The Center for Civil Discourse is organized around the central principle that open, fair and truthful debate, characterized by respect for opposing viewpoints is essential to a healthy democracy. The Center’s mission is to advance the values of respectful discourse and to call on Americans to embrace civility and reject demagoguery in government, media and our personal lives. Founded in 2011 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center is is affiliated with the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and ... (continue)

Civic Commons is an effort to assist public agencies in the adoption of open systems and collaborative technologies, and to coordinate the co-creation of these technologies among agencies to ensure interoperability and shareability. Civic Commons provides infrastructure, knowledge, and toolsets to government entities, and encourages the development of shared "civic technologies" and protocols as well as supplies optional technical infrastructure (such as data and project hosting) as needed. (continue)

MeetingWords is a simple group text editing program for the web. There is no fee associated with using MeetingWords, though contributions are encouraged.  You can use MeetingWords right away without any sign-up, and your text is stored on the web so you can access it from any computer. You can also invite other people to type with you (the system will send email invitations, or give you a link to share yourself). Up to 32 people can type on the same document at the same ... (continue)

The Obama Administration’s Open Government initiative is now three years old.  But is it making a difference?  Tina Nabatchi’s new report (2012), published by the IBM Center for The Business of Government, provides a practical assessment guide for government program managers so they can assess whether their efforts are making a difference.  The report lays out evaluation steps for both the implementation and management of citizen participation initiatives as well as how to assess the impact of a particular citizen participation initiative.  An appendix provides helpful ... (continue)

Peter Nixon's new 2012 book addresses the gap between the quality of dialogues we have and the quality of dialogues we need to solve the problems we face at work, at home and in society. The book "bridges the gap between simply communicating and optimal decision making." (continue)

PEP-NET is a European network of all stakeholders active in the field of eParticipation, including public bodies, solution providers and citizen organizations as well as researchers and scientists. We are open to all organizations willing and actively trying to advance eParticipation in Europe. (continue)

Experts in public engagement, participation and dialogue, Involve carries out research and delivers training to inspire citizens, communities and institutions to run and take part in high-quality public participation processes, consultations and community engagement. They believe passionately in a democracy where citizens are empowered to take and influence the decisions that affect their lives. Their January 2012 briefing paper, The Use of Public Engagement in Tackling Climate Change, draws from compelling results and evaluation findings of a range of public dialogues around climate change and argues ... (continue)

GoodNeighbors.net is a web-based database free for anyone to use to pool and publish alphabetized lists of resources and track frequency, levels and types of engagement at the grassroots. It was developed as an on-line Open Space architecture where individuals and groups function as a whole integrated system at all levels of community. Enter NCDD in the Group ID to be interconnected with NCDD members. Submitted by Cheryl Honey of the Family Support Network, International. Cheryl is a social architect who pioneered Community Weaving, a ... (continue)

A documentary is available featuring a several-day-long dialogue process held in Nigeria in October 2010. 200 Muslim and Christian youth met in a safe place in Nigeria for several days of face-to-face, in-depth dialogue experiences. The women and men discovered their equal, shared humanity and that "an enemy is one whose story we have not heard." It was part of the 2nd International Conference on Youth and Interfaith Communication in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. (continue)

Dimitar Tchurovsky is the author of the 2011 book "Collaborative Democracy: Transition from Money-Driven to Knowledge-Based Society." Currently living in London, Bulgarian-born Tchurovskyhas offered to send his book in PDF format "free of charge to NCDD members in return of direct feedback, critique, or any questions may have but remained unanswered." (continue)