Intellitics

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:

• Plan ahead — Design and build with research in mind (instead of it being a mere afterthought).
• Provide access — Be available and open to outside research.
• Share — Make any findings available to the dialogue and deliberation community or the public.

So, if you are a researcher and would like help us bring online dialogue and deliberation to the next level, let’s talk!