Globalization means many different things. But one aspect of the phenomenon is the connecting of geographically distributed actors with similar interests into networks for the purpose of identifying and/or solving issues of global importance. This connection is made feasible by the Internet. Today it is possible for a global-scale network of many hundreds, if not thousands, of individual actors to share ideas asynchronously. See Electronic Discourse.
Communities of interested parties or actors often seek to carry on a discourse activity with the intent of coming to some kind of conclusion and consensus. Communities form around common interests and members share similar values, ideas and objectives. Thus, the potential for agreement is built into the nature of the community.
What is not part of the majority of e-discourse applications is an internal structuring that is designed to optimize the process and assist it in finding consensus views.
The tool described in this document is proposed as an assistant to virtual communities in conducting a structured discourse on topics of interest. See Structural Assistant