July 6, 2004 Update for D&D Leaders

[Sandy]

Update from T H A T A W A Y. O R G - Home of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
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Hi, Everyone! This month?s update is especially share-worthy. I encourage you to forward this to your networks and colleagues to your heart?s content.

I?d like to tell you about four things this month:

1. Call for session proposals & papers for NCDD?s 2004 conference (+ image contest for artists!)
2. Invitation for you to participate in NCDD?s new Wiki (collaborative workspace)
3. New Feature at www.Thataway.org on the De-Polarization of America
4. Headlines on the Community Happenings blog this month


Here are the details?

1. Update on the 2004 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation

The second National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation will take place at Regis University in Denver, Colorado, October 23rd through 25th, followed by a day of excellent post-conference training on the 26th. NCDD?s conferences provide leaders and future leaders in the dialogue & deliberation community a venue in which to share resources and strategies, solve problems together, build relationships and initiate collaborative projects.

Practitioners, scholars, trainers, artists, activists and students will enjoy a one-of-a-kind gathering, with ample time for networking, skill-building, hearing from some of the key leaders in the field (including Jim Fishkin, Glenna Gerard, Harold Saunders and others), and (of course!) engaging in dialogue and deliberation.

- REGISTER TO ATTEND -

You can now register to attend NCDD 2004, and we hope you do! Please note that early registration is only $250 until the end of July. Registration in August and September will be $350.

- PRESENT A BREAK-OUT SESSION -

We are currently accepting Applications for Session Leaders. If you are interested in presenting a break-out session at the 2004 conference, please submit your proposal by July 30.

- ENTER OUR IMAGE CONTEST -

Artists are encouraged to enter our Image Contest for those interested in creating a simple two-dimensional image or design to represent NCDD's 2004 Conference. The artist whose image is selected will have all of their expenses paid to attend the conference and will receive a small stipend.

- THINK ABOUT CO-SPONSORING OR DONATING -

We encourage you to also think about which support & sponsorship opportunities might be right for you. There are a variety of ways to support the 2004 NCDD conference while ensuring that your organization or program has marketing visibility during the conference, and before and after the conference via NCDD's popular website.

Go to http://www.thataway.org/conference/index.html for more info about the conference and all of these options.


2. Invitation for you to participate in NCDD?s new Wiki

Wikis are the posterchildren for online collaboration, and NCDD's new wiki is thriving - before we've even officially launched it. NCDD members are using the wiki to work on projects together, but *you?re invited* to (1) participate in some exciting collaborative projects that D&D leader Tom Atlee is spearheading or (2) initiate your own topic or project.

Our wiki is open and available for anyone involved in the dialogue & deliberation community to work together on projects, share ideas and post information. A huge thank-you goes to Lucy Perry of InfoVisions and JohnAbbe of the Sandhi Institute for making our Wiki a reality.

- WHAT IS A WIKI? -

Wiki is Hawaiian for quick, a word that accurately describes the process for editing pages on a wiki. Basically, a wiki is a set of pages on the web that anyone can change. Anyone can also easily create new pages on wikis, and they often do. Most wikis in use today are used for collaborative group activities. People write pages together, often with little regard for who has 'ownership' of the words. The content of the pages is limited only by the imagination of the participants, because everyone can edit everything.

NCDD's wiki, pre-launch, has 270 pages! That's more pages than we have on the rest of www.thataway.org.

I encourage you to go to http://www.wiki-www.thataway.org and explore, experiment, create your own home page, initiate a new project or get involved in one of Tom?s projects. Here are short descriptions of the three projects Tom considers to be the most compelling:

- PARTICIPATORY PRACTICES -

Here we have the potential to create the most comprehensive, useful participatory process resource on the Web. Already there are almost 200 approaches listed. Ultimately, with your help, every process any of us knows about will be described -- with links to websites, practitioners, books, articles, stories, and analysis of everything about that process and the conditions for its effective use. And since this is a Wiki, all this will continually evolve as we learn more and as more people's viewpoints are included.

