Thanks always to everyone who submitted items for this month's eBulletin.  In addition to news and updates from the field, the Deliberative Democracy Consortium encourages readers to submit articles for publication to the web and the Journal of Public Deliberation, online at: http://services.bepress.com/jpd/

~ Editor


1 | DELIBERATIVE POLL WILL BE USED FOR GREEK ELECTIONS
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Contributing to a growing body of deliberation practice centered on electoral processes begun with the British Columbia Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform, the Deliberative Poll will used for the first time to shape an electoral process.  According to the website of the Center for Deliberative Democracy, "One of the two leading political parties in Greece, PASOK, will use Deliberative Polling to select its candidate for mayor in Marousi, Greece's fourth largest municipality. Marousi is where the Olympics were held and is in the Athens area. This will be the first time that a political party has used Deliberative Polling to democratize candidate selection."   Background material available at http://cdd.stanford.edu/events/index.html#greece


2 | NEW STUDY CIRCLES DISCUSSION GUIDE: FROM POVERTY TO PROSPERITY
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In partnership with the Northwest Area Foundation, the Study Circles Resource Center has published Thriving Communities: Working together to move from poverty to prosperity for all. This discussion guide helps people look at poverty in their community, talk about why it exists, and explore what they can do together to create a place where everyone can thrive.  More than 500 people took part in field tests of the guide held at 16 sites in the rural Northwest.  English and Spanish editions of the guide are available for $5 from SCRC, or you can download free copies from their web site at www.studycircles.org



3 | JOURNAL OF PUBLIC DELIBERATION, VOLUME NOW ONLINE
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The latest edition of the Journal of Public Deliberation, a scholarly publication covering contemporary debates on public deliberation, has several excellent new articles in its April edition.  These include a case study of a recent public deliberation written by John Gastil of the University of Washington, an exploration of the prospects for online deliberation to shape public agendas written by DDC Steering Committee members Ted Becker and Tomas Olin, and an examination of the problem of scale and public deliberation written by Will Friedman of Public Agenda.  For complete journal articles and essays, please visit the journal online at: http://services.bepress.com/jpd/vol2/iss1/


4 | 2006 ASSOCIATION FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION CONFERENCE WILL EMPHASIZE PUBLIC DELIBERATION
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Registration is open for the Association for Conflict Resolution, Environment and Public Policy Section Conference June 28-30, 2006 in Cambridge, Massachusetts for "Deliberative Democracy: New Directions in Public Policy Dispute Resolution". The conference website, www.eppconference.org is a portal for conference registration and see details about the excellent program. Brochures for printing and distribution are also available for download. Shortly, information will be posted about lodging options near the conference site.
Conference Co-Chairs are Lawrence Susskind, Director of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program and Harry Manasewich, President of Human Factor Dispute Resolutions.  For questions, you may contact Anne Mansfield with your questions at 802-831-1338 or eppinfo@vermontlaw.edu.


5 | ST JOSEPH HEALTH SYSTEM NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HEALTH CARE
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The Center for Healthcare Reform at St. Joseph Health System is planning to convene folks from around the country who are actively engaged in healthcare reform issues using a public dialogue model.  The meeting is set for 12-4 p.m. Oct. 16, 2006, preceding the third American Health Care Congress at the Ontario (CA) Convention Center on Oct. 17.  The gathering will give participants an opportunity to consider the basis of social change, share their strategic directions and plans to build this foundation, and look at specific materials/processes used to affect such change.  An example of this approach is www.ourhealthcarefuture.org.
 
Session co-chairs are two pioneers in this effort: Jack Glaser, director of the St. Joseph Health System Center for Healthcare Reform, and F. Douglas Scutchfield, MD, Professor of Health Research and Policy, University of Kentucky College of Public Health. The American Health Care Congress is presented by www.CodeBlueNow.org, Loma Linda University and the National Coalition on Healthcare. 

For more information contact mary.pinkerson@stjoe.org.


