As many of you know, NCDD has been hosting a collaborative online conversation aimed at developing a set of Core Principles for Public Engagement that most people and organizations in this field can get behind. We’ve been working on this as transparently as possible at www.thataway.org/2009/pep_project/ and many of you have participated. I’ve found it to be a fascinating, fun, and challenging process — but it’s not over yet.

We are doing this, in part, to influence Obama’s Open Governance Directive, which will instruct executive departments and agencies to take specific actions to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration set forth in one of three memoranda President Obama signed on his first day on the job ( www.thataway.org/?p=1404 ). We feel that presenting a united front to the administration on basic principles for quality public engagement will increase our chances of being heard in the crafting of this directive. Beth Noveck, the woman in charge of crafting the directive, recently acknowledged and commended our collective effort in a nationally broadcast webinar.

At this point, we invite and encourage all of you to do several things…

1. Determine whether your organization would be interested in endorsing the latest version (“version 3.0″) of the basic principles and their one-sentence descriptions, as attached. Let Sandy Heierbacher () know if your organization is likely to endorse the principles (we’ll send you the final version on April 27th to make sure your endorsement is official). OR, let us know (by emailing Sandy or adding comments to the QuickTopic doc posted at www.quicktopic.com/43/D/igJmYvyvLxQi.html ), what would need to be changed in order for your organization to endorse the principles.

2. Provide feedback on the longer document posted at www.quicktopic.com/43/D/yP8nKZtRurb.html (the basic principles plus explanatory text about what to strive for and what to avoid). You can also post your feedback on version 3.0 on the PEP forum as you have in the past, but QuickTopic allows people to comment on specific text, and to comment on each other’s comments more clearly, so we’d prefer you use QuickTopic if you’re willing (it’s super-easy; just click on the little “c” to the left of what you want to comment on (you don’t even need to log in or register!).

3. Send email about this post/project to your colleagues, networks, organization leaders, etc. that you think should get involved in endorsing – or further honing – the principles!

For more info about the project, our timeline, and next steps, see the detailed post titled “4-1-09 PEP Project Update and Timeline” up on the PEP forum at www.thataway.org/2009/pep_project/

Hope to see most of you involved in this project, in one way or another!