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eBulletin: v.2, no.3

Deliberative Democracy Bulletin vol.2 no. 3, March 13, 2003

This edition of the eBulletin is pretty packed. Please keep the submissions coming and this may become a twice-monthly service. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

d-d.net is seeks entries for its online ‘think piece’ service on an on-going basis. We’d like to get your 2,000 word article introducing an idea central to the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. Send your article to <editor@deliberative-democracy.net>.

Finally, check out the updates to <http://deliberative-democracy.net>. Here are a few of the new features:

A ‘blog service <http://deliberative-democracy.net/mt> featuring several interesting topics and discussion posts from leading thinkers and doers in the field.=20
Keep in touch with the governance of the Consortium at <http://deliberative-democracy.net/governance.html>=20
An online events calendar at <http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/cgi-local/calendar/calendar.cgi>=20
Updated information about the mission, activities, and members of the consortium at <http://deliberative-democracy.net/about2.html>

Suggestions, comments or additions for this service? Write to <editor@deliberative-democracy.net>

~ editor

1 | CBC Hosts Interactive Debate: the Case for War
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Moments after US president George Bush delivered his recent address to the American people and the world, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation hosted “Ultimatum Iraq: A Time for War?”

CBC newsman Peter Mansbridge moderated Thursday’s two hour debate between American defense strategy expert Elliot Cohen (Director of the Strategic Studies program at the School for Advanced International Studies and member of the US Defense Policy Board) and former Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy. On hand were a panel of 8 experts from cities around the world.   Also, a group of 300 Canadians across the country were polled on the issues as they were debated. And Canadians had their say, via letters and feedback during the program, presented by Rex Murphy. The program was taped before a live studio audience.

For more information, and to see the results of the poll, visit: <http://cbc.ca/news/iraq/time/>

2 | By the People: Shifting into Local Gear
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After its successful nation-wide launch in January, By the People (an initiative of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions) is bringing people together in communities to deliberate “America’s Role in the World.” The most recent activity was “By the People: A Town Hall Meeting to talk about American foreign policy, held in Austin, Texas on February 26, just days after the city Council passed a resolution against war with Iraq (interestingly, results of the national survey conducted in January showed that, “Informed Americans see Iraq as a threat, support multilateral response).

For more information on the ongoing activities of By the People, visit <http://www.by-the-people.org>

3 | IAP2 Annual Conference: Information to Empowerment: A Global Perspective
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The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) 2003 conference will explore what stakeholder engagement means to people wanting to be involved in decision-making. By bringing together representatives of civil society, indigenous communities, NGOs, government, academia and the private sector from around the world, the conference will be global in perspective and community-based in application.

This year’s conference will run May 19-122; IAP2 will offer training in public participation May 17-19.

For more information visit <http://www.iap2.org/conference/index.htm>

4 | Way To Go Ford
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The Ford Foundation's Global Civil Society initiative has earmarked 1 million dollars to promote civic engagement in global governance. The deadline for submissions is 1 April. For more details email Lisa Jordan at: l.jordan@fordfound.org

5 | EPA Community Involvement Conference and Training
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The sixth annual U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Involvement Conference and Training will be held July 22-25, 2003, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This dynamic conference brings together public participation and community involvement professionals from across all EPA programs and EPA's federal, state, tribal, and local partners. Come and share expertise, participate in training, and network with colleagues from around the country. Presentations emphasize the process of public participation and community involvement, focusing on techniques and approaches used in regional and national community involvement programs. Presentations are designed to be interactive and encourage an open exchange of information. Share your expertise, network, and enhance your professional growth by attending this conference.

For more information visit: <http://www.epancic.org/2003/overview.cfm>

6 | eDemocracy Boost for London?
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Plans to integrate online consultation with public services across London could be boosted by 450 thousand pounds of central government funding after a proposal to develop software for consultations was short-listed for ‘Invest to Save Budget’ funding from the Treasury.

If finally approved, local councils, health service bodies and other public services will pool ideas to build software applications for consulting citizens on policy development and service delivery. The project partners, operating under an umbrella organisation London Connects (http://www.londonconnects.org.uk), will also develop criteria for successful e-democracy projects and build an information base of specific products and applications that are known to work.

The initial phase of software development will work on a range of local applications, but the eventual aim is to provide generic tools that would be customisable by individual organisations.

The Invest to Save fund (http://www.isb.gov.uk), a joint Treasury and Cabinet Office initiative that supports partnerships between public bodies to deliver innovative services, will have provided around £380 million funding by the end of 2004.

7 | Democracy In the Digital Age Conference
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The Information Society Project at Yale Law School, with New York Law School and the Democracy Design Workshop, will sponsor Democracy in the Digital Age, April 4-6 at Yale Law School in New Haven. Keynote address by Benjamin Barber.

