21st Century Town Meeting

AmericaSpeaks' 21st Century Town Meeting method creates engaging, meaningful opportunities for citizens to participate in public decision making. This unique process updates the traditional New England town meeting to address the needs of today's citizens, decision makers and democracy.

Resource Link: http://www.americaspeaks.org

An Online Environment for Democratic Deliberation: Motivations, Principles, and Design

Todd Davies, Brendan O'Connor, Alex Angiolillo Cochran, Jonathan J. Effrat.

This paper elucidates the experience and thinking behind our new web-based environment for asynchronous group deliberation: Deme (pronounced 'deem'). Deme grew out of participation in and observations of group decision making and community democracy, and is being developed within a university-community partnership to enhance civic participation and to bridge digital divides.

Resource Link: http://www.stanford.edu/~davies/deme-principles.pdf

Ascentum

Ascentum is a Canada-based professional services firm that combines a unique technology expertise with specialized management consulting services. Dialogue Circles is Ascentum's intermodal approach to consultation that aims to maximize the synergies between the traditional and online worlds of consultation and dialogue. Dialogue Circles provides clients with the flexibility to hold online or traditional consultation and dialogue. According to Ascentum, many of the most successful consultation and dialogue endeavors now involve a mix of online tools and traditional face-to-face approaches that complement one another.

Resource Link: http://www.ascentum.ca

ByDesign-eLab

byDesign-eLab was founded in 1997 in association with the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto as an informal think tank and testing ground engaged in research, education and product development focused on new media and policy. The eLab is now a private organization dedicated to realizing significant public interest projects. As such, eLab researches and engages in "humane participant design" of accessible public spaces online to ensure that the economic and social benefits of digital media can be shared through mutual exchange of vital information and resources among networked communities of geography, interest and practice.

Resource Link: http://www.bydesign-elab.net

CivicEvolution

CivicEvolution is a new technology that helps people develop public policy through a goal-oriented process of online deliberation.

Resource Link: http://civicevolution.org

Democracy Lab

Democracy Lab provides online forums for use in high school and college classes. National Issues Forums-style forums run for 10 weeks, fall and spring. Students from around the country dialogue in small groups and are guided from dialogue to inquiry and to action. Instructors adopt Democracy Lab and students purchase online access for $25.

Resource Link: http://www.teachingdemocracy.org

Dialogue as Pedagogy: Deliberative Learning with Democracy Lab in High School and College Classes

James T Knauer, PhD and Paul Alexander, PhD.

This 10-page document was distributed during Jim Knauer and Paul Alexander's workshop of the same name at the 2006 NCDD Conference in San Francisco. Deliberative dialogue can be used across the curriculum to integrate civic education without sacrificing disciplinary content or traditional learning objectives. The document not only outlines Democracy Lab (an online deliberation program for college students) and where it is headed, it also outlines existing research on dialogic pedagogy, describes William Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development, and explores the relationship between deliberative dialogue and learning.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Dialogic_Pedagogy_Handout.doc

Dialogue by Design Ltd

Dialogue by Design is a UK-based specialist company established in 1999 to manage dialogue and consultation over the Internet. Their unique technology enables them to receive, process, analyze and report on hundreds or even thousands of detailed responses within days.

Resource Link: http://www.dialoguebydesign.com

Dialogue Mapping and the Cognexus Institute

Dialogue Mapping is a new approach to problem solving that centers on collective sense making. Dialogue Mapping is about creating the highest possible level of shared understanding and ownership about the issues, decisions, and agreements involved in a project. Unlike traditional problem solving approaches, Dialogue Mapping creates coherence in situations of high social diversity and complexity. The structure of the maps raises the intellectual integrity of the collective problem solving or decision making process. Dr. Jeffrey Conklin, director of the Cognexus Institute, developed the Dialogue Mapping facilitation technique.

Resource Link: http://www.cognexus.org

dropping knowledge

dropping knowledge is a global initiative to turn apathy into activity. By hosting an open conversation on the most pressing issues of our times, we will foster a worldwide exchange of viewpoints, ideas and people-powered solutions. However knowledge is defined, by dropping it freely to others, we all gain wisdom. An international project based in Germany and the USA, dropping knowledge arose from a need for new thinking on how to make positive change in the world, and from an understanding of how questions, values, new technology and visual communication can be powerful catalysts for that change.

