Implementation of online participation projects

Online participation projects are not only one of the DIID’s most important research subjects but have also been regularly carried out by the DIID since its foundation, both at the HHU Düsseldorf and in cooperation with external partners.

Since the summer of 2020, the DIID has been using the open source software adhocracy+, which is primarily maintained and further developed by Liquid Democracy e.V. It enables the simple creation and implementation of participation projects. The platform dialog@hhu was set up for participation projects at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf.

  • Reform of the study programs

    April – June 2021

    The Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy is conducting a participatory process for the reform of the study programs of the Institute for Social Sciences at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

    The procedure is divided into two discussion rounds. During the first round of discussions (27.04.-17.05.), proposals will be presented for discussion that have been collected in advance at the Institute and address more fundamental decisions about the future orientation of the study programs. The aim of the first round of discussions is to form an opinion as to whether the Institute would like to follow these proposals in principle or not. Depending on how the individual points are discussed, supported, rejected or, if necessary, reformulated, proposals for concrete design will then be made in the second round of discussions (07.06.-28.06.) and an opinion will be requested.

  • #meinfernsehen2021

    November 2020 – March 2021

    In cooperation with the Grimme Institute and the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education in Germany), the DIID launched #meinfernsehen2021, a participatory process dedicated to the future of public television. The focus was on the question of whether the mission of public service broadcasting in a digitalised society is still up to date and to what extent it corresponds to the expectations of the audience for television.

    In a three-step online participation project, citizens were invited to discuss various questions on the topic and contribute their own ideas. The results of this participation project will be presented at a final conference with the involvement of various media representatives and interested citizens. The DIID will also prepare the central findings for scientific publications and conferences.

  • YOUniversity

    various semesters

    YOUniversity is an online participation project that has been running at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf since the winter semester 2015/16. Using an online platform, students can help shape the content of their seminars and propose their own topics. At the same time, important insights into the conditions under which students participate on a participation platform were gathered during the implementation. On the one hand, YOUniversity can be used by lecturers who would like to try out a digital instrument for seminar preparation; on the other hand, the platform can offer students an interaction module to integrate their own wishes and ideas into the seminar plan.

    The project was awarded first prize in the student DINI competition 2016/17 “Co-designing teaching and learning – studying in the digital age”.

  • Distribution of quality improvement funds

    Summer semester 2019

    The Scientific Institution of Computer Science at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf gave the student body the opportunity to discuss and decide on the use of € 20,000 of so-called quality improvement funds in the summer semester 2019. For this purpose, proposals with a rough price estimate could be submitted, which were then discussed by the participants and later also voted on. At the same time, the resulting discussion was evaluated scientifically.

  • Bike Dialogues

    September – October 2017

    In 2017, the DIID, in cooperation with the service provider Zebralog and the cities of Ehrenfeld, Bonn and Moers, conducted participation projects on local cycling infrastructure. During the participation projects, citizens had the opportunity to contribute concrete ideas and discuss among themselves where cycling could be made more attractive in the Ehrenfeld district. At the same time, the procedures were part of the research project “Effects and influencing factors of municipal online participation in a comparative perspective”.

  • Suggestions for improvement for the computer science degree programme

    May 2017

    Within the framework of this participation procedure, students of computer science at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf were invited to discuss an improvement of the study programme and problems of growing student numbers. At the same time, the procedure represented a field test during which the Dialogue-Based Argumentation System (D-BAS) developed by members of the DIID was used and tested.

  • Redesigning a doctoral degree programme

    Summer semester 2016 & Winter semester 2016/17

    In cooperation with the NRW-Research-College Online-Participation, the DIID conducted a participation project for the redesign of the doctoral regulations of the Faculty of Humanities at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf.

    • Escher, T., Friess, D., Esau, K., Sieweke, J., Tranow, U., Dischner, S., Hagemeister, P. & Mauve, M. (2017). Online deliberation in academia: Evaluating the quality and legitimacy of cooperatively developed university regulations. Policy & Internet, 9(1), 133-164.

  • Online participation in BUND NRW e.V.

    June – July 2016

    The Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy (DIID) is conducting an online participation project in cooperation with the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland Landesverband Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany National Association NRW) within the state association. The regional and district executive committees of BUND NRW, the respective executive committees of BUND NRW Youth and the spokespersons of the regional working groups are involved.

    Within the framework of the participation project, ideas are to be collected and discussed in order to make involvement in and for BUND NRW e.V. even more attractive for members and outsiders. The DIID provides the technical platform and takes over the scientific monitoring and evaluation.