*** d-d.net eBulletin vol.3 no.1, February 5, 2004 ***

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this month's eBulletin. Please send in your updates from the field for the next eBulletin by March 1, 2004.

Ideas for a d-d.net "think piece"? Send in your proposal or draft paper (2,000 words or less please) to editor@deliberative-democracy.net

Finally a belated "Thank you!" to Dr Zander Navarro of the Federal Univeristy of Rio Grand do Sul (Porto Alegre) for sending along his interesting article, "Decentralization, Participation and social control of public resources: Participatory Budgeting in Porto Alegre (Brazil)." Download the paper at: http://deliberative-democracy.net/archive/ZNavarro.Final2.zip.

~ Editor

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1 | Deliberative Democracy Consortium Awards Research Grants
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Based upon careful review of 12 proposals received out of its 2003 " Researcher and Practitioner" meeting, the DDC Steering Committee has selected five projects to fund at the following levels:

- Norms of Deliberation -$20,000
- Advocacy and Deliberation - $18,200
- Map of the field - $19,663
- Journal of Public Deliberation - $18,000
- Building a Deliberation Measurement Toolbox - $20,000

The Steering Committee congratulates all of the teams for the hard work each put into developing the proposals - selecting just five projects was a difficult task.

For information on specific proposals visit: http://wiki.info-ren.org/twiki/bin/view/DDprojects/ProjectList

2 | Three Promising New Books in 2004
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Ethan J. Leib, Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Press, 2004).

Frank M. Bryan, Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004)

Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin, Deliberation Day (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004)

3 | War, Press and Democracy Resource
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Some faculty and students at the University of Maryland have created a new website called The War, the Press, and Democracy. This resource collects and organizes some of the best discussions of press coverage of the current war. Creators of the site pose questions about the obligations of the press and the public in wartime. There's also a discussion forum on which users can post comments. Please visit the site, participate in the discussion, and send advice on the site as a whole.

For more information visit: http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/iraq/

This is a good opportunity to influence an emerging group on the potential of online deliberation for community building.

More information available at: http://www.ciresearch.net/prato2004

5 | The Public Involvement Network and Large Scale Citizen Dialogues
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The Canadian Policy and Research Network (CPRN)'s Public Involvement Network is in the midst of two large scale citizen dialogues: the Citizens' Dialogue on the Long Term Management of Used Nuclear Fuel in Canada, and the Citizens' Dialogue on the Ontario Budget Strategy 2004-2008.

In partnership with the Nuclear Waste Manageme nt Organization, CPRN is probing citizens' values and policy choices with respect to the long-term management of used nuclear fuel. The dialogue workbook and report will be available on the CPRN and NWMO websites mid-year.

Using a similar deliberative dialogue methodology for the Citizens' Dialogue on the Ontario Budget Strategy 2004-2008, CPRN is partnering with the newly-elected Ontario Government to reflect on the values and principles that should guide the provincial government's budget choices over the next 4 years. The dialogue workbook and report will be available on the CPRN and Ontario Government websites in April 2004.

For more information visit: http://www.cprn.org

6 | New Resource on Collaboration and Policy-making
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The Center for Collaborative Policy, California State University Sacramento, has launched a new Internet-based newsletter, The Collaborative Edge. The goal is to provide timely information on collaborative strategies and methods to public agencies, civic organizations, scholars, and the public. Quarterly editions include articles on case studies, tool kits, challenging issues, and news and resources.

Articles coming in February include California Governor Schwarzenegger's award to a collaborative process in California, ground breaking research on the effect of open meeting laws on consensus building and deliberation, and a report on deliberative restoration planning of the San Francisco Bay.

To sign up for this free newsletter visit: http://www.csus.edu/ccp/

7 | Consulting Citizens: Engaging with Aboriginal Western Australians
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Your comments (presumably, Australians) are currently being sought on the draft document: Consulting Citizens: Engaging with Aboriginal Western Australians which is a joint project of the Department of Indigenous Affairs, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and ATSIC. The guide aims to improve engagement and consultation with Aboriginal Western Australians.

For information visit: http://www.dia.wa.gov.au/Policies/Communities/#Engagement

For a guide to other Western Australian consultations, visit: http://www.citizenscape.wa.gov.au/index.cfm?fuseaction=consult.curcats

8 | Parliament of the World's Religions: A Role for Deliberation?
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The Program Committee for the fourth Parliament of the World Religions to be held from July 7 to 13, 2004 in Barcelona, Spain invites your participation in this historic gathering. Please consider submitting a proposal to present a lecture, academic paper, seminar, panel discussion, religious or spiritual observance, workshop, training session or artistic performance.

A full Call for Programs, including criteria and the timeline for selection, is available at: http://www.cpwr.org/what/programs/CallforProgram.pdf

9 | Debating Deliberation Day
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The release of the book "Deliberation Day" by ground-breaking deliberation scholars Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin's book (see above) sparked a debate in the January-February edition of the legal affairs journal.

To follow the repartee, begin with "Righting the Ship of Democracy" by Ackerman and Fishkin online at: http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2004/feature_ackerman_janfeb04.html

10 | A World Democracy Movement at WSF04
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One of promising outcomes of the World Social Forum 2004 (Mumbai, India) was the formation of a coalition of at least 10 global democracy initiatives that want to cooperate. An umbrella website for this World Democracy Movement (provisional name) has been created at: http://www.world-democracy.org. The site is under construction, but you can already visit it and send your questions, comments and proposals to the WDM team at: team@world-democracy.org.

11 | British Columbia's Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform Underway
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The Citizen's Assembly, an independent, non-partisan assembly of 160 randomly selected British Columbians (one man and one woman from each of the province's 79 electoral electoral districts, plus two members from B.C.'s Aboriginal community), is looking at how votes cast in provincial elections translate into seats in the Legislature. If they decide that BC should have a new system, their proposal will frame a referendum question that will go directly to the voters in the provincial election of May 2005. If a change is approved by voters, the current government has indicated it will go into effect for the election of 2009.

For more information, visit: http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/public

12 | E-governance: Creating On-line Citizen Participation Tools
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The City and Regional Planning program at Ohio State University will be sponsoring an onsite conference on E-governance: Creating on-line citizen participation tools. This conference will be held March 3rd through the 5th at the Blackwell Hotel on the Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio.

For more information visit: http://knowlton.osu.edu/ped/egovernment.htm

13 | Australian eGovernance Conference
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The Australian Electronic Governance Conference (April 14-15 at the University of Melbourne) will provide an opportunity to take stock of the practice and the promise of eGovernance by drawing together academics, practitioners, and policy makers in the fields of electronic governance, participation, and democracy.

For registration, abstracts, and conference details visit: http://www.public-policy.unimelb.edu.au/egovernance/