1. Political Issue Analysis System (PIAS)
Craig Bellamy, Martin Gibbs, Andy Williamson, Sean Cubbitt, Conal Tuohy
Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES)
Level 4, Building 193, University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia
www.broadband.unimelb.edu.au
The University of Melbourne acknowledges funding from the
Victorian State Government towards the establishment of IBES
Abstract
Through a series of usability workshops, interviews, and contextual analysis this project explores the
evolving applications of online political communication strategies and tools and examines user’s
‘deliberative’ processes. The focus of the project is upon ‘political issues’ such as health, economy,
and environment and how users discover and make sense of these issues. The outcome of the project
will be a number of design recommendations coupled with prototypes.
(Above) The project Blog. And the I-Fish model that is being adapted to ‘Poli-
Fish’
Research Questions:
1.To explore the evolving applications of online political information tools in an
Australian and International context (especially ‘issue analysis’ around broad-
band enabled systems)
2.To examine deliberative processes with a number of stakeholder groups using
the University’s IDEA Lab.
3.To build, test and provide further recommendations for a ‘Political Issues
Analysis System’ (PIAS)