Concept presentation on the Open Debate Engine. The goal of this project is to create an open-source publishing tool that will enable organizations or individuals to create and manage structured debates on the policy topic of their choosing.

1. Introduction to The Open Debate Engine Project This is an overview of the goals and functionality of the Open Debate Engine Project. The screen shots used are from the current demonstration site (Spacedebate.org) and an upcoming development site focused on U.S. foreign policy towards Iran.

2. Readers can search for relevant books, news articles, videos, and reports and submit ones they have found for others to read or review.

3. The full list of sources is available as a bibliography, and the citations can be embedded into other web pages or imported into popular citation software like Endnote.

4. Readers can take quotes from these articles and add them as evidence.

5. These quotes can then be related to arguments or embedded directly on other websites and blogs

6. The relational structure allows users to see all quotes from a citation, or all resources from the same organization, or all resources from the same author (as well as a short bio), or even from the same source.

7. With this database of citations and quotes, we can now start forming arguments -- the core of the system.

8. Users can edit the text of the argument, adding their own logic or examples or relate arguments to existing or new arguments as counter or supporting arguments.

9. To start off the debate, the site administrator defines a few starting points or positions. The argument tree evolves from there as users add new arguments and relate them to each other.

10. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop the interface and tools to allow users to take all of these elements (quotes, citations, and arguments) and organize them into their own cases.

11. Questions? Contact Greg Schnippel at schnippy@gmail.com Try out the demonstration project at http://www.spacedebate.org See the latest version of this presentation at http://www.slideshare.net/schnippy/the-open-debate-engine-presentation