Scalable dialogues in the AI era — reconnecting people to meaningful conversations and revealing the hidden consensus within them. Presented by John Spady, National Dialogue Network.
Everyone has. A straw poll, a multiple-choice survey, a town hall, a focus group — sometimes a question boxes us into a premise we don't fully accept. So we give a compromise answer, or disengage altogether. Either way, our responses don't reflect our real views.
"How can we identify the values — in the heat of a discussion — that elicit a person's real opinions?" Value statements form the questions at the heart of this vision.
20th-century conversation: people listened, then answered a questionnaire to capture opinions. The instinct was right — the reach was small.
Lincoln–Douglas debates, town halls, the general store. To take part, you traveled and showed up in person.
A traditional questionnaire is a snapshot of yesterday's thinking — fixed long before you ever see it.
Rigid, top-down formats drive people into pre-set boxes — no room for nuance or dissent.
During the Watts-riot era, John's father sat with neighbors in folding chairs while their kids played basketball nearby — passing 4×5 note cards to discuss race relations.
It was never about the numbers. It was about uncovering the points of view that bind people together. The general store and the gymnasium have been replaced by the Internet — the Opinionnaire® Cloud Platform bridges that gap.
"We should be able to talk without being shouted down."
Then, traditional surveys gave the survey-maker all the power. Now, the survey-taker helps co-create the conversation.
Decline to answer when the framing doesn't fit your understanding — without distorting the data. Different from being "neutral."
Reject the premise itself. High objection rates aren't noise — they signal the framing is out of sync with people.
Participants can propose new value-statement questions that reshape the inquiry — for their group, and the wider whole.
The result is a dialogue between maker and taker, not a one-way extraction of opinions — power to co-create, not power over creation.
The Opinionnaire® Cloud Platform runs like a notetaker in a live discussion — only interactive. It listens for value statements, shares question constructions from other groups that resonate with your own, and offers them to be accepted, edited, or rejected.
"Does wealth inequality worry you?"
Open-ended. Keeps conversation flowing. Not scored — it sets the stage.
"The wealthiest should pay a higher tax rate."
A value statement, answered 1–5 or Yes/No + Abstain/Object/Comment.
The smaller the group, the more interaction — so reach is tiered.
Full open discussions.
Guided discussions, tighter turns.
Limited live discussions.
No open discussion — answer only, but Abstain, Object & Comment remain available.
Our mobile "listen & learn" app that can evaluate a discussion in real-time and provide a polarization & consensus rating upon completion.
Recorded talks & seminars — answer only, but Abstain, Object & Comment remain available.
A step-by-step path through every level — from a single grassroots question to a global audience to a worldwide map of where our values resonate.
Draw from the org's trusted question bank, or co-write with the AI Librarian — it surfaces and connects, but never dictates content.
Email, link, or social — whatever meets people where they are. Every share routes to the session landing page.
Name, date, time, org, host, and seats remaining — no surprises before you commit. Sign up or log in reserves the slot automatically.
One topic anchors the conversation. A Zoom-style grid shows who's present; a calming pulse shows the AI is listening — not interrupting.
Only the host can edit wording; the group accepts, edits, or rejects by talking. Rejected questions are stored, not lost.
Once the discussion closes, every approved statement — seed and AI alike — is presented for structured response.
High objection on one statement flags framing that's out of sync — a finding, not a flaw.
Consensus trends across every session on a topic, plus the group questions the org has promoted.
One topic, every contributing org, anonymized — a shared map of where values resonate across regions.
A cross-topic, cross-organization view: 1,000+ concurrent sessions, spanning wealth, housing, climate, education, health, and justice.
A functional specification with a working architecture mapped to proven cloud services. The MVP targets a 6–8 month build.
Amazon Transcribe streams speech to text with speaker labels — no voiceprints stored.
AWS Bedrock + RAG retrieve trusted sources, then draft neutral statements.
Bedrock Guardrails scrub PII; sessions auto-purge within 24 hours.
AppSync WebSockets push the "pulse" and vote state to every device at once.
Revealing the pervading opinions & beliefs — the Zeitgeist.
Leave feeling understood — able to see exactly where they fit in the landscape of views, and where common ground lies.
Receive insights they could never have pre-planned, drawn from what the room actually surfaced.
High "participatory resistance" becomes a valuable signal — the framing is out of sync with part of the public.
A more accurate, meaningful reflection of where a community truly agrees. National-scale understanding, from small-scale dialogue.
"We aren't replacing the pollsters. We're scaling the intimate understanding that happens at dinner tables, general stores, and public meetings. A Zeitgeist of understanding, not just counted."
If you'd like to continue the conversation with John, there's a role for you — in person or virtually. No effort is too small.
Help shape this roadmap and priorities.
Pressure test the ideas with us.
Run early sessions in your community.
Help fund the MVP build and reach users as we scale.
Lend time, skills, or a room.
In person or virtual — opportunities for participation and testing at every level, grassroots to global.
