Showing papers by "Simon French published in 2008"

Encyclopedia of quantitative risk analysis and assessment

Abstract: Drawing on the expertise of world-renowned authors and editors in this field this title provides up-to-date material on drug safety, investment theory, public policy applications, transportation safety, public perception of risk, epidemiological risk, national defence and security, critical infrastructure, and program management.

Designing a Participatory Process for Stakeholder Involvement in a Societal Decision

Abstract: For many societal decisions, governments and public bodies are beginning to involve stakeholders and the general public to a far greater extent than previously in the decision process. Stakeholder workshops, citizen juries, focus groups, electronic forums, web-polling and many other means of consultation are being used to draw citizens into the process of deciding between different options on the management of their communities. Politicians are drawn to such instruments because greater public involvement seems to achieve greater acceptance of the ultimate decision and, arguably in more objective terms, a better decision. Many academic studies have investigated participation and wider aspects of deliberative democracy and found that the politicians’ intuition is borne out in practice. However, while there have been many studies focused on specific instruments of participation, few have compared different ones. Moreover, there seems to be a dearth of advice on how to assemble a set of different instruments into a complete participatory decision making process. This paper offers a decision modelling framework which, firstly, provides a methodology which may be used to design participatory processes and, secondly, raises a number of questions which future comparative studies will need to address.

Use of web-based group decision support for crisis management

Abstract: Web-based group decision support systems (wGDSS) are becoming more common in organizations. In this paper, we provide a review and critique of the literature on wGDSS, raising a number of issues that need addressing. Then we report on a small scale experiment using Groupsystems ThinkTank to manage an issue to do with food safety. We also describe how we propose to use ThinkTank in a crisis situation.

A multi-dimensional framework for facilitating wide participation and common understanding

Abstract: The success of e-democracy, large-scale knowledge creation, and social networking activities depends on wide participation and effective collaboration. Successful participation and collaboration needs effective facilitation support that can engage people, coordinate their joint actions and advance their common understanding. This work addresses the emerging facilitation support issues by developing a multi-dimensional framework for wide participation and common understanding. The dimensions of the framework include methodology, technology, community, social cognitive interaction, participation space, and culture type. Such a framework can help us characterise the issues, describe the settings, understand, infer and explain the kind of facilitation support we may need, so as to guide the design and use of Web based collaborative systems.