Discuss

Get a detailed overview of the current public opinion! Engage in discussions! Convince others of your position!

The discussion area of echo lets for the first time collective intelligence emerge in a democratic public discourse even with a nearly unlimited number of participants.
In order to achieve this, the discussion method of echo unites some essential features:

• Clarity « okaymore »
  Through only one search entry and a few clicks, echo´s multilingual search mechanism provides you with a clear overview of the most supported positions concerning a specific topic of interest.
• Transparency « okaymore »
  On echo, all positions as well as their supporting arguments are permanently presented in contrast to the most relevant alternative ones. This helps people to easily develop a differentiated view and thus to prevent polemic and populism.
• Detailed opinion base « okaymore »
  On echo, all positions as well as their arguments can be supported by the users. This allows you to easily comprehend the exact support of such alternative positions by different groups of the society at any time.
  
  For example: How many people in the world are for and against nuclear power? What do the Europeans think? What do physicists say and what about impacted people living near Chernobyl or a nuclear waste repository? And finally, what is the position of a certain organisation?
• Collective drafting « okaymore »
  On echo, all positions represent sound statements elaborated by the users in a fully democractic process. Thus, all people can contribute to the dynamic evolution of such statements with equal chance and a minimal effort.
• Glocal overview « okaymore »
  echo helps people to easily comprehend thematic interrelations between local, regional and global topics.
  
  For example: Prices at the supermarket in the neighbourhood => factory farming in the EU => deforestation for soy-plantation => world climate change.
  
  This “glocal” overview enables users to see local issues in their global context and to understand global problems as a result of local circumstances. People, who visit echo because of a very local topic of personal interest (prices in the supermarket), are quickly confronted with its global implications (climate change).