The Journal of Public Deliberation (JPD) is a new online resource that aims to provide insights into deliberative democracy from two views, scholarly research and practice-based. Visit the inaugural edition online and subscribe to receive content alerts at services.bepress.com

Also, d-d.net encourages practitioners and research to contribute 2,000-word "think pieces" for publication to the website. These periodic commentaries are intended to provoke debate and stimulate inquiry into the broadening fields of practice and research. Please send your enquiries to editor@deliberative-democracy.net

Finally, a quick acknowledgement to everyone who has referred readers to the eBulletin: we are now a community of 610 subscribers! Deepest thanks. Please keep the news and views coming in.

Lars Hasselblad Torres
Editor

1 | EUROPEAN BRAIN SCIENCES DELIBERATION
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The King Baudouin Foundation recently convened, "Meeting of Minds," a European project to engage citizens from nine countries in discussion around cutting-edge science issues. In all, 123 citizens gathered in Brussels June 3-5 to consider, according to the preliminary report, "What they think should be done with our new-found knowledge of the brain." Six key themes emerged for country-level deliberation in 2006, including Regulation and Control, Normalcy versus Diversity, and Equal Access to Treatment. The project was carried out with the support of the European Commission and facilitated by IFOK and Global Voices. To learn more, please visit www.meetingmindseurope.org and to download a copy of the preliminary report visit Euractiv.com

2 | DUTCH WILL CONVENE CITIZEN ASSEMBLY
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Expatica News (Netherlands) reports that Dutch citizens will soon have the opportunity to develop proposals for a new electoral system. Modeled after the closely watched Britich Columbia Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform, the Dutch approach will involve a 'public council' given the task of designing a new system. According to the article, "the Cabinet and then the public, via a referendum, would need to approve of the plans. The referendum would be held at the same time as national elections in 2007."

To learn more about the Dutch council, please visit Expatica News and to learn more about the BC Citizens Assembly, visit www.citizensassembly.bc.ca

3 | NEW RESOURCE: FIRST DEMOCRACY
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The classics scholar Paul Woodruff has recently published a compact thesis on the origins and "first principles" of democracy, "First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea," which also happen to paint excellent conditions for an ideal deliberative democracy. Woodruff's seven conditions are: freedom from tyranny, harmony, the rule of law, natural equality, citizen wisdom, reasoning without knowledge, and general education. Woodruff concludes that a true democracy must be willing to invite everyone to join in government. To read a full review and to order the book, please visit Oxford University Press online.

4 | NEW RESOURCE: DELIBERATION BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
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In his most recent work, "Deliberation Before the Revolution: Toward An Ethics of Deliberative Democracy in an Unjust World ," (Political Theory. 2005; 33: 397-419) political scholar Archon Fung of Harvard University's Kennedy School of government argues that, "deliberative democracy is a revolutionary political ideal that requires fundamental changes in political institutions, bases of collective decision making, and the distribution of resources." In an effort to realistically colocate deliberation and activism along a shared spectrum of ethical political activity, Fung proposes "appropriate principles of action" and applies them to four kinds of increasingly unfavorable circumstances. Fung also develops a menu of institutional and political strategies that increase deliberative inclusion and equality.

To download a copy of the article, please visit Sage Publications

5 | NEW RESOURCE: THE DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY HANDBOOK
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The Deliberative Democracy Handbook is a terrific resource for democratic practitioners and theorists alike. It combines rich case material from many cities and types of institutional settings with careful reflection on core principles. It generates hope for a renewed democracy, tempered with critical scholarship and political realism. Most important, this handbook opens a spacious window on the innovativeness of citizens in the U.S. (and around the world) and shows how the varied practices of deliberative democracy are part of a larger civic renewal movement.

To learn more, please visit the Handbook's website and to order the book online, visit Jossey-Bass

6 | RESOURCE: ONLINE WORKSHOPS ON DELIBERATION
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The Democracy Lab at Lockhaven University in Pennsylvania (USA) will be offering several deliberative online forums that explore a range of topics, from America's Role in the World to News Media and Society to Racial Tension. These 10-week forums engage students in small-group deliberative dialogue with peers from five or more schools across the US. Building on the National Issues Forum model, Democracy Lab leads students through a dialogue and inquiry process that fosters student-to-student teaching and learning, enlivens your classroom and increases student effort and promotes civic engagement.

For more information and to register please visit the Democracy Lab

7 | RESOURCE: CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON DIALOGUE AND DELIBERATION
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With the launch of its website in May, the Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) is open for information and early registration. Set for October 27-30, 2005, in Ottawa, Canada, this innovative conference will bring together 300 practitioners, decision makers, policy developers, and researchers from the public, voluntary and private sectors to learn and share information and skills. Those interested in helping to shape the agenda and conference sessions can complete a "needs assessment" online. The website, www.c2d2.ca, includes background information, useful links and direct electronic registration for the conference.

C2D2 is supported by Canadian Policy Research Networks, Public Policy Forum, Canadian Institute for Public Engagement, Ascentum, Democracy Education Network, International Association for Public Participation, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and Deliberative Democracy Consortium are behind the event.

For more information, contact: Sandra Zagon, szagon@ascentum.ca or (613) 565-1500 or Miriam Wyman, mwyman@utoronto.ca or (416) 413-0347.