Resource Link: http://www.droppingknowledge.org

E-Democracy.Org / Minnesota E-Democracy

Minnesota E-Democracy is a non-partisan citizen-based organization whose mission is to improve participation in democracy in Minnesota through the use of information networks and communication technologies. Minnesota E-Democracy was established in 1994 and created the world's first election-oriented website. They sponsor election-year online partnerships to promote citizen access to election information and interaction. Their year-round focus is on the use of the Internet to improve citizen participation and real world governance through online discussions and information and knowledge exchange.

Resource Link: http://www.e-democracy.org

e-thePeople

Beginning with the premise that democracy is a conversation, e-thePeople describes itself as 'the digital town hall for the nation.' In cooperation with over 1000 sites around the internet, e-thePeople promotes intelligent and diverse discussion and political action.

Resource Link: http://www.e-thepeople.org

GroupJazz

GroupJazz supports the work of groups whether they are meeting face to face or online. Founder Lisa Kimball believes that 'great groups make great things happen' and utilizes the word Jazz as a metaphor for collaboration.

Resource Link: http://www.groupjazz.com

H2O and the Rotisserie

The H2O project is building an interlocking collection of communities based on the free creation and exchange of ideas. H2O aims to apply Internet technologies to the underlying aims of the academy - the free creation and exchange of ideas and the communities formed around those ideas - both within and beyond the confines of the traditional university setting. Anyone is welcome to use the services on the site, including hosting your own project. H2O currently provides the "Rotisserie," which approaches online discussion in a way that encourages measured, thoughtful discourse.

Resource Link: http://h2oproject.law.harvard.edu/

Information Renaissance

Founded in 1996, this nonprofit corporation promotes the use of the internet to support the public interest through online dialogue and other processes. Information Renaissance enables citizens to participate more fully in the democratic process by improving access and fostering meaningful, high-level, interactive exchanges between informed members of the public and their government.

Resource Link: http://www.info-ren.org

Local Issues Forum Guidebook

Simply put, a Local Issues Forum is an online public commons (or town hall meeting), where any citizen, journalist, or elected official can post an idea, ask a question, make a public announcement, connect with one another, monitor public opinion, and ask for public input, and where journalists can look for story ideas or identify sources for articles. Created by e-democracy.org, Local Issues Forums utilize listserv technology. The goal of a Local Issues Forum is to give everyone a greater voice in local decisions and encourage more citizen participation in local public policy making. It also provides a forum for decision-makers to receive immediate feedback from the community on issues that must be decided or voted on.

Resource Link: http://www.e-democracy.org/uk/guide.pdf

Michigan Youth Caucus

The Michigan Youth Caucus (MYC) is sponsored by the Michigan Civics Institute, the Interactive Communication and Simulations Group at the University of Michigan, and members of the state legislature. MYC gives Michigan residents 18-22 a voice in public affairs through the use of online tools, offline meetings and conventions to facilitate the creation of the Michigan Youth Caucus (MYC) platform.

Resource Link: http://ics.soe.umich.edu/newics/myc.lasso

Online Approaches to Dialogue-Based Public Engagement

Prepared by Lars Hasselblad Torres, Bob Streufert, and Joe Goldman, AmericaSpeaks.

This chart introduces 18 online techniques/environments for discussion-driven public engagement. Includes brief descriptions, examples of recent applications, and website urls.

Resource Link: http://www.americaspeaks.org/resources/library/as/pubs/online_delib_matrix_012105.pdf

Online Deliberative Polling

Online Deliberative Polling is an extension of a well-established methodology (Deliberative Polling, created by James Fishkin) that measures opinion change within a random scientific sample of the public. Central to this methodology is an opportunity to discuss the issues with fellow citizens and question a panel of leading experts. The first experiment in Online Deliberation Polling took place January 2003 as a prominent part of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions' By the People project.

Resource Link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/btp/articles/events_dop.html

openDemocracy.net

oD.net's approach to e-Democracy, called 'Contested Exchange,' employs a strong but balanced editor to help frame debates and invite thought leaders and decision makers. They then invite the public and provide action links to generate social awareness and change.

Resource Link: http://www.opendemocracy.net