Debatepedia Partners with the National Debate Series: Boston

    WASHINGTON, DC, September 24, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Debatepedia has partnered with the National Debate Series to provide all the background resources for the four debate topics of the event in Boston: the public health insurance option, nuclear energy, "don't ask don't tell", and escalating the war in Afghanistan. The event will take place on November 10th at Boston University's Morse Auditorium, and will include the debate teams of Harvard, MIT, Boston College, and Boston University competing with one another in an exhibition tournament. The event's planners - Debatepedia founder Brooks Lindsay and Politalk co-founders Glenn Gaudett and Jeff Kimball - intend on drawing over 300 people to the event, as well as local and national radio and television media.

Debatepedia's pro/con resources will help debaters and the audience juggle the existing pro and con arguments and quotations in these debates prior to the event. During and following the debates, Debatepedia will document any additional arguments presented in the debate event itself. This offers a way for attendees and the general public to systematically and comprehensively weigh all the pro and con arguments in these critical and yet complicated debates. The ultimate goal is to improve personal and national deliberations and decision-making.

The main mission of the National Debate Series, and the logic for Debatepedia's partnership with the event - is to respond to a period of increased recrimination and discord in American politics. While legitimate arguments are being put forward on both sides of critical debates facing the nation, the founders of the National Debate Series feel that these arguments are often drowned out by screaming matches and misinformation between politicians and citizens alike. A significant mission of the National Debate Series is to help clarify and magnify sound reasoning and effective fact-based argumentation. The most talented debaters at the best universities in the nation can help do this, particularly in combination with a deliberative pro/con encyclopedia such as Debatepedia. The synthesis of an exciting event and robust online deliberative tools is likely to make the National Debate Series in Boston and elsewhere a significant force for improving the "public debate" and the decisions we make as a nation.

Debatepedia is a non-profit encyclopedia of pro and con arguments and quotations in public debates around the world. It is essentially "the Wikipedia of pros and cons". Links to it as well as the National Debate Series can be found here:

Debatepedia: http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Welcome_to_Debatepedia!
National Debate Series: http://www.nationaldebateseries.com/
Registration: http://nationaldebateseries.com/register.php
Debatepedia portal for NDS: http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/National_Debate_Series:_Boston
Debatepedia article on public option: http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Debate:_Public_insurance_option_in_US_health_care
Debatepedia article on "Don't ask don't tell": http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Debate:_Homosexuals_in_the_US_military
Debatepedia article on nuclear energy: http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Debate:_Nuclear_energy
Debatepedia article on escalating the war in Afghanistan: http://wiki.idebate.org/index.php/Debate:_Escalation_of_the_War_in_Afghanistan_under_the_Obama_administration

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