discussions need to be condensed to aid the formulation of the «Aachen Declaration». In other words: we need to facilitate a process by which all the discussions are channelled into a paper of two pages...

Be nice, be good, be short...

As the moderation team, we have to fulfil three main functions:

Netiquette // We are responsible for making sure that discussions stay calm and focused, and that personal attacks and other troll behaviour is counteracted.

Quality // We are responsible for supporting the quality of ongoing discussions. One main aspect will be to make sure that all factual claims are backed up with a source. Another aspect will be to bring in additional perspectives. We will also have to summarise discussions and make sure particular discussion threads don't get overloaded...

Summary // We are responsible for guiding the process of condensation to prepare the declaration -- which will be 2 pages long, so very condensed indeed... We will do this both online, leading up to the October meeting, and at the science parliament itself, where we will moderate the different working groups preparing the declaration.

Discuss, summarise, moderate

In our function, we mainly do three things:

Discussing and debating // We are invited and expected to bring in our own opinions, expertise, and knowledge in relation to the theme «Energy».

Summarising and organising // We are invited and expected to organise discussions (by opening new threads, linking things together, and more) and to summarise discussions (by text, video, and audio).

Moderating and guiding // We are invited and expected to guide, facilitate, support and moderate discussions wherever and whenever necessary (both online and offline).

Words, films, sounds

There are three ways for us to make ourselves heard:

TEXT // To allow for people to engage in discussions easily, we should keep our own contributions short -- as well as other people's inputs, if necessary by editing or summarising things. Quality criteria we establish for others -- such as: quote a source for a factual claim -- are binding for us as well, obviously.

VIDEO // To make the conversations less dry and more personal, we are warmly encouraged to make use of video to brighten things up a little. Browsing around the platform, you will see some videos embedded already. Short, smart, engaging!

AUDIO // To allow people to join discussions later, and to make it possible to follow debates not only and always in front of a computer, we are also considering the production of podcasts once in a while, as a complementary element of summarising debates and offering concise entry-points into discourses.

Coordination office, Working group and Politikfabrik

Our work relates mostly to three partners:

Coordination office // The team organsing the entire project in Aachen.

Working group // The group supporting and guiding the coordination office.

Politikfabrik // The student agency for political communication conceptualising the platform.