This deck of 91 full-color cards distills the core wisdom of the field: what skilled facilitators do over and over again to make things work. The content is more specific than values, and less specific than tips and techniques, cutting across existing methodologies with a designer’s eye to capture patterns that repeat. The deck can be used to plan sessions, reflect on and debrief from them, provide guidance mid-stride, and share responsibility for making the process go well. In addition to the card set (which ... (continue)

Debategraph is a social enterprise that combines argument visualization with collaborative wiki editing to make the best arguments on all sides of every complex public debate freely available to all, and continuously open to challenge and improvement by all. It was co-founded by Peter Baldwin and David Price, who have been collaborating on Debategraph’s development on opposites sides of the world over the last five years –  and is evolving continuously towards the fulfilment of our long term vision for a new form of public communication. For a ... (continue)

In December 2012, Alberta Climate Dialogue released a series of short videos exploring the benefits of deliberative democracy, featuring well known practitioners such as Matt Leighninger (DDC), Janette Hartz-Karp (Curtin University), Edward Andersson (Involve UK) and others. These insightful snapshots of public engagement knowledge and case studies are a valuable resource for communicating deliberative democracy ideas to others. (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)

This report summarizes some of the themes that Joyce Hanna encountered as she contacted and interviewed a wide variety of people connected with the National Issues Forums (NIF) network of people who convene and/or moderate deliberative forums or workshops around the country. Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the report: In 2006, in my role to promote, encourage and publicize celebration of NIF’s 25th anniversary under the banner of Forums for the 4th, I contacted as many members of the NIF network as ... (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)

In this economic climate, the value of public engagement needs to be articulated in economic terms. Involve’s toolkit demonstrates that you don’t need specialist skills or knowledge to make the business case for engagement. Download the July 2011 toolkit from Involve and Consumer Focus, Making the Case for Public Engagement: How to demonstrate the value of consumer input. Toolkit authors are Edward Andersson, Emily Fennell and Thea Shahrokh. There is a substantial amount of anecdotal evidence in support of public engagement and some case study ... (continue)

Dialogue: A Virtual Workshop is a FREE series of 12 videos that shares the basics of the Public Conversations Project’s approach to dialogue. From understanding the importance of participant preparation to developing the right questions to ask in a dialogue, this series illustrates PCP’s approach—and the principles behind it—via an in-depth resource that combines videos, guides, and interactive links. (continue)

This is an archive of a 2004 discussion on the NCDD Discussion list. This discussion on Polarization & D&D starts with Lars Hasselblad Torres’ response on July 26, 2004 to an introduction by new NCDD member David Hilditch, who wrote “I share with many of you a growing concern about the long term corrosive effects of polarization.” (continue)

Here is the transcript of a rich conversation we had on NCDD’s Discussion list in February 2010 with the subject “Conservatives and Liberals,” initiated by Pete Peterson. A big thank-you to Martin Carcasson for keeping track of these posts and sharing his archive! (continue)