Bengaluru :
A 12th grader from the city has developed what is possibly the world’s only online audio-based debating platform. The website ‘Debate for Change’, developed by Siddharth Pandiya (16), a student of Greenwood High International School, allows members world-wide to engage in debates on either any of the given topic or a topic of their choice.
The website is functioning since mid-October, currently has 150 members and took Siddharth, a month-and-a-half to build. Members can choose a topic and their stand on it, upon which the website pairs that member with another member who has an opposite stand, and then the debate is conducted by a moderator.
A ranking system has been incorporated in the website, wherein the winner of a debate, decided by the moderator, gets 100 points and the loser 25 points for participation. Until now, Siddharth himself would moderate the debates but now has a team to assist him.
Speaking about what led him to the idea, Siddharth, himself an avid debater since middle school, said, “When I went for debates I only learnt by watching other debaters, I didn’t have any platform to learn. I also feel the overall quality of debating, on TV for example, has deteriorated a lot.
People don’t even care so much anymore, they go to debates because it’s cool, not because they actually like talking about issues. Hence I created this.”
The teen has plans to incorporate many other features into the website, including an option to have video debates .
“I wanted this to be accessible to people with a 2G connection and hence began with only audio input,” he says, and adds, “You can also watch debates that are currently going on with the ‘spectate’ option and you can join tournaments.” He also plans to combine the service with Facebook by next week. He himself has represented India at 14 UN conferences until now and has won awards at every single one, including being awarded the best delegate at Harvard.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Servic e / December 06th, 2016