The BMBF-funded project IndI has been up and running since November 1, 2023. In addition to the sub-project, the coordination of the associated BMBF cluster has also been anchored at DIID.
Last Wednesday, November 15, 2023, the participating DIID scientists Maike Behrendt, Tobias Escher, Dennis Frieß, Katharina Gerl, Viviana Warnken and Marc Ziegele met for the project’s internal kick-off. The focus was on sharpening the project outline approved in the summer and discussing the joint approach over the next three years. They also addressed the question of how the principles of open science can be anchored in the research project.
IndI’s declared aim is to make online discussions more inclusive. Although online discussions have become more and more part of our everyday lives in recent years, the often poor quality of the discussions prevents many people from getting involved. In addition, there are other barriers to access for certain population groups. The project aims to investigate how the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to make online discussions more inclusive. An open and iterative scientific approach will be pursued, which systematically involves non-scientific stakeholders in the research and development process on the one hand and communicates the results of the research openly and makes them usable on the other. In a first step, ideas on what constitutes integrative online discourse and how existing discourse environments could be improved will be collected together with various stakeholders of online discussions. Based on these co-creative formats, suitable AI interventions will then be developed and tested with users. This feedback will in turn be fed into the research process in order to develop an AI application that will ultimately be tested experimentally.
The prominent role of open science is explained by the funding context of the BMBF. IndI is one of a total of five sub-projects in the 3rd sub-cluster “Perspectives of open science in a digitalised democracy”, which in turn is part of the “Integrated Research” cluster. The coordination of the 3rd sub-cluster is also based at DIID and is carried out by Dr Katharina Gerl. The IndI sub-project and the coordination are being funded with a total of around 690,000 euros over three years. Further information on the project can be found here and on the BMBF website.
Contact
Dr. Dennis Frieß (Coordinator)
Board, Communication Studies, DIID-Team
Dr. Dennis Frieß is coordinator of the DIID. Since May 2019, he was coordinator of the NRW Research College Online Participation. From 2014 to 2019, he was a research assistant at the Chair of Communication and Media Studies III at HHU-Düsseldorf and a staff member at DIID. He studied Social Sciences, Law and Communication Science at the University of Erfurt (B.A.) and Political Communication in Düsseldorf (M.A.). His doctoral thesis focused on the analysis of deliberative online publics. His research focuses on political (online) communication, online deliberation, and online participation.
At the DIID, he is particularly interested in online-supported deliberation processes and the democracy-relevant expectations associated with online participation offerings.