The Pathways through Participation looks at participation in a very broad way, and covers a wide range of participatory activities that are often viewed in isolation. This broad approach to participation has informed our literature review. (continue)

Cynthia Gibson and Nick Longo's have a new book out titled From Command to Community: A New Approach to Leadership Education in Colleges and Universities. The book argues for a leadership approach in higher education institutions based on collaboration, community problem solving, transparency, authenticity and results-orientation. (continue)

The Orton Family Foundation’s new Planning Tool Exchange (PlanIt X) is a free, community-driven website designed to help people find and share tools and resources to support community planning and civic engagement. PlanIt X is written by you and for you – contributions, edits, comments and improvements all come directly from our users – and it’s only as good as you make it. Visit PlanItX at www.orton.org/tools/planning_tool_exchange. PlanIt X is a community planning database owned and administered by the Orton Family Foundation. PlanIt X embraces ... (continue)

EngagingPlans is a powerful and comprehensive tool for creating and maintaining a public involvement Web site. From Urban Interactive Studio, EngagingPlans is a powerful, feature-rich website package that allows planning firms and government agencies to facilitate broad-scale public outreach and participation. (continue)

An annual report that elevates the discussion of our nation’s civic health by measuring a wide variety of civic indicators, America’s Civic Health Index is in an effort to educate Americans about our civic life and to motivate citizens, leaders and policymakers to strengthen it. Among other things, the Civic Health Index measures such factors as engagement in public policy, charitable giving, volunteering, and online participation. Learn more at www.ncoc.net/CHI. In 2006, the National Conference on Citizenship, in partnership with the Civic Health Index Indicators ... (continue)

The Center for Future Civic Media is “developing the emerging ‘Fifth Estate’ of participatory news, media, and civic change. Civic media is any form of communication that strengthens the social bonds within a community or creates a strong sense of civic engagement among its residents. Civic media goes beyond news gathering and reporting. Learn more at http://civic.mit.edu. The Center for Future Civic Media supports research at MIT to innovate civic media tools and practices and test them in communities. Bridging two established programs at MIT—one ... (continue)

The Campaign for a Stronger Democracy is a new U.S. coalition of advocates, scholars, civic organizations, public officials and concerned citizens who are working to create a strong, vibrant democracy, rooted in a belief that our democratic institutions can rise to the challenges facing our nation. NCDD is involved in CSD as a partner organization. (continue)

This 2011 book by Dr. John Boik proposes two systems that would assist and encourage mass citizen cooperation, allowing citizens to claim and exercise their full power. The first system is a financial pool from which the socially-responsible businesses of the future can be funded. The second system is a people’s lobby, which would allow citizens to collectively draft the bills that they would like to see enacted by state and federal governments. In Dr. Boik’s vision, the future is collectively decided by citizens, not ... (continue)

Here is a wonderful summary by Geoffrey Morton-Haworth of a January 2011 discussion in NCDD’s LinkedIn group on ground rules and best practices in virtual facilitation.  The discussion was started by group member Martin Pearson with the subject “Groundrules necessary to make the best of virtual meetings,” and is also posted on Geoffrey’s yalaworld.net site at this link. Martin wrote that he was starting to use Skype more for meetings, and asked group members if they have created specific ground rules for their own virtual ... (continue)

Toward Wiser Public Judgment (2011) revisits and expands upon Yankelovich's seminal 1991 book, Coming to Public Judgment, which argued that people advance through several distinct stages to form politically meaningful judgments about public issues. In particular, citizens must "work through" the temptation to opt for easy answers or engage in wishful thinking, reconcile conflicting values, and come to terms with tough tradeoffs, before they can truly support a new course of action. (continue)