Experiments in Civic Sensemaking
As mentioned earlier on Twitter, we’ll be presenting Zilino at NCDD’s D&D Marketplace this October.
Here’s the outline I just submitted:
Zilino — Your Friendly E-participation Engine
Introduction to Zilino, a new web application for group problem solving and decision making. Highly interactive discussion of some of the key concepts behind Zilino, our roadmap for future releases as well as the ideas on everybody’s wish list.
Should be fun.
Intellitics will attend this year’s National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation, October 3-5, 2008 in Austin, Texas.
Here’s a quote from the NCDD email newsletter from today that gives you the details:
1. Latest on the 2008 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation: Creating Cultures of Collaboration
We know your budget is tight this year, but if you are only able to attend one conference in 2008, we think it should be this one. Many people have told us our conferences are the best they’ve ever experienced. I just got an email from Larry Dressler saying the last NCDD conference (his first) was “probably the most innovatively designed meeting of this kind that I’ve ever attended.”
Our conferences are highly participatory (no keynotes and no traditional, dry panels), highly innovative (we try new things each year that are often imitated) and highly accessible (regular registration is only $375, which is about half of what comparable events cost). But the best thing about our conferences, by far, is the people. NCDD events draw the most intelligent, kind-hearted, positive, and thoughtful people I’ve ever encountered, and they’re what make our gatherings great.
So here’s what’s new…
a. The preliminary conference schedule is up at www.thataway.org/events/?page_id=113 - it’s shaping up to be our best conference yet. Confirmed workshops will be added shortly.
b. Our featured speakers are pictured and described at www.thataway.org/events/?page_id=156 - the stellar line-up includes D&D stars Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Bill Isaacs, Frances Moore Lappe, David Campt, Jim Fishkin and Hans-Peter Meister.
c. At NCDD Austin, we’ll be tackling 5 of the main challenges facing our field. Check them out at www.thataway.org/events/?p=106
NCDD 2008 is co-sponsored by the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University, the Global Facilitator Service Corps, the Forum Foundation, the Democracy Imperative, the Bluebonnet Hills Christian Church, the LBJ Presidential Library, and Regis University’s Institute on the Common Good, and Everyday Democracy and Hal Saunders are Partners of the conference.
Learn more about the 2008 NCDD conference, which will take place October 3-5 in Austin, Texas, at www.thataway.org/events - or register at www.thataway.org/events/?page_id=136 . Hope to see you there!
Their 2006 conference was held in San Francisco and a truly spectecular event, in terms of both content and people.
If you’re interested in doing something at or around the conference that focuses on the online component to dialogue, deliberation, or public participation, make sure to drop me a line or simply leave a comment.
I came across a fairly succinct definition of the term e-participation today that I find useful with regard to the things we are working on:
In the context of current project, e-Participation means the use of ICT for enabling and strengthening citizen participation in democratic decision-making processes. Depending on the aspect of democracy being promoted it can employ different techniques (Trechsel et al, 2002):
- For increasing the transparency of the political process;
- For enhancing the direct involvement on participation of citizen;
- For improving the quality of opinion formation by opening new spaces of information and deliberation
Source: UNDP Europe & CIS, Preparation of e-Participation Guide: Searching for interesting case studies and lessons learned (Word document, 60 KB).
PEP-NET, another promising e-participation initiative at the European level, launched earlier this month.
From the about page:
PEP-NET will be a European network of all stakeholders active in the field of eParticipation. PEP-NET therefore already includes public bodies, solution providers and citizen organizations as well as researchers and scientists. The network is open to all organizations willing and actively trying to advance the idea and use of eParticipation in Europe.
The project aims to help overcome fragmentation and promote best practice by connecting established and experienced eParticipation players and networks throughout Europe as a critical first step. The objective of this project is to achieve critical mass for the establishment of a Pan European eParticipation Network (PEP-NET). Such a network will act as a repository and disseminator of good practice and exchange of experience, and be a visible resource for all interested parties across the European Union.
PEP-NET will ensure wider access to European eParticipation projects and permit more effective dialogue between eParticipation experts, researchers, practitioners, public administrations, civil society organisations and the interested public with the ultimate goal of facilitating knowledge transfer, encouraging further eParticipation trials and establishing European leadership in this field.
[...]
Already, a number of organizations in the field have signed on as the initial PEP-NET members.
The project is coordinated by Hamburg, Germany-based TuTech Innovation GmbH, who for over a year now have been sharing a steady flow of insights on their blog (mostly in German).
The following are a few Facebook groups we watch that deal with various aspects of dialogue, deliberation, public participation, e-government or e-democracy (membership numbers as of today):
Needless to say, most of these organizations maintain resource-heavy websites of their own.
It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but should give you a head start if you want to connect with people in this community via Facebook. If you happen to know of any additional Facebook groups in this area, feel free to leave a comment.
These are the slightly modified slides from a quick presentation I gave last night at Web Monday Silicon Valley in San Francisco. It’s a first high-level introduction to our first product, a web application for problem solving and decision making in large groups.
We hope to have the initial pieces of an alpha version in place some time over the coming weeks.
I just joined a recently launched online community at epractice.eu, a portal created by the European Commission which connects practitioners from the e-government, e-participation, e-health etc. field from all across the European Union. It is “an interactive initiative that empowers its users to discuss and influence open government, policy-making and the way in which public administrations operate and deliver services.”
