SoPa: A Social Media for a Participatory Society

The recent political, economic, and social situation has given rise to question on the part of citizens regarding their own space for political participation. Social movements in the form of protests are an example of this growing need for society's participation. One thing that can expand these possibilities is technology. It is correct to affirm that the advancement of smart city and popularization of technology - more specifically, of social media - has established new opportunities to expand these virtual spaces. In line with this scenario, there are several initiatives whose objective is to develop tools that facilitate or promote citizen participation. However, there are still many issues that need to be investigated in order for the use of these tools to be effective. The objective of this work was to propose a tool that facilitates the discussion of societal problems by citizens. In the analysis of the results - obtained through an experiment with users to evaluate the effectiveness of the tool - it could be seen that, although the majority of users agreed that the discussion model and the proposed problem register can contribute to the real solution of the problem, it could also be seen that citizens still lack motivation and engagement - something that needs to be studied and improved.