This report results from a collaboration between the JRC - Ispra (Units H.1 and E.2) and the Inria Research Center located in Rennes. The aim of this collaboration is at understanding the basic principles and the computer programs apt to coordinate a public debate with an overall aim at giving the bases for designing such programs. Computer programs for the coordination of public debate exist since the beginning of the eighties but recently they have acquired new relevance for the use made of them by public administrations, associations and political parties. The meet of both citizen’s needs and public administrations for transparency can today be technically realized with such programs through the present communication means in a more efficient way with respect to the first experiments dating now about forty years. This report aims at covering historical, technical and some theoretical aspects of the use of computers for the coordination of public debate.