Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.wave-project.eu/
WAVE is an EU project that aims to improve the inclusiveness and transparency of EU decision making at the national and European level by using highly integrated, state-of-the-art Argument Visualisation techniques. This approach aims to make the impact of complex EU environmental legislation on climate change more accessible and easy to understand for citizens, special interest groups and decision makers alike.

WAVE is an eParticipation project which is funded by the eParticipation Preparatory Action of the European Commission. The objective of the eParticipation Preparatory Action is to demonstrate how using modern ICT tools and applications can make it easier for people to participate in decision-making and can contribute to better legislation.

University of Macedonia

Project Director
Including, administering and managing the project, risk management, results and evaluation of the project, plus Dissemination of research results.

National University of Ireland

Technical Specialist
Including creation of technical and user specifications, quality control, evaluation of the platform plus Dissemination of project results.

Thoughtgraph Ltd

Technical Partner
Developers of Debategraph.

21c Consultancy Ltd

Strategic Dissemination Specialist and eParticipation Experts
Including project management, pilot deployment, citizen engagement and dissemination & network coordination.

Politech Institute (European Center of Political Technologies)

Network Specialists
Including eParticipation expertise, dissemination & network coordination (coordination of European blogosphere).

Sophia Antipolis Foundation

French Pilot Lead
Run French pilot with support from Politech and provide the feedback link to National Government .

AIDC European Centre of Excellence

UK Pilot Lead
Run UK pilot with support from 21c and provide essential links to European Industry GroupsDevelopers of Debategraph.

Kauno Technologijos Universitas

Lithuanian Pilot Lead
Run Lithuanian pilot and provide the feedback link to National Government.

Debategraph builds on the threefold perception that:

• complex debates can be mapped comprehensively, with all of the pertinent issues, positions, arguments, and evidence represented in a transparent and coherent visual structure;
• the web can be used to externalise and open up this process to anyone interested in contributing to, evaluating, or simply exploring the maps; and,
• collaborative, visual mapping of this kind can help individuals, organizations and networks make sense of (and act in) the world more efficiently and effectively.

In essence, debate mapping involves three steps:

• breaking down the subject debated into meaningful parts;
• identifying the relationships between those parts; and,
• presenting the parts and their relationships visually.

The WAVE platform is an open, community-based, interactive Website that provides a live, dynamic, and social environment, which focuses users around particular issues and ultimately encourages them to participate in debates. In this common space, all stakeholders of the EU decision making process can openly collaborate and deliberate over climate change issues.

The WAVE platform targets cross-border discussions on drafted and implemented legislation regarding climate change. These discussions will be facilitated on Debategraph, which will be embedded in the WAVE platform. In this way the general opinion towards proposed and implemented legislation may be understood and processed effectively.