Hello everyone, and happy new year! You are all invited to the launch of our Everyday Democracy Book Club on Thursday, January 17. Join us online at DemocracySpace at 1 p.m. Eastern, when noted author Frances Moore Lapp? will be talking and answering questions about her new book, Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad. It's a hands-on guide to pursuing the sort of Living Democracy that? Lapp? outlined in her previous book, Democracy's Edge.

Could 2008 be the year we move from a top-down "Thin Democracy" that keeps most of us trapped in narrow roles as consumers, workers, and voters, to a rich, grassroots-powered Living Democracy in which we fully claim our public lives as citizens, advocates, neighbors, buyers, savers, investors, students, workers, employers, and much more - and help others do the same? Join us Thursday and learn more.

If you'd like to ask Frankie a question, feel free to email it to me in advance at [email protected]. (Please include your name and city and/or organization.) We'll also take questions and comments during the hourlong event as time permits. Hope to "see" you at DemocracySpace on Thursday the 17th!

Hey everyone ... I hope you are having a great week. I would like to invite you to our inaugural water cooler session at DemocracySpace.org. It's this Thursday, October 11, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Each month, we?ll have a live blog session at DemocracySpace where you can meet and mingle with some of the most interesting players in our movement. This Thursday, October 11, our first session will feature a discussion on whether and how citizen engagement can help defuse hot-button issues at election time. Jim Noucas of Portsmouth Listens will be our featured guest. You can get more info here.

Let me know if you?d like to suggest a topic and/or featured guest for a future water cooler session, or if you have news that you?d like to see posted on our blog at DemocracySpace.org. You can leave a comment here or reach me at jfanselow at studycircles dot org.

Update 10/17/07: Last week's water cooler session was a great success. You can read the transcript here.

Our next water cooler will zoom in on student-focused study circles, whether in schools or in the community. The date is Thursday, November 15. I'll post the time here later.
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Hello from Boise, Idaho! My name is Julie Fanselow, and I have been working with the Study Circles Resource Center since 2002, mainly writing stories about communities that have successfully used study circles to create positive change.I'll still be writing stories for SCRC, but now I am also managing our new blog, DemocracySpace.org? (As many of you know, SCRC will soon change its name to Everyday Democracy.)

I am posting something on DemSpace pretty much every weekday. We want to highlight stories of and opportunities for public dialogue, deliberation, and action wherever they are happening. So far, I have had posts on study circles in Australia, the DREAM Act, the 50th anniversary of integration at Little Rock Central High School, blogs from Horizons communities (working to fight poverty in the Upper Midwest, Plains, and Northwest), public officials who blog, the controversial new book "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture," the TV show "Aliens in America," and much more.

We also plan special events - called "water coolers" - about once a month, where you'll be able to ask questions of people involved in citizen engagement. The first one is next week, Thursday, October 11, at 1 p.m. Eastern/noon Central/11 a.m. Mountain/10 a.m. Pacific, right at DemocracySpace.org. Since it is election season, we'll be talking about how citizen engagement has been used to defuse hot-button electoral issues.I welcome your ideas, contributions, and comments.

If you have news, you can send it to me at [email protected]. If you'd like to make a guest post on our blog, let me know, and we will make it happen. Thanks to NCDD for giving us this way to meet and network online.