Experiments in Civic Sensemaking
From the category archives:
The following comparison of dialogue and debate seems to have first appeared in the Winter 1993 edition of Focus on Study Circles: The Newsletter of the Study Circles Resource Center (now Everyday Democracy). Thanks to the Wayback Machine’s vast internet archives, a snapshot from 2002 (?) is still available today:
Comparison of Dialogue and Debate
Dialogue is collaborative: two or [...]
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We already have one very good definition of public participation in the archives, but for comparison’s sake, here’s the official IAP2 definition as per their training material:
IAP2 views public participation as any process that involves the public in problem solving or decision making and uses public input to make decisions.
Public participation includes all aspects of [...]
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I came across this document from the National Democratic Institute (NDI):
Civic Participation Terminology: A Guide to Frequently Used Terms and Phrases
This Glossary is part of NDI’s growing library of publications that form the basis for the Institute’s efforts to create a new and precise lexicon to convey the concepts central to democracy and governance. Putting [...]
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The other day, I mentioned on Twitter how I sometimes wish there were a glossary of the key terms and definitions that guide our conversations around participation.
With the Open Government Directive expected to be released within a few weeks, one challenge remains that people don’t necessarily mean the same thing when they discuss participation and participatory [...]
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If there was an award for most-overused term, I’m sure community would be a contender.
For future reference, here is one of the best definitions I’ve come across so far. It’s somewhat hidden in a blog post by Canada-based Myriam Laberge from a while back: Collaboration As A Living Emergent Co-Creative Process
A ‘community’ is created over time around [...]
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Interesting article on BBC News regarding a list of 200 jargon terms recently “banned” by the UK-based Local Government Association (LGB):
Council leaders have compiled a banned list of the 200 worst uses of jargon, with “predictors of beaconicity” and “taxonomy” among the worst horrors.
The Local Government Association says such words and phrases must be avoided for [...]
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The latest edition of the European Journal of ePractice is dedicated entirely to the topic of e-participation. One article contained a useful description of the term e-consultation (actual quote taken from the PDF download, 135 KB): E-consultations: New tools for civic engagement or facades for political correctness?
2) Defining e-consultations
E-consultations constitute interactive “tell-us-what-you-think” on-line platforms where ordinary citizens, civic actors, experts, [...]
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In their FAQ, The Deliberative Democracy Consortium defines deliberation and deliberative democracy as follows:
What is “deliberation”?
Deliberation is an approach to decision-making in which citizens consider relevant facts from multiple points of view, converse with one another to think critically about options before them and enlarge their perspectives, opinions, and understandings.
What is “deliberative democracy”?
Deliberative democracy strengthens citizen [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Conversations Elsewhere
