A healthy civil society is essential in order to deal with “wicked” societal problems. Merely involving institutional actors
and mass media is not sufficient. Intermedia can play a crucial complementary role in strengthening civil society. However,
the potential of these technologies needs to be carefully tailored to the requirements and constraints of the communities
grown around them. The GRASS system for group report authoring is one carefully tailored socio-technical system aimed at unlocking
this potential. Such systems may help to develop stakeholder communities that are more productive in societal conflict resolution.
Keywords Authoring systems - Civil society - Conflict resolution - Intermedia - Virtual communities