Proposal for a Social-MRC: Social Consensus Formation Support System Concerning IT Risk Countermeasures

Abstract

The problem of multiple risks is that a measure to reduce one risk can increase other risks. To address this problem, a system to support social consensus formation is needed to mitigate the IT risks such as those involved in information filtering to protect children. In cases in which the number of people necessary for consensus formation is low, such as forming a consensus within an organization, the Multiple Risk Communicator (MRC) developed by the authors offers a possible solution to this problem. However, the MRC cannot be applied to problems in which the number of stakeholders exceeds several thousand, and thus an innovative solution was considered necessary. Accordingly, the authors modified and expanded the MRC and developed the concept “Social-MRC” to comprehensively support risk communication on two levels: communication among opinion leaders and communication allowing the participation of ordinary stakeholders. By introducing this two-level approach, we are able to achieve consensus formation even in cases in which there are several thousand or more stakeholders.