The Journal of Public Deliberation (JPD) is an online resource providing insights into deliberative democracy from two views, research and practice. Visit the inaugural edition online and subscribe to receive content alerts at services.bepress.com.

Got a burning question, case study, or thesis about the evolution of public discourse and empowered participation in a democratic society? D-d.net encourages practitioners and researchers to contribute up to 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.

As always, a quick acknowledgement to everyone who has referred readers to the eBulletin: we are now a community of more than 630 subscribers! Deepest thanks. Please keep the news and views coming in.

Lars Hasselblad Torres
Editor

1 | NEW RESOURCE: THE DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY HANDBOOK
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The Deliberative Democracy Handbook, a product of collaboration within the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, 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.

2 | ENGAGING YOUNG CANADIANS IN WHAT MATTERS TO THEM
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CPRN s National Dialogue and Summit, to be held November 25-27, 2005 in Ottawa with young Canadians, is intended to help bring the voices of young adults into Canada s national conversation about our collective future. This signature project for CPRN s 10th anniversary will welcome 160 young Canadians, ages 18-25, to have a dialogue - first with each other and then with about 40 decision makers from the public, community and private sectors. They will discuss the policy implications of their dialogue and develop concrete actions that can be taken across the country.

The results will be broadly disseminated: to young people and organizations working with youth, through the CPRN web site, as well as broadcast and print media; and via outreach by CPRN and its project partners to engage broader communities.

For further information about the project please visit www.cprn.org.

3 | MEMPHIS TO HOST FIRST IN A SERIES OF PUBLIC MEETINGS ON EPIDEMIC OF OVERWEIGHT AND INACTIVE YOUTH
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Memphis will be the site of the nation s first interactive town meeting to gather grassroots community input on how to address improving the nutrition and physical activity of the nation s children. The Shaping America s Youth (SAY) 21st Century Town Meeting will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 17 at FedEx Forum in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.

SAY is an initiative of the new national health organization, Shaping America s Health: Association for Weight Management and Obesity Prevention. The 21st Century Town Meeting, is a highly successful discussion process developed by AmericaSpeaks, a non-p rofit, non-partisan organization that engages citizens in public decisions that impact their lives. The 21st Century Town Meeting has been utilized to address complex issues such as the reconstruction of Ground Zero in New York City.

For more information, please visit SAY online at www.shapingamericasyouth.com.

4 | CONFERENCE: COLLABORATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
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The Community Based Collaboratives Research Consortium's Conference, "Putting Knowledge to Work," will be held Nov. 17-19, 2005 in Sedona, Arizona. The conference will have a major focus on applying knowledge from both research and from field-based experience about collaboration for environmental protection. Researchers, community collaborative groups, state and federal agencies, local governments, facilitators, and environmental organizations will gather to learn about new research findings from Consortium projects and from leading researchers from across the U.S. and Canada.

To learn more, view the conference agenda and download registration forms visit www.cbcrc.org. If you have questions, send an email to cbcrc@virginia.edu.

5 | CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: NIGER DELTA DELIBERATIVE FORUMS
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Civic Life International, a collaborative non-profit organization using journalism, dialogue and deliberative methods to promote civic education and the participation of citizens in public policy, seeks position papers, funding research and logistic partnerships in support of the Second Niger Delta Deliberative forum.

The Niger Delta Forum is a collaborative project directed at creating a public space for citizens and other stakeholders in the oil rich region to engage and discover shared assumptions, shared awareness as well as shared connectedness towards working together. The project is conceived as a systemic approach to change in the region with high possibilities of involving citizens in a meaningful way to foster the emergence of collective thoughts and actions for desirable changes.

For more information and to receive a copy of the discussion guide, "Better Life From Oil Wealth, What Public Prescription" framed by citizens at the first forum held last year, please contact Civic Life International at admin@civiclifeint.org or visit on the web at www.civiclifeint.org

6 | NEW PAPER: DOES DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY WORK?
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In his recent work, "Does Dliberative Democracy Work" (Annual Review of Political Science; Volume 8, 2005: pp. 49-71) professort David Ryfe argues that the growing literature on deliberative democratic practice finds that deliberation is a difficult and relatively rare form of communication. Many of the obstacles to deliberative democracy raise questions about key theoretical constructs closely associated with deliberative democratic theory, including equality, legitimacy, autonomy, and reason. The author concludes by suggesting that deliberative practitioners, empirical scholars, and theorists might gain from greater interaction.

Access the paper online at Annual Review Journals.

7 | REQUEST FOR STORIES OF COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
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The 2005 White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation will meet August 29, 2005, in St. Louis, Missouri. A key part of the conference is to learn what Americans are doing within their communities and in cooperation with others to steward and conserve the nation's natural resources - and to share the lessons, information, and resources that are critical to everyone's conservation success. Individual citizens, non-profit orga nizations, civic groups, schools, businesses, and government agencies - are urged to be part of this cooperative conservation effort and to help shape the conference outcomes by visiting the Cooperative Conservation America website to enter project stories into the database.

For information and instruction, please visit the Cooperative Conservation website at www.cooperativeconservationamerica.org.

8 | CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON DIALOGUE AND DELIBERATION
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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 at szagon@ascentum.ca or (613) 565-1500 or Miriam Wyman, mwyman@utoronto.ca or (416) 413-0347.

9 | 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 developers, 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 this important conference, outcomes, and related resources, please visit the info-packed conference blog at www.online-deliberation.net.

10 | BAD NEWS: HURTING AMERICA? POSNER ON MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY
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In a recent New York Times article that riffs off Jon Stewart's (The Daily Show) stunning appearance on CNN's "Crossfire" earlier this year (in which he said shows like Crossfire are "hurting America"), Richard Posner tackles the question of whether the media really is destroying America and the prospects for deliberative democracy.

"Journalists," Posner writes, "are reluctant to confess to pandering to their customers' biases; it challenges their self-image as servants of the general interest, unsullied by commerce. They want to think they inform the public, rather than just satisfying a consumer demand no more elevated or consequential than the demand for cosmetic surgery in Brazil or bullfights in Spain. They believe in ''deliberative democracy'' - democracy as the system in which the people determine policy through deliberation on the issues."

Deliberation naturally turns on a public that wishes to be informed and does so. But, writes Posner, "The public's interest in factual accuracy is less an interest in truth than a delight in the unmasking of the opposition's errors."

For the full article, please visit www.nytimes.com.