National Citizens' Technology Forum

In March 2008, the first National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF) was conducted in the United States. The NCTF, based on the Danish Consensus Conference practice for public deliberation about science and technology public policy making, addressed the “converging technologies” of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information science, and cognitive science (NBIC technologies) that focus on human enhancements.

The range of potential enhancements includes brain/ computer interfaces, physical endurance improvements, cognitive and memory improvements, and significant life extension, among others. These potential technologies have elicited considerable interest among government policy makers, science and technology researchers, and corporations.

Seventy-four citizen-panelists distributed in six locations across the country participated in the NCTF. The panelists worked in six independent panels, and the deliberations included both face-to-face and Internet-based components. During the Internet components of the project, the panelists in all six locations interacted with all the others, and with five content experts who joined in the discussions. Each panel deliberated independently from the others, and each wrote its own Final Report, containing that panel's specific policy recommendations for the management of the NBIC technologies, along with its reasoning.

Supported by funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, and in conjunction with the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, research teams at universities in six states (New Hampshire, Georgia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona, and California), led by a team at North Carolina State University, organized local panels of nonexpert citizens to participate in the NCTF. Panelists were recruited locally from the general population in the communities surrounding each university. From the volunteers at each locale, attempts were made to construct representative, stratified samples that reflected the broad socioeconomic status characteristics of each community.

All participants completed a pretest/posttest questionnaire (along with a control group who completed the questionnaire but did not participate in any panel) which attempted to assess several impacts of participation, including learning, attitude changes, and the presence/strength of potential small group cognitive and affective decision pathologies.

The NCTF, following the Danish Consensus Conference pattern, involved three phases: an initial weekend of face-to-face discussions at each site, a final weekend of face-to-face deliberations and report writing, and between these weekend sessions, nine two-hour synchronous online discussions. The North Carolina State University team assembled a 52-page background document that was provided to each panelist prior to the first face-to-face meeting. The background document was vetted by two external experts and by all of the research teams at the six locations, with the goal of assuring that it was accurate, balanced, and accessible for average, nonexpert citizens.

During the first face-to-face weekend, the panelists at each site considered the background materials and raised whatever issues or concerns seemed important to the members of the panel. They also developed a set of questions that they wanted to put to content experts during the Internet sessions. During the synchronous, online sessions, the panelists from all six locations further clarified and prioritized their concerns and questions, and then were able to put inquiries to five content experts who joined the online sessions. During their discussions with content experts, the panelists heard the experts' responses to their questions and to additional matters that occurred to the panelists during the discussions.

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