Affiliates & Partners
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Deliberative Democracy
| Bulletin No. 3, November 19,
2002
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A tremendous “THANK YOU” to all who passed along the position
announcement for the Deliberative Democracy Consortium’s Staff Director
search. In response to the announcement we have had more than 50 inquiries
and almost 40 applicants from Afghanistan to Hawaii. The Search Committee
will begin interviews next week.
If you know
of an important upcoming event, please add it to the Consortium calendar at
<http://deliberative-democracy.net/cgi-local/calendar/calendar.cgi>.
If you haven’t registered to use the calendar, sign up at
<http://deliberative-democracy.net/cgi-local/calendar/calendar.cgi?view_register_op=on>
And thank you to everyone who contributed to this
edition.
~editor
1 | Snowmobiles in
Paradise
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Despite the overwhelming public opposition to proposals to open National Parks
[Yellowstone and Grand Teton] to snowmobiles, the current Administration has
offered a rather pleasing package to supporters. According to an article
in the New York Times this week, despite more than 360,000 public
comments—overwhelmingly in opposition to the proposed relaxation of
restrictions—the Interior Department has expanded daily usage from 840 to
1,100 snowmobile users each day, a 35% increase in traffic. As Steve
Iobst, assistant superintendent of Grand Teton National Park explained, "It was
not a vote.” “The point of the comment period,” the article
continues, “is to yield substantive, informed letters that alert park
officials to something they might have missed in reaching their
conclusion.” For full text of the article, visit
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/weekinreview/17SEEL.html?tntemail1>.
For an alternative way strengthen the public comment process online, visit
<http://www.info-ren.org>.
2
| Democracy Design Workshop
Invitation
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You are cordially invited to engage in an online discussion regarding the
Democracy Inventory project by the Democracy Design Workshop at New York Law
School. Join us, and a host of democracy and e-democracy experts for this
online meeting. It is scheduled to take place on November 21, 2002 at 11
A.M. (EST). Please see the following link for materials and information on
this
event.
http://www.bethnoveck.com/invite.htm
This information repository will provide the global community with a dynamic
catalogue of democratic activities. The goal is to create awareness of
existing democratic projects, particularly those that are participatory,
deliberative and citizen-centric, able to connect democratic actors and improve
the use of technology for democratic purposes. In order to
understand the potential for using new media to “scale”
participatory processes, it is first imperative to learn from the myriad of
global civic and democratic initiatives on-line and
off.
3 | Great Oak Wisdom
Council
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Last weekend was the second meeting of the Pleasantville "Great Oak Council." It
was “An exhilarating two days, facilitating and watching this group of
nine randomly selected people reach wise, unanimous conclusions,” says
facilitator and Wisdom Council founder Jim Rough. The meeting was a
diverse group of community members who came together to identify the needs of
their community and recommend action. To learn more about the Great Oak
council and the Wisdom Council movement, contact Jim Rough
<jim@tobe.net>
4
| Deliberation Down Under
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The
University of Sydney and Southern Cross University in Australia have just been
allocated funding by the Department of Immigration, Multiculturalism and
Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) to convene Australia's first youth jury in
Parramatta, New South Wales. The project is tentatively called 'Parra
Youth Matters' and the jury topic, to be determined through consultation with
young people, will probably cover young people and racial stereotyping.
The research team was formed as a consequence of two courses being taught
at The University of Sydney by Lyn Carson (a postgraduate unit, Politics of
Consultation, and an undergraduate unit, Consultation: Community, Business,
Government). The jury is scheduled for
mid-2003.
5 | Public
Participation Workshops
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The International Association of Public Participation Practitioners (IAP2) will
host their Certificate Program in Public Participation December 2-4 and 11-12 in
Alexandria, VA. Presented by the Perspectives Group
<http://www.theperpectivesgroup.com> this workshop will focus on the
planning and design of public participation
programs.
6 | Call for
Papers
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The Department of
Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, in partnership with the
Nordic Governance Network, will host “Democratic Governance and IT”
January 30-February 1, 2003. The aim of the conference is to make
empirical contributions to the study of ICT application to both
“direct” and “deliberative” democratic governance.
Presentations will include extracts from a comparative European project
on, “The Use of ICT by MP’s,” and keynote speeches by Stephen
Coleman, Professor in E-Democracy at Oxford Internet Institute and Steve
Frantzich, Professor at the U.S. Naval
Academy.
To submit a paper, contact
Associate Professor Jens Hoff <jh@ifs.ku.dk> and for more information
visit
<http://www.hum.ku.dk/modinet/Calendar_aktiviteter/conference_jan03.htm>.
7
| Wyden-Hatch Act Offers Window for Public
Deliberation
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The Wyden-Hatch, Health Care that Works for All Americans Act (S.3063) signals a
rare leadership position in Congress. The pending legislation finds that,
“In order to improve the health care system, the American public must
engage in an informed national public debate to make choices about the services
they want covered, what health care coverage they want, and how they are willing
to pay for coverage.”
To ensure this
public process, the Act calls for the following actions: (1) to provide for a
nationwide public debate about improving the health care system to provide every
American with the ability to obtain quality, affordable health care coverage;
and (2) to provide for a vote by Congress on the recommendations that result
from the debate.
If you feel that this is
productive direction in which to take the Health Care debate, please urge your
Senators to support this piece of legislation (Senator Wyden spoke on this Act
this morning). For more information about the act, conduct a quick Thomas
search for S.3063 at <http://thomas.loc.gov> or visit
<http://wyden.senate.gov/media/2002/2002A07553.html> or
<http://www.senate.gov/~hatch/index.cfm?FuseAction=Topics.Detail&PressRelease_id=187624&Month=10&Year=2002>
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