The concept of participant interactive message system has been developed by Anthony Judge, of the Union of International Associations - www.uia.org - in conjunction with a broader concern of his with transformative conferencing

The involvement of Information Habitat with participant interactive message system began in June 1991, following a proposal developed by Tony Judge for the use of a participant interactive message system at the third Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

While the system was not implemented at the third PrepCom, the idea of using a participant interactive message system was proposed by Robert Pollard for Roots of the Future, a major international NGO conference to be held in Paris, December 1991, in preparation for the Earth Summit in Rio, in the context of a comprehensive proposal to demonstrate the use of computer-based networking and communication resources.

On the basis of the latter proposal, a participant interactive message system was successfully implemented at the Paris conference, under the name Da Zi Bao. Da Zi Bao was subsequently implemented at four other meetings being held in preparation for the Earth Summit, as well as in Rio.

The proposal for Da Zi Bao in Rio describes some of the practical details that were utilized in the implementation of a large scale participant interactive message system.

A variation of the Da Zi Bao process was implemented - under the name Your Voice - at the Parliament of World Religions held in Chicago in August/September 1993. In addition to the straightforward use of a participant interactive message system, three of the issues of Your Voice used a process and format that was integrated with a grassroots Parliament of the People

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