The IBIS-Lift Project – IBIS is short for Issue-based information systems – implements a Structured Conversation platform, similar to: Debategraph or Compendium.
Structured conversations consist of: * Questions * Answers * Pro arguments * Con arguments * Reference nodes
Each entry, like a "tweet" or microblog entry, is a node. Nodes are collected in tree structures. In an indented outline form, a conversation looks like:
Q: How do I participate in a structured conversation? See How To Participate in a Structured Conversation
Some websearch terms for structured conversations are: dialogue mapping issue mapping argument mapping
Road Ahead ======================================================
The IBIS-Lift project can stand alone as a powerful online platform for civic dialogue. We expect
to continue evolving this platform with more features, including tags and connections. For more
about connecting nodes, visit
http://cohere.open.ac.uk/ , archive 
At the same time, this platform is a testbed for components that will serve a much larger web activity
we call Knowledge Gardening.
Getting Started ================================================= Configuring the platform: The default.props file contains a number of important config values. The most important one is static.data.path which must be set to the absolute path of the installed /static/ folder inside webapps Others are a bit more benign: invite.required defaults to false; setting to true means that an Admin can add an email address to an invitation list; only those on that invitation list can sign up. authentication.required defaults to false; setting to true means that only those who are logged in can see any content on the site. landing.title defaults to "Conversations that matter"; it can be set to any message desired to define the site. From command line: sbt e.g. c:\projects\IssueQuest\IBIS-Lift\IBISLift>sbt c:\projects\IssueQuest\IBIS-Lift\IBISLift>set SCRIPT_DIR=c:\projects\IssueQuest\ IBIS-Lift\IBISLift\ c:\projects\IssueQuest\IBIS-Lift\IBISLift>java -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX :MaxPermSize=256m -Xmx512M -Xss2M -jar "c:\projects\IssueQuest\IBIS-Lift\IBISLif t\\sbt-launcher.jar" Getting Scala 2.7.7 ... update e.g. > update [info] [info] == update == [info] :: retrieving :: Lift#lift-sbt-template_2.9.0-1 [sync] [info] confs: [compile, runtime, test, provided, system, optional, sources, jav adoc] [info] 28 artifacts copied, 0 already retrieved (21093kB/943ms) [info] == update == [success] Successful. jetty-run e.g. > jetty-run [info] [info] == copy-resources == [info] == copy-resources == [info] [info] == compile == [info] Source analysis: 30 new/modified, 0 indirectly invalidated, 0 removed. [info] Compiling main sources... etc Then browse http://localhost:8080/ sign up (which logs you in). Then click: "New Conversation" Or click any conversation listed on the front page.