Socially-augmented argumentation tools: rationale, design and evaluation of a debate dashboard

Collaborative Computer-Supported Argument Visualization (CCSAV) is a technical methodology that offers support for online collective deliberation over complex dilemmas. As compared with more traditional conversational technologies, like wikis and forums, CCSAV is designed to promote more critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning, by using representations that highlight conceptual relationships between contributions, and through computational analytics that assess the structural integrity of the network. However, to date, CCSAV tools have achieved adoption primarily in small-scale educational contexts, and only to a limited degree in real world applications. We hypothesise that by reifying conversations as logical maps to address the shortcomings of chronological streams, CCSAV tools underestimate the importance of participation and interaction in enhancing collaborative knowledge-building. We argue, therefore, that CCSAV platforms should be socially augmented in order to improve their mediation capability. Drawing on Clark and Brennan’s influential Common Ground theory, we designed a Debate Dashboard, which augmented a CCSAV tool with a set of widgets that deliver meta-information about participants and the interaction process. An empirical study simulating a moderately sized collective deliberation scenario provides evidence that this experimental version outperformed the control version on a range of indicators, including usability, mutual understanding, quality of perceived collaboration, and accuracy of individual decisions. No evidence was found that the addition of the Debate Dashboard impeded the quality of the argumentation or the richness of content

Analysis of China’s overseas investment policies

In recent years, in line with China’s Going Out strategy announced in 2000, China’s overseas investment activities have increased greatly and at increasing rates. By the end of 2009, the total value of China’s outward foreign direct investment had reached US$5.6 billion. Policies have played strong supporting roles in bringing about this trend by facilitating and encouraging Chinese companies to make overseas investments. This working paper summarises these policies based on an analysis of policy changes over time and identifies the main drivers of these changes. It also highlights some key research questions of relevance to deepening understanding of the impacts of Chinese trade and investment in Africa. The project ‘Chinese trade and investment in Africa: Assessing and governing trade-offs to national economies, local livelihoods and forest ecosystems’ project, launched in March 2010, aims to advance understanding of the social, economic and environmental impacts of Chinese investment in commodities or sectors affecting forests and livelihoods in Africa (e.g. timber, mining, agriculture), and to strengthen the capacity of decision-makers in government, civil society and the private sector to enact reforms to maximise social and economic benefits while minimising adverse effects

Just Add Salt: A Mass Spectrometric Analysis Method for Imaging Anion-Exchanged Poly(Ionic Liquid)s

We report the first mass spectrometric analysis of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) containing weakly coordinating anions introduced by a fast, simple, and quantitative postmodification method on the example of the hydrophilic, well-defined poly(vinylbenzylpyridinium chloride) p([VBPy]Cl) species, analyzed with an in-source collision induced dissociation-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (MS) protocol. Using the MS approach allows for the precise structural elucidation of ion-exchanged p([VBPy]Cl) utilizing AgX (X = NO3-, CF3CO2-, BF4-) salts. The anion exchange is shown to be quantitative - without observing residual chlorinated PIL - on rapid time scales, using only filtration as a standard procedure during sample preparation. In addition, the influence of weakly coordinating anions on the ionization behavior of PILs is studied in detail