8 | 2nd CONFERENCE ON ONLINE DELIBERATION
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The Second Conference on Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice / DIAC 2005 (May 20 - 22, 2005) brought together software de velopers, social science researchers, and practioners of online deliberation for three days of presentations and workshops on the Stanford University campus. The purpose of the conference was to stimulate to discussion around the creation of a new society for online deliberation with an international membership, to support cross-disciplinary scholarship, principled design, and informed practice in the use of online environments for group deliberation and democratic participation.

To learn more about the conference, outcomes, and related resources, please visit the info-packed conference blog at www.online-deliberation.net

9 | RESOURCE: eDEMOCRACY ISSUES FORUMS GUIDE
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As part of their work with the UK Local E-democracy National Project, E-Democracy.Org has released a number of new resources including:

Issues Forum Guidebook - A 60 page guide to hosting a local online dicussion forum - http://e-democracy.org/uk/guide.pdf

GroupServer - A new open source/free software platform for online groups that combine a very smart e-mail list with a web forum. E-Demnocracy's democratic practices are built into this New Zealand- based tool - http://e-democracy.org/groupserver

E-Democracy Experience - A multimedia story on E-Democracy.Org and its local Issues Forums. Includes video interviews with citizens and elected officials active on their forums - http://e-democracy.org/experience

Additional articles, pilot forum posts, and a case study are available from: http://e-democracy.org/uk

10 | FILEDING GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN DELIBERATION
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Fielding Graduate University is offering its second innovative certificate course, "Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement" in the Fall of 2005. This distinctive program focuses on recent innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement and features faculty who have played key roles in developing these approaches. It is being designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue and the Kettering Foundation. The 2004-05 program featured a slate of guest lecturers that included Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Juanita Brown, Jane Mansbridge, Jim Fishkin, and Joe Peters.

The Fielding Graduate University is world renowned for its leadership in networked education for adult professionals. This networked approach consists of face-to-face sessions, on-line learning and phone dialogues. This 16-week course begins August 29, 2005.

For more information, please visit the program website at www.fielding.edu

11 | NEW RESOURCE: DELIBERATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
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MIT Press recently released "Swimming Upstream: Collaborative Approaches to Watershed Management," edited by Paul A. Sabatier, Will Focht, Mark Lubell, Zev Trachtenberg, Arnold Vedlitz and Marty Matlock. The book provides a historical overview of traditional and collaborative approaches to watershed management in the United States and a normative and empirical conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating the process. Six chapters of the book examine specific examples of collaborative watershed and estuary planning projects across the country. The book is being praised as must reading (Elinor Ostrom) with insightful implications for practice as well as research (Laurence J. O Toole, Jr.) and a long overdue infusion of theory and scholarship to a field overrun by dogma and propaganda (Doug Kenney).

To learn more, and to order the book, please visit the MIT Press

12 | COLLABORATIVE DEMOCRACY ROUNDUP
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The Collaborative Democracy Network (CDN) sponsored a round table at a recent conference of the Midwest Political Scie nce Association (US). A summary of the round table, "Collaborative Policy and Democracy: Building Capable Institutions of Governance for Network Society", can be downloaded at: http://www.csus.edu/ccp/cdn/ The Collaborative Democracy Network is an interdisciplinary and international network of scholars collaborating to support research and teaching in collaborative policy and democracy.

13 | POWER TO THE EDGES: TRENDS IN ONLINE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
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In May, Steve Clift (Democracies Online Newswire) writes about "an important report focused in large part on online advocacy, non-profits, and the role of philanthropy." In particular, Steve's attention was grabbed by the following: "The key to understanding online civic engagement is not to focus on the latest tool or even the latest tactic. Rather, the key is to recognize that engaging people and organizations in this new environment requires new ways of thinking and new organizational models in order to build a more informed and engaged citizenry." View the full report online at the Evolve Foundation

14 | POWER TO THE EDGES: TRENDS IN ONLINE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
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Registration for EPA s 2005 Community Involvement and Training Conference (www.epancic.org/2005) held July 12 -15 in Buffalo, NY is now open! This annual conference is a unique opportunity for a wide array of stakeholders to come together to share how EPA and its partners are involving communities in the protection of our air, water and land. We are looking forward to an excellent array of learning and training opportunities at the conference.

Registration to attend the conference, field trips, optional training, keynote lunch, and group social activity is required. The draft agenda, hotel, poster session, and registration information are available at the conference web site (link to http://www.epancic.org/2005/). Please contact Lisa Gebler, Conference Coordinator, at 301-589-5318 with any questions.

And in closing,

15 | PRIVILEGE, ENCLAVES AND THE BASICS OF CONCERN IN THE US CAPITAL
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In May, Washington, DC insider Neil Richardson (Acting Director of the Mayor's Neighborhood Action Initiative) wrote about a city often cited for its efforts at civic engagement: "Division prevents us from learning together about our public concerns. We learn by getting involved in issues and by talking to our neighbors, whether it's over coffee on a bright morning or over a cold beer on a hot summer night. We are watchful of young kids on the corner and we wonder about the height of our neighbor's grass. Looking around my neighborhood and listening to folks across the city, there is a sense that something is not right, but we can't quite express what that is. How do we talk to each other? How do we want to live together?"

Read the full text of the article at WashingtonPost.com