This Prezi Presentation is about MctIBIS, a web based system for tackling wicked problems collaboratively. MctIBIS is based on the Issue-Based Information System (IBIS) introduced by Horst Rittel in the 70s and implemented using an information relationship management engine. (continue)

A new guide can help citizens and local leaders decide how to make their communities more engaging, inclusive, participatory, and powerful. Planning for Stronger Local Democracy is built around two lists: the questions to ask about your community in order to take stock of local democracy; and the building blocks you might consider as part of a comprehensive, sustainable strategy for vitalizing civic engagement in your town. This is a publication of the National League of Cities and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and can be ... (continue)

This article by Tyrone Reitman was posted on the YES! Magazine website on November 4, 2011. Tyrone wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions for a just and sustainable world. Tyrone is executive director of the newly formed Healthy Democracy Fund. He and his colleagues at Healthy Democracy Oregon worked from 2006-2011 to establish the Citizens Initiative Review in Oregon. (continue)

A new October 2011 report finds that California’s tough economy is causing cities, towns and counties across the state to rethink how they tackle some of their toughest challenges. The result is a new collaborative approach to governance. The report, “Golden Governance: Building Effective Public Engagement in California,” identifies seven communities across the state that have reacted to the current financial situation by rethinking and restructuring governance and their approach to citizen engagement. (continue)

This 2011 report by Tina Nabatchi and Cynthia Farrar for the Deliberative Democracy Consortium explores what elected officials know and think about public deliberation, as well as what they need to know to assess the potential value of public deliberation as a governance tool. Data from interviews with twenty-four state legislators and senior staff for federal legislators yielded some provocative results with practical implications for the field of public deliberation. Download the full report here. (continue)

Based on more than 60 interviews, this 2007 article by Peter Levine of the University of Maryland and Rose Marie Nierras of the University of Sussex explores the tensions between deliberation and various forms of political activism and advocacy. It identifies more than 20 objections to deliberation that are proposed by political activists in various countries and contexts. It concludes with suggestions for combining deliberation and advocacy. Download the article here. (continue)

Deliberative public engagement is a distinctive approach to involving people in decision-making. It is different from other forms of engagement in that it is about giving participants time to consider and discuss an issue in depth before they come to a considered view. The aim of this 18-page background paper (2008) from Involve and the National Consumer Council is to encourage and support deliberative public engagement in public policy. (continue)

This 2011 workbook has been designed to support scholarly role playing in the arena of global diplomacy and human system planning.  Audiences include students, faith-based groups, and community members who like to grapple with the big picture — arguably the biggest picture — or our times:  global sustainability. The modular 4 or 5 week course can be extended as different groups might choose. Through role playing, audiences will collaborate with others in an authentic engagement with the world’s complexity through participatory democracy. This experiential learning ... (continue)

While there is a growing body of literature and experience about how to engage the public, there are few practical tools to gauge the success of these approaches. Recognizing that local officials and staff have limited time and resources, the Institute for Local Government has created online Rapid Review Worksheets to help local governments assess how well their public engagement processes worked. Learn more and download the worksheets at www.ca-ilg.org/rapidreview. (continue)

Collective decision making began in the Americas long before the deliberations that produced the Mayflower Compact. In research done for the Kettering Foundation, Ruth Yellowhawk showed that a legacy of tribal deliberation has carried over into modern day decision making. The foundation wishes to delve more deeply into this legacy and its contemporary applications as part of its study of citizen decision making worldwide. To continue their research, Kettering has established the Ruth Yellowhawk fellowship. Fellows are selected on the basis of proposals to tell ... (continue)