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Problem

Did you know that Thanksgiving dinners of 2017 ended on average 30 minutes earlier, primarily due to the effects of massive partisanship? We live in an age where it's simply too easy to seal yourself in a bubble with your friends and bash the "other side". Obviously they're just stupid or whatever...

The first step to thoughtful debate is to understand that our minds ARE fallible. Then we begin to understand that our experiences pile onto us and shape our understanding as we wiggle through life. Why do people disagree with us? Because the way they see the world was shaped for specific reasons: economic hardship, specific industries, education, their parents, etc...

What it does

Our application attempts to fundamentaly change the way people engage with each other. We do so as follows:

  1. On their smartphones, two users (Sam and Nathan) select a topic. Suppose they each select "environment".
  2. They are paired in a video chat room.
  3. The users proceed through a GUIDED debate. There is no arguing, only listening. This facilitates undestanding and helps errode the impulse to block your friend out with your own voice.
  4. After the discussion, users enter something relevant they learned from their discussion partner, and the most notable reflections are archived in our issue database, chronicling a history of productive discussion.

There is no sense of "party" in our application. It's important to discuss the issues themselves, not "I'm a Democrat/Republic so I'm told what to think by my party." We should think for ourselves.

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." - George Washington's farewell address | Saturday, September 17, 1796

Broader Overview

A selection of four curated issues are added each week. Users select an issue to discuss, and are matched with another user for a guided discussion of the issue, their perspective, and their respective solutions. After the discussion, each is asked to state one meaningful idea presented by the other, which are added to a list of reflections. Reflections may be liked by users, and the X most-liked reflections at the end of the week are archived.

How we built it

The app was built in android, using Firebase for the reflection backend and Twilio for the video chats.

Challenges we ran into

Everything.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Learning Android from scratch! Replacing the Minimum Viable Product with the MPMPP: Maximally Pathetic Minimal Presentable Product.

What we learned

See above.

What's next for Discourse

Memes.

https://devpost.com/software/discourse-h3w7dr