From the welcome message to their new eParticipation and eDemocracy Network:
Welcome to the eParticipation and eDemocracy Network
The eParticipation and eDemocracy Network is now open to all interested in issues such as eEngagement, eDeliberation, eInvolvement, eLegislation and eVoting, as well as eDecision, eRule and ePolicy-making. Despite this broad remit, however, these issues are all inter-related and contribute to new concepts and practices for the governance of our societies. Thus, it is also important not to see ‘e’ tools as separate from traditional democratic and participatory processes, for example there are potentially fundamental impacts on the relationships between representative and direct democracy. The community is an open platform for meeting and sharing experiences and knowledge, as well as for asking and providing support. It will encompass blog discussions, news items, good practices, promoting events and sharing documents and source material. It will also link to and help coordinate the various European Commission supported studies and projects directly relevant to eParticipation and eDemocracy. [...]
At Intellitics, that sounds like our cup of tea.
Already, a number of well-known European e-democracy practitioners and advocates have signed up. Given epractice.eu’s track record as a valuable resource in this field, I expect this community to get off to a great start.
Feel free to look me up. Look forward to insightful discussions and meeting great people.
Following a recent IAP2 Northern California chapter meeting, I came across this definition of public participation:
What is Public Participation?
Public participation is the process by which an organization consults with interested or affected individuals, organizations, and government entities before making a decision. Public participation is two-way communication and collaborative problem solving with the goal of achieving better and more acceptable decisions. Public participation prevents or minimizes disputes by creating a process for resolving issues before they become polarized. Other terms sometimes used are “public involvement,” “community involvement,” or “stakeholder involvement.”
We are currently working on our first product, a web-based software application for problem solving and decision making in large groups. To some degree, what we have in mind is a public participation engine (at least for those parts of an engagement project that can feasibly be run online).
Interesting conference coming up right in our backyard: Tools for Participation
At the dawn of the 21st century humankind faces challenges of profound proportions. The ability of people around the world to discuss, work, make decisions, and take action collaboratively is one of the most important capabilities for addressing these challenges.
Researchers, scholars, activists, advocates, artists, educators, technologists, designers, students, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, journalists and citizens are rising to these challenges in many ways, including, devising new communication technologies that build on the opportunities afforded by the Internet and other new (as well as old) media. The interactions between technological and social systems are of special and central importance in this area.
DIAC-08 combines CPSR’s 11th DIAC symposium with the third Conference on Online Deliberation. The joint conference is intended to provide a platform and a forum for highlighting socio-technological opportunities, challenges, and pitfalls in the area of community and civic action. Technology enhanced community action ranges from informal communities of practice to democratic governance of formal organizations to large social movements.
We are especially interested in technology development that is already being tested or fielded. We are also interested in theoretical and other intellectual work that helps build understanding and support for future efforts. In addition to exploring social technology, we must at the same time understand and advance the social context of technology, including its design, access, use, policy and evaluation, as well as intellectual frameworks and perspectives that inform technological as well as social innovation including requirements, case studies, critique and self-reflection, and infrastructures for future work.
Our areas of focus include but are not limited to: deliberative and collaborative systems, e-democracy and e-participation, mobilization and organization, negotiation, consultation, sustainability, community support systems, open source models, human rights, ecological awareness, conflict resolution, justice, transparency systems, media and civic journalism, media literacy, power research, citizen science, economic development and opportunity, peace and reconciliation, infrastructure development, policy, education, community networks, research and development for civil society, social software, virtual communities and civic intelligence.
[...]
Intellitics will be there.
From the November 26 issue of the Deliberative Democracy eBulletin (a must-read resource for us, click here to get to their archive and email subscription):
1 | Four Years of DDC Research and Practice
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Matt Leighninger writes about a draft discussion report, “Where is Democracy Headed? Four years of DDC research and practice” which is now available on the DDC wiki. In the report, Peter Levine and Lars Hasselblad Torres have described the findings, publications, and other products of the 2003 and 2005 Researcher and Practitioner meetings, and incorporated those ideas in an insightful essay on the future of deliberative democracy. They make twelve key observations on the state of the field and suggest seven critical steps for moving forward.To read the draft and provide feedback visit: http://wiki.deliberative-democracy.net/index.php/Summary_Report
You can find Matt’s full blog post (and follow the discussion) here: Four years of DDC research and practice
Under “Ideas for Moving Forward”, the report lists a number of proposed areas for future research. The last paragraph is especially interesting with regard to what Intellitics does:
19. Give deeper attention to online methods
Since the Airlie House meeting in 2002, the DDC has deliberately included practitioners and proponents of online deliberation. However, the bulk of research has been devoted to face-to-face processes, and several interviewees wondered if there might still be a bias against technology. Polletta said, “I really think online is really important. We operate with this idea that face to face is the ideal form. All the research seems to suggest that you should generate your theories of deliberation based on what happens in face to face deliberation. Online is seen as a ‘peculiar’ form. ” However, face-to-face methods are more expensive and in some respects harder to implement.
At Intelltics, we want to contribute to this exciting field of work as much as we can. A few guidelines come to mind that we will try to follow:
So, if you are a researcher and would like help us bring online dialogue and deliberation to the next level, let’s talk!
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