This October 25-28 in Dearborn, MI, the Common Bond Institute is sponsoring the second annual international, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conference examining concepts of “The OTHER” from a universal, cross-cultural perspective. The goal is to promote wider public dialogue about concepts of “Us and Them” in order to to address the roots of negative stereotypes, prejudice, and artificial barriers of misunderstanding and distrust that separate people. Participants will join more than 60 remarkable presenters to cultivate a shared capacity for reconciliation, appreciation of diversity, and peace. Participation is open to professionals and the general public. Full Program and Registration Details online at www.cbiworld.org, or Ph/Fax: 269-665-9393 or email: .

The 4-day conference program includes : 6 Keynote Speakers, 6 Plenary Topical Panels, 24 Concurrent Break-out Sessions of Workshops, Lectures, Roundtables, and Dialogues to Engage Concepts and Explore Practical Applications, Conference-wide Facilitated Dialogue Groups, Live E-conference Addresses by Leading Visionaries, Evolving Expressive Arts Interpretation of the Conference, Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala Ritual, Media / Art Exhibits and Events, Evening Performances, Cultural Programs, and Community Activities, Rich Networking Opportunities, Intentional Multi-cultural Community, Final Action Planning Dialogue for Beyond the Conference and 6 Pre-Conference All-day Institutes on Thursday, October 25 (9am-4:30pm).

NCDD member Leanne Nurse just brought our attention to a thematic online discussion about “Women, political participation and decision- making in Africa.” The online discussion is being organized by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women/Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the Economic Commission for Africa in cooperation with the E-Network of National Gender Equality Machineries in Africa.

The discussion will run for six weeks from 4 September to 14 October 2007. The purpose of the online discussion is to contribute to a better understanding of women’s political participation in Africa; collect measures taken at national and subregional levels to promote women’s participation; identify good practices and lessons learned and highlight gaps and challenges requiring further action. Register for the online discussion at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/forum/forum-daw-politicalparticipation2007.htm. If you have any questions or experience problems when registering, please contact Mr. Rajkumar Cheney Krishnan (). (more…)

Huldah Warren (), Executive Director of the Center for Dialogue in Brevard, North Carolina, sent in this job announcement to the NCDD listserv:

Director of Mediation Services, Center for Dialogue - 40 hours weekly; Bachelors degree; mediation certification and experience; 3 years experience social work, human services, conflict resolution, program management; strong organizational skills; excellent communication and listening skills; highly self-directed; creative program development; familiarity with court systems; proficiency with Microsoft Office Programs. Visit www.center4dialogue.org for more information. Send resumes to: - PO Box 1205 Brevard, NC 28712.

The World e-Democracy Forum, coming up October 3rd and 4th 2007 in France has just published its program online. During the conference, 69 speakers representing 21 countries will discuss about questions raised by the Internet explosion in our everyday lives, particularly by Web 2.0 phenomenon applied to democratic life and public services. Among the questions raised, the increased personalization of public services with examples of Norway and Canada, collaborative networks for innovation towards examples of French competitiveness clusters and European living labs, need to instill confidence to citizens and to adopt a collaborative approach about e-Governement’s projects, or actions to fight the digital divide The European eGovernet project will show the future face of e-Government and many concrete examples will illustrate what are mobile public services and we will treat of e-Voting in countries like Estonia or Switzerland. The Council of Europe will present the opinions carried out around tools for active and digital citizenship while consequences of the evolution of participative democracy from the blogosphere to Second Life will be discussed. For more information about the conference, or to browse the program, visit www.edemocracy-forum.com.

Over 240 participants gathered in Dayton, Ohio, for the Kettering Foundation’s 2007 Public Policy and Deliberative Democracy Workshops. This year’s workshops included participants from 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and from 27 other countries: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Yemen.

These workshops are an annual event where people from around the country and around the world gather to “share ideas and their common commitment to citizen-led democracy.” The workshops are also an opportunity for the Kettering Foundation to share what has been learned about the question of what citizens are supposed to do about problems, and how they get engaged. To see clips of the workshops, visit www.kettering.org/events/2007PPW_videos3.aspx. For more information about the Kettering Foundation or about the Public Policy and Deliberative Democracy Workshops go to www.kettering.org or use the contact information found here.

The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) has just announced the creation of the Political Science Network (PSN). PSN will provide a world-wide, online community for research in all areas of Political Science, following the model of the other subject matter networks within SSRN (http://www.ssrn.com). SSRN is an on-line research network, composed of a number of subject-area networks in the social sciences, law, and business. Each network is divided into specific topics (”eJournals”). Authors upload papers (without charge) and select the topics that are most appropriate for their papers. Users worldwide can then download these papers (also without charge). SSRN authors find that posting on SSRN dramatically increases both the exposure and downloads of their papers, especially from interdisciplinary and international readers.

All abstracts and papers, together with bibliographic data and author contact information, will be included in the searchable SSRN electronic library at http://papers.ssrn.com. The SSRN eLibrary contains more than158,000 papers by 80,000 authors, including 125,000 full text papers. Downloads from the SSRN eLibrary are running at an annual rate of about 4 million, with over 15 million downloads since SSRN was founded in 1994. (more…)