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Also, be sure to visit the d-d.net blog and join a discussion around the international movement to deepen democracy.

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~editor

1 | NEW BOOK: Democracy Online
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Routledge has just published, Democracy Online: The Prospects for Political Renewal Through the Internet, edited by Peter M. Shane of Carnegie Mellon University. This volume, based on papers first presented at the September, 2002 InSITeS conference, The Prospects for Electronic Democracy, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and by the H. J. Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management.

The book includes chapters written by noted scholars Michael Froomkin, Beth Noveck, Tamara Witschge, James Bohman, Tom Beierle, Alexandra Samuel, and many others. In an advance review, noted author Howard Rheingold calls the volume a deep, broad, and useful contribution to a critically important discourse about the future of our social and political institutions in an increasingly Internet-centric world.

For more information, visit Routledge Online.

2 | NEW RESOURCE: Law and Public Policy for the Information Society
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The Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University's H.J. Heinz III School of Law and Public Policy announce I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society. I/S will serve as an interdisciplinary journal of research and commentary concentrating on the intersection of law, policy, and information technology.

Authors interested in having their work considered for publication should contact Sol Bermann, Senior Staff Editor, Moritz College of Law, 55 West 12th Street, Columbus, OH 43201. Inquiries concerning format, topic, or anything else may be directed to Mr. Bermann at bermann.1@osu.edu.

3 | COLLABORATIVE EDGE NEWSLETTER, SUMMER 2004
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This summer's Collaborative Edge Newsletter had some interesting articles, among them facilitator Sharon Huntman's review of a couple of popular tools for community participation in large scale planning meetings and "Lessons Learned: Is Neutrality A Reality? What I Learned from Working with Farmers on Groundwater Management in Southern California," written by Dale Schafer, a veteran facilitator with the Center for Collaborative Policy in California.

View the newsletter online

4 | QUALITATIVE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP
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IRC International Water and Sanitation Center in the Netherlands, together with Pragmatix in India, have developed a Qualitative Information System (QIS). QIS offers a flexible system to monitor, capture and compare qualitative information over time and space, to store and manage this information in computer databases, and to link assessment with action planning during stakeholder meetings.

The IRC and Pragmatix will host a workshop 5 - 15 Oct 2004 in Delft to provide the opportunity to share insights and experiences on how to set up a Qualitative Information System. Additionally, the workshop is designed to provide space for discussion on the value of using qualitative info rmation and participatory management tools to achieve equitable and sustainable development.

For more information, please contact Leonie Postma or Sandy van Wijngaarden.

5 | PFI AND JHU WRAP UP TOWN HALLS
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Over the Summer months the Genetics & Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) undertook a project to learn what the American public thinks and feels about issues raised by the rapid advances in reproductive genetic technologies. In addition to public opinion polls, meetings of experts and policy research and analysis, the Center, in partnership with the Public Forum Institute (PFI), convened state-of-the-art town halls in Nashville, Sacramento, Seattle, Fort Worth, Kalamazoo and New York. The six Genetic Town Halls were supported by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts and sought to gather a diverse cross-section of citizens and community leaders to engage in in-depth local dialogues to help shape the national policy discussion in Washington.

To learn more about the Genetics Town Halls, please visit the Genetics and Public Policy Center.

6 | HIV/AIDS DELIBERATION IN NIGERIA
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From September through December 2004, Civic Life International, a Nigerian based institution in collaboration with the Center for Public Policy Education (CPPE) will begin a project to use radio programming to create a space for Nigerians to talk deliberatively about HIV/AIDS. The project, which will bring students to several radio studios for live forums on HIV/AIDS using a citizen-framed issue book, will be coordinated by Kettering Foundation Fanning Fellow,Tokunbo Awoshakin.

Some objectives of this project include the monitoring these studio forums to find out how students define the problems, whether or not they are able to think through them, whether or not students are able to develop and understand different points of view, including how students deal with the tensions among the three choices in the book, while examining what is valuable to them as citizens in the competing options.

For more information, please contact Tokunbo Awoshakin.

7 | WATERSHED COLLABORATION WORKSHOP
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Local government officials and representatives of community watershed and other nonprofit organizations are invited to attend Collaborative Decision Making for Improved Water Resources, September 16-17, 2004, at the University of New Orleans. Sponsored by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), the workshop will focus on consensus building and collaborative problem solving techniques, including: various kinds of collaborative processes; when collaborative processes should or shouldn't be considered; obstacles to collaboration; and defining and distinguishing consensus from collaborative decision making.

Tanya Denckla, Senior Associate, Institute for Environmental Negotiation, University of Virginia, will lead the workshop, which will also feature a case study on the collaborative aspects of the St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana comprehensive plan and interactive exercises involving the application of collaborative decision-making principles to water resource issues.

For more information and to register, visit The Local Government Environmental Assistance Network. Information is also available toll-free at 877/ 865-4326.

8 | EPA RELEASES UPDATE ON E-GOV EFFORTS
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The Office of Environmental Information (OEI) has released a new report that describes the agency's efforts to develop effective e-government initiatives. The report, "E-Government@EPA: Accelerating Our Progress Using New Information Technology," can be downloaded at the Office of Environmental Information.

The OEI helps ensure that EPA collects high quality environmental information and makes it available to the American public. We provide guidance to assist the agency about the way we collect, manage, analyze and provide/allow access to environmental information. By fulfilling these activities we expect that the public and policymakers can make informed decisions.

9 | CANADIAN ONLINE DIALOGUES ON ABORIGINAL HEALTH
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On July 6th, Aboriginal Voice launched its first online dialogue on Aboriginal e-health issues. The dialogue began with introductory exercises which are summarized and available for you to review. Since then we have continued our outreach activities and have been able to connect with hundreds of organizations across Canada.

We have now posted the first two questions for discussion in the Aboriginal Voice Dialogue Space. Our hope is that through a dialogue between people who are directly engaged in Aboriginal health services, research and policy development that we will be able to see more clearly how ICTs can be used in three areas: To improve health care service to Aboriginal Canadians; to make useful and reliable health information more accessible to Aboriginal people and the Aboriginal health community; and, to engage Aboriginal citizens in shaping how governments respond to their health needs.

For more information, please visit the Aboriginal Voice website or contact Marcia Nickerson, Head, Aboriginal Practice Group, 416-204-9658