Among the panel themes are: How do People Deliberate: Deliberative Discourse and the Internet; How Political Decisions are Made: Citizen Participation and Decision-Making; and Creating Public Discourse: Cultural Transmission and the Creation of Democratic Discourse. Among the panelists are Beth Noveck, of New York Law School and the Democracy Design Workshop; Peter Shane of Carnegie Mellon University and the InSiTes project; Jim Fishkin of the University of Texas-Austin and the Center for deliberative Polling; and John Gastil, of the University of Washington.

For more information visit: <http://islandia.law.yale.edu/isp/democracy_conference_main.html>

8 | Engaging the Public for Better Policy Decisions
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AmericaSpeaks President Carolyn Lukensmeyer will present the 21st Century Town Meeting and Taking Democracy to Scale models in an Executive Education course at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC April 14-15. Work with some of the top practitioners in the field to learn how new technologies and methods for engaging citizens can help your agency manage public input to create better, more sustainable public policy. Over the course of two days, executive session participants will learn from case studies, hear from top speakers, build skills, and begin to develop engagement strategies for their agencies.

For more information and to register visit <http://www.brook.edu/execed/open/Engaging.htm>

9 | New Resource: Collaborative Communities eNewsletter
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The Community Building Institute has launched a free newsletter that features information on the latest resources in community collaboration, conflict resolution, partnerships, and citizen participation; stories of efforts to build collaborative communities; reports on relevant research; and information on upcoming events.

For more information or to sign up, visit: <http://www.collaborativecommunities.org/>

10 | Call for Papers: EGOV03: From E-Government to E-Governance
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The EGOV Conference (Prague, Czech Republic, September 1-5, 2003) interence (Aix-en-Provence, 2002), which provided an illustrative overview of E-Government activities, with nearly 80 contributions and more than 20 European projects funded by the IST Programme of the European Commission. The Aix Declaration is an result of the 1st EGOV conference (http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/fb3/lehre/lenk/aixdecla.rtf).
Contributions to the Second EGOV Conference are expected to mirror current developments in e-Government and to provide fresh ideas from a multitude of disciplines.

Among this year’s paper topics are: E-Democracy strategies, citizen participation in local public affairs; E-Governance tools for policymaking in governments and in policy networks; and Frameworks and guidelines for E-Government and E-Governance

For more information visit: <http://falcon.ifs. uni-linz.ac.at/news/cfp_egovernment2003.html>

11 | Request for Evaluation Methodologies for Online Discussion
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The folks at PoliTalk are in the process of setting up a online Student discussion with about 500 participants from the US and Europe. They would like to put in place an evaluation/assessment of the project and are looking for ideas or resources. If you have thoughts or suggestions, please contact project director Tim Erickson <tim@politalk.com> or visit the project at <http://www.politalk.com>

11 | Upcoming New Mexico Town Hall
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Nominations for participants for upcoming New Mexico Town Halls are now being accepted. The next Town Hall is: "Leadership and Ethics," to be held at the United World College, Montezuma, New Mexico March 27-30, 2003.

New Mexico First is a non-profit, non-partisan organization which hosts annual statewide Town Halls on a variety of topics important to New Mexico. These Town Halls use a unique consensus-building format to obtain public policy recommendations from a broad range of citizenry.

For more information, visit the New Mexico First website at: <http://www.nmfirst.org>

13 | Porto Alegre City Congress
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In May and June of this year, the City of Porto Alegre, RS (Brazil) will hold final plenary meetings on the 4th City Congress. This project, an initiative of the Getúlio Foundation Vargas of São Paulo - EAESP/FGV and of the Ford Foundation, is a public forum to address the question, “What kind of a city do we want?” Plenary sessions in May and June will deliberate final proposals in three areas: mechanisms of participatory democracy; direct and representative democracy; and structure of public management and popular participation.

For more information on this effort, it is recommended that you perform a Google search for “Porto Alegre mais cidade constituinte” and select the “Translate page” option for the first returned item in the search.

14 | News Media, NIF Issue Book Released
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The National Issues Forums has released a new issue book, News Media
and Society: How to Restore the Public Trust, prepared by The Harwood
Institute.

The book suggests three approaches to repairing the relationship
between the news media and the American people. Each approach offers
different perspectives on what has damaged citizens' trust and each presents
various ways to address those problems. The ideas and suggestions come from
citizens and experts across the country.

Visit <http://www.nifi.org/media.html> to read a detailed description
of News Media and Society and to order a copy of the book.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

The Next Form Of Democracy

The Deliberative Democracy Handbook