Technology-Supported Moderation in Online Deliberation

Abstract: Mini-publics are an increasingly popular family of democratic innovation to broaden citizen engagement. However, convening a representative sample in person is resource-intensive, and requires significant organizational efforts to coordinate travel, venue logistics, and facilitator training. This chapter outlines the design and development of the Stanford Online Deliberation Platform, initially tailored for Deliberative Polling, building upon insights from in-person moderation in that setting, but supporting a broader range of methods and approaches in the deliberative space. The platform supports structured conversations for small groups (ideally 8-15 people) with automated moderation functionality, enabling the groups to assume ownership of the deliberative conversation rather than relying on a moderator persona. We describe the platform's architecture and key design decisions, including the deliberation flow, room assignment, speaker management, speaking nudges, agenda management, outcome development, and real-time monitoring. Between its inception in 2018 and 2025, the platform has facilitated over 30,000 unique participants engaging in deliberations; we catalog 54 deliberations with at least 100 participants up to December 2025, spanning a diverse range of languages, countries, and topics. Finally, we establish a standardized vocabulary for future analyses by defining the terminology employed in the platform's data and documenting significant software revisions over time.