Collaborative Innovation: Tackling Extremism with Ethelo Insights
The International Peace and Security Institute hosted a symposium on ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ in Washington D.C. Over 250 leading policymakers, digital pioneers, religious leaders and development practitioners used Ethelo as an online tool to collectively evaluate a range of strategies. Experts identified the top strategies as well as approaches regarded as ineffective. The platform revealed levels of disagreement and consensus on different ideas, as well as (unexpected) areas of difference and convergence between diverse participant subgroups.
250 expert
participants
15,000
scenarios assessed
President
On April 6th and 7th 2016, the International Peace and Security Institute hosted a symposium on “Countering Violent Extremism” in Washington D.C.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon opened the gathering of 250 leading thinkers, policymakers, digital pioneers, religious leaders, military experts and development practitioners from around the world.
The specific objectives of the symposium, convened to advance the substantive outcomes from the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism and the United Nations General Assembly, were to:
The organizers of the CVE symposium turned to Ethelo to coordinate a problem solving exercise on the strategic practicalities of countering violent extremism. More than 50 of the symposium participants collaborated
online, in parallel with the live event, to answer specific key questions critical to high level decision-making.
Ethelo was used to provide a structured online environment that allowed participants to collectively evaluate a range of ideas using both quantitative techniques and free dialogue.
Through Ethelo, participants identified the top strategies for addressing violent extremism, as well approaches regarded as ineffective.
The results were delivered on the final day. Participants evaluated 17 distinct perspectives and approaches in answering three fundamental questions surrounding violent extremism:
Ethelo focused the collective intelligence of the participants towards evaluating more than 15,000 highly nuanced alternative approaches to countering violent extremism. Ethelo was able to reveal levels of disagreement and consensus on different ideas, as well as areas of disagreement and consensus between different participant subgroups. For example, strong differences in opinion were exposed around the role of mental illness in extremism, and about the value of roles played by the private sector.
“Ethelo turned out to be such a huge asset to the symposium – thanks!”
Cameron Chisholm
