VR-participation: The feasibility of the virtual reality-driven multi-modal communication technology facilitating e-Participation

Successful communication between citizens and decision makers – eParticipation, despite progressing from dedicated solutions to modern, social media-based approaches has been facing many challenges. We argue that Virtual Reality technologies through its sense of presence and embodiment for discussion participants can help in alleviating some of the major obstacles hindering effective communication and collaboration. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to building AI models to support effective dialog implementation in VR. VR platforms potentially afford studies on user behavior without the overhead of complicated sensor infrastructure required for data collection. In particular, we propose machine-learning-based approach for predictive log analytics to identify behavioral patterns that support or obstruct effective collaboration in the context of structured dialog conversation. We discuss the applicability of the models to e-Participation and possible broader application of the models created. We also argue that VR-interaction-data-based models have the potentials to be transferable to managing and improving real-life interactions