The National Issues Forum Institute released the six-page Issue Advisory, What Should We Do About The Opioid Epidemic?, published October 2017. The issue advisory presents three options to use during deliberation on how society can address the rising opioid epidemic that has swept the U.S. The issue advisory is available for free download on NIFI’s site here, as well as, a post-forum questionnaire. From NIFI… Drug abuse, a problem the United States has faced for decades, has taken a sharp and lethal turn with the rise […] (continue)

The 6-page article, The Next Generation of Our Work (2014), by NCDD’s own Co-Founder, Sandy Heierbacher, was published in the Journal of Public Deliberation: Vol. 10: Iss. 1. In the article, Heierbacher shares her unique view of the rapidly growing dialogue and deliberation field and lifts up the shifts in the field that shape the next generation of D&D work. Changes are happening in regard to: – collaboration with government – openness to online tools for engagement – consistently rapid growth – increased energy devoted to collaborative efforts – […] (continue)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is proud to launch the “Public Participation Guide“, an international public participation toolkit. It is a resource for agencies and organizations to help develop, plan for, and implement programs that engage the public in environmental decision-making. U.S.EPA has worked on developing this guide since 2009, initially for use in the Middle East and North Africa, but with potential for global application. It has now been introduced to regions and countries around the world. The guide was developed to […] (continue)

AmericaSpeaks‘ newly-released report, Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era:  A Review of Federal Agency Plans (2011), describes and analyzes the participation activities described in Federal Agencies’ Open Government Plans.  It identifies best practices across Agencies’ public participation initiatives and recommends improvements that would increase the public’s role in shaping federal policy. The report was supported by the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Before this research, the public participation elements of Federal Agencies’ Open Government plans had not been assessed in-depth to […] (continue)

The IBM Center for the Business of Government released this document, and John Kamensky of the IBM Center wanted NCDDers to know about it. Professors Lee and Kwak present a road map — the Open Government Implementation Model — that government agencies can follow in moving toward accomplishing the objectives of the Open Gov Directive, which emphasized transparency, public participation, and collaboration. (continue)

The spring 2010 issue of GSA’s Intergovernmental Solutions Newsletter explores some of the many ways technology is expanding opportunities for governments to collaborate on public-policy decision-making–and ways collaboration is increasing the range and power of technology to dramatically alter the accepted ways of doing business. From the introductory article by Darlene Meskell, of the GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications… The 21st Century society poses challenges of unprecedented complexity. No individual, department, agency, or government can single-handedly achieve results like ending climate change or […] (continue)

Published in March 2010 and available for download from SlideShare, the 90-ish page Using Social Media to Increase Civic Engagement in U.S. Federal Agencies is a report for the FCC’s Broadband Taskforce, Civic Engagement Team. Archon Fung was the academic advisor for this paper, which was prepared by two Kennedy School grad students. http://www.slideshare.net/yasminfodil/social-media-and-civic-participation-final Here is the executive summary: Civic engagement is a critical element of our democratic process. It has many potential benefits for public policy professionals, including: creating public value in the form […] (continue)

After more than a dozen successful online idea-generating dialogues, covering myriad topics from Health IT and Privacy to the establishment of a Climate Service within NOAA, the Collaboration Project of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) published “The Online Dialogue Brainstorm Guide.” Geared toward federal agencies and public managers, this guide provides the reader with a step-by-step list of questions to consider when discussing a new online engagement. As NCDD member Lucas Cioffi pointed out when he posted about this resource in the NCDD […] (continue)

Three resources to help you get a sense of the kinds of legislation that can and do support citizen engagement in governance and decision-making, an NCDD listserv compilation, an amazing article by Lisa Bingham, and a 2003 global compilation by LogoLink. (continue)

The following are remixed highlights of Beth Noveck’s talk “Transparent Government” that she gave as part of the Long Now Foundation‘s Seminars about Long-Term Thinking. As with Noveck’s original talk, these highlights, as remixed by Hassan Masum and posted on August 11, 2010 here on worldchanging.com, are made available under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa 2.5 license. Noveck talks about the three pilars of the Open Government Directive:  transparency, participation and collaboration.  About deliberative democracy, she emphasizes the importance of focusing on action in addition to […] (continue)