- EXPLORING BASICS OF DIALOGUE AND DELIBERATION -

Here we can delve into the underlying and overarching dynamics of our practice, moving deep into and beyond all specific methodologies. What are we trying to accomplish with D&D? What factors make for success or failure no matter what method we're using? Can we find common language and descriptive tools for discussing our efforts, across our various disciplines? To these ongoing inquiries we can all continually contribute our insights and deepening questions, for the enrichment of one and all.

- PARTICIPATORY PRACTICES ANALYSIS -

Here we can delve together into what various methodologies are good for - and not good for - and how we might use them together synergistically for greater effect. In combination with the previous two Wikis, this Wiki dialogue will become a great weaving and mapping exercise to guide us in connecting up with each other in our practices and in helping to build the collective capacities of groups, organizations, communities and whole societies. Here is where we find out, together, how it all fits, and how powerful it can be.

New to the Wiki world? Go to http://www.wiki-www.thataway.org and look for the link to the ?WelcomeMessage,? which includes some user-friendly instructions. Or email me and I?ll send you that message.


3. New Feature at www.Thataway.org on the De-Polarization of America

I just added a new feature to the site called ?The De-Polarization of America: Major D&D-Related Efforts That Are Bridging the Partisan Divide.? This new feature describes in detail five programs that are using dialogue, deliberation, and D&D principles to tackle the intense polarization that is currently dividing America.

The feature is located at http://www.thataway.org/resources/practice/issues/polarization/polarization.html

NCDD is involved in each of these exciting efforts to various degrees, and we hope to see you involved in them, too! The programs are: The September Project, Let's Talk America, PBS Deliberation Day, Calling the Question, and the ?We the People? National Convention. If you know of another project we should feature here, let us know!


4. Headlines on the Community Happenings blog this month

Here are the headlines of all of the Happenings blog entries added since my last email update. Lots of great projects and exciting opportunities. As always, keep sending your announcements to me at .

Go to http://www.thataway.org/news/index.html to view the blog, but first check out the titles of the past month?s entries.

- Co-Intelligence Institute Launches Pledge Campaign for Policymakers to "Listen to the People"
- DDC Announces Paid Opportunity for Trained Facilitators
- Update on British Columbia's Citizens' Assembly
- PRASI Calls for Papers By and About Conflict Resolution Practitioners & Thinkers of Color
- Update from The (Booming!) September Project
- Online Peace University to be Held this Fall
- Public Conversations Project Announces Two Job Openings
- Richard Harwood Launches New "Redeeming Hope" Blog
- Let's Talk America Encourages Dialogue about Michael Moore's Film "Farenheit 911"
- First U.S. Truth & Reconciliation Commission Launched in Greensboro, NC
- Tom Atlee Writes about Mapping, Democracy & Collective Intelligence
- PeaceWeb to Hold Summer Workshop Series in Tucson
- Calling the Question Project Seeks Director
- AFCC Seeks Associate Editor for Family Court Review
- Some Opposition to Deliberation Day
- Marshall Rosenberg Receives Man of Peace Award
- Have You Subscribed to The Collaborative Edge Yet?
- Two Announcements from the Society for Organizational Learning - conference & free publication
- Online Town Meeting on Global Warming (with Sen. John McCain!) Set for Thursday
- Richard Harwood Live on MSNBC Tonight
- Conference Call Tomorrow about Fielding's New D&D Certificate Program
- August Conference on Best Practices for Improving Ethnic Relations
- Loka Institute Seeks Full-time National Coordinator
- AAHE's Democratic Dialogue Community of Practice to Meet Next Week
- As a Field, Collective Intelligence Takes Off: A Tom Atlee Commentary
- Council for Excellence in Government Issues Report on Homeland Security from Citizens' Perspective
- CIVICUS Produces Report on New Approaches to Global Problem-Solving
- Iraqis Discuss Iraq at openDemocracy.net
- Asian Museum in Seattle Fosters Dialogue About Race
- Online Dialogue on Issues Facing the Nation's Charter Schools

I hope this message finds all of you in good spirits. Good luck with all that you do!

Warm regards,
Sandy

Sandy Heierbacher
Convenor, The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD)
www.thataway.org
802-254-7341