Polis – Large Scale Discussions
 Hi everyone! Co-founder here &#x2F; AMA.<p>We&#x27;ve been working on this for coming up on 10 years. We launched on HN in August of 2014: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8228974" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8228974</a><p>Brief technical description: 
1. produce a matrix of C comments (submitted by participants) * V votes (in 1, 0, -1 form for agree, disagree, pass). 
2. Run dimensionality reduction (PCA) and clustering (K-means). 
3. Find out which comments best differentiate clusters, show those to everyone <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;compdemocracy.org&#x2F;representative-comments&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;compdemocracy.org&#x2F;representative-comments&#x2F;</a>
4. Identify comments in which the majority of every cluster is voting the same, way, show those to everyone: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;compdemocracy.org&#x2F;group-informed-consensus&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;compdemocracy.org&#x2F;group-informed-consensus&#x2F;</a><p>For more, we&#x27;ve recently published a paper describing the underlying methods: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;colinmegill&#x2F;status&#x2F;1445044310722822147" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;colinmegill&#x2F;status&#x2F;1445044310722822147</a><p>The 501c3 works around the world (USAID, UNDP, cities, countries) to help advance the usage of the method in deliberative democratic settings. Multiple cities (such as Amsterdam) now have their own deployments. We&#x27;d love to hear from you! If interested in the project or volunteering, please reach out to: hello@compdemocracy.org