ConsiderIt is an open source platform that combines the virtues of personal reflection and public deliberation. ConsiderIt helps individuals make sense of complex issues through familiar deliberative activities. People can sort out their own thoughts by taking stances, weighing pros and cons and browsing key points made both others. ConsiderIt makes it easy for contributors to make their voices heard and find others who share their views. ConsiderIt’s structured approach to deliberation also helps decrease polarization and establish common ground. It nudges people towards considering tradeoffs ... (continue)

Agreedis.org is an online deliberation tool launched on March 1, 2013 designed to break down issues into relevant parts and present these elements as action items to participants who evaluate the items and determine their importance or relavance to potential solutions. As described by the tool’s creator… (continue)

The National Issues Forums Institute provides many resources for teachers.  Along with an entire section of their website dedicated to educators (including classroom material, issue guides and course descriptions), NIF has created an online forum space where educators can share experiences using NIF material. Are you looking for new ways to engage students in productive, deliberative conversations in your classroom? Are you interested in connecting with other teachers who are thinking about ways to instruct a new generation of citizens? Have you used National Issues ... (continue)

Australia-based Bang the Table, offers a 14-page guide on how Facebook can best be used as part of a community engagement strategy. With tips on common questions like “pages vs. groups” and “anonymity vs. transparency,” this is a great guide for those new to using social media for engagement. Check out the 11 tips on page 13 for tips like: Use appropriate language and tone. Remember Facebook is a social network and people go there to be social. Reflect this in the type of language you ... (continue)

The National Issues Forums Institute’s Online Forum section of their website provides a space for online discussions focused on the various issues and topics related to past and ongoing National Issues Forums.  NIF also provides a collection of links to other online discussions dealing with similar themes. Section description from the National Issues Forums Institute website… You are invited to start or continue discussions, or post comments, related to the National Issues Forums (NIF) and public deliberative forums. As a national network of nonpartisan, locally sponsored public forums ... (continue)

The CivicCommons.com is a new way to bring communities together with conversation and emerging technology. We provide the place and tools for citizens to connect with and inform one another and to take action. It’s a bit like a virtual pub or coffee house, where citizens and officials can gather to talk about community issues, brainstorm solutions, coordinate plans –  and maybe even have fun and meet new people along the way. We take some of our inspiration from Clay Shirky’s book, Cognitive Surplus, which ... (continue)

This 2011 Kettering Foundation working paper by Laura W. Black focuses on the question: To what extent can digital media truly offer potential opportunities for deliberative decision making, particularly the practice of deliberation itself? To address this question, this working paper assesses features of online deliberation by reviewing online deliberative tools, examples of other potentially deliberative websites, and relevant academic research. (continue)

Front Porch Forum‘s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community. We do that by hosting regional networks of online neighborhood forums. Common sense and a growing body of research tell us that well-connected neighborhoods are friendlier places to live, with less crime, healthier residents, higher property values, and better service from local government and public utilities. (continue)

This 2012 guide from IBM Center for the Business of Government, on the benefits – and risks – of hosting a government Twitter feed, was written by Ines Mergel. Like many technological tools, Twitter does not come with an instruction manual. To help both government executives who must decide whether Twitter is a useful tool for their organizations and frontline managers who will create and administer the Twitter account, Ines Mergel has written this guide, detailing the benefits – and risks – of hosting a Twitter ... (continue)

The Civil Debate Wall—popularly known as ‘The Wall’—is a unique, innovative social media tool created by Local Projects for The Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida and funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation. The Wall creates constructive dialogue by providing a physical social media tool that connects large touch screens, a texting system, and a website. These three synchronized components create a single, seamless interactive experience for the broader University of Florida community to actively engage in local, ... (continue)