6 | FIELDING GRADUATE LEVEL CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN DIALOGUE, DELIBERATION, AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
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The Fielding Institute is offering its third innovative certificate course and has announced an expansion of the program to University of Sydney, Australia. This distinctive program focuses on recent innovations in dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement featuring faculty who have played key roles in developing these approaches.  Designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue and the Kettering Foundation, the graduate-level course features an outstanding core faculty of scholar-practitioners including Hal Saunders, Barnett Pearce, Phil Stewart, Keith Melville, Jan Elliott, and Lyn Carson. The course also features call-in guests widely recognized as scholars and innovative practitioners including Carolyn Lukensmeyer, David Isaacs, Martha McCoy, Bob Stains, Shawn Spano, Joe Peters, and Janette Hartz-Karp.

To learn more please visit http://www.fielding.edu/hod/ce/dialog/index.html  and join an information teleconference and conversation with core faculty.


7 | STUDENTS ASSIST PLANNING AND RECOVERY EFFORTS IN NEW ORLEANS
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Dr. Patricia A. Wilson (Community and Regional Planning, University of Texas, Austin) and her graduate students have been assisting the neighborhood recovery planning efforts in New Orleans.  She and her students helped facilitate a visioning workshop in Pontilly neighborhood with 300 people in March.  She and her students also hosted an event in Austin on April 16 for evacuees from Gentilly neighborhood, with the president of the Gentilly civic improvement association as special guest.   Patricia was also scheduled to served as planner/facilitator for the Gentilly charrette  in New Orleans from April 20-25.  Related to neighborhood planning and participation, Dr. Wilson and her students also designed and facilitated a multi-stakeholder workshop for 200 people held on April 15 at Austin's City Hall to rethink the ten year old neighborhood planning process in Austin.

For more information about these efforts, please contact Dr Wilson directly by email at pwilson@mail.utexas.edu


8 | NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL AND AMERICASPEAKS' DEMOCRACY LAB TEAM UP FOR DELIBERATION IN 3D
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Beth Noveck (New York Law School), Lars Hasselblad Torres (AmericaSpeaks), and Jerry Paffendorf (Electric Sheep Co.) have partnered to create a three dimensional deliberation space in Second Life, a growing online world entirely created and populated by its users.  The central concept is to reproduce the experience and strengths of AmericaSpeaks' 21st Century Town Meeting in Second Life, while building on some of the online world's unique capabilities, such as rendering objects in three dimensions and enabling multiple modes of online interaction. 

The first of its experiment will apply a unique combination of online visualization tools to realize a pilot experimental consultation that will provide displaced university students from the Gulf region with an opportunity to work through local planning opportunities and choices.  Students will be asked to develop designs hat solve a public problem related to land-use planning in New Orleans that will be open to public consultation via Google Earth.  Chris Haller of Participation.net will support this phase of the project.  For more information contact Lars at lhtorres@americaspeaks.org


9 | INVOLVE LAUNCHES "POST PARTY POLITICS"
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On 16 February Involve launched Post Party Politics at a drinks reception in central London. At the event some of the UK's most original thinkers and activists outlined the threat posed to democracy by party politics and the alternative options for reconnecting people and government. "Post Party Politics Politics," Involve's first political pamphlet, describes how people are rejecting political parties and turning to new forms of activism online, through new local and global networks, even whilst shopping. "Post Party Politics" sets out an agenda for rebuilding a new politics designed around people, wherever they are, not politicians.  The basic theory tracks well with contemporary civic engagement scholarship. Is the conclusion that shopping can help fill the gap accurate?  Download the pamphlet and join the online discussion at http://www.involving.org/home


10 | VISUALIZE ARGUMENTS AND KEEP DISCUSSION ON TOPIC: TRUTH MAPPING
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Truth Mapping is an online argumentation tool that helps participants reason through their difference without cluttering the discussion with off-topic digressions and frequent restatements of agreement.  Truth Mapping asks discussants to focus their posts on what their disagreements to arguments broken into individual propositions that build on one another to a final claim.  Participants can post their reasons for disagreeing with a proposition, revise their arguments based on input, and rank others' reasons.  Truth Mapping includes a nifty little argument visualization widget that gives an instant sense of the level of agreement and disagreement within an argument.  Visit Truth Mapping online at http://www.truthmapping.com/


11  | GRANT OPPORTUNITY: COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL DECISION-MAKING
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Through its Initiative to Promote Collaborative Process in  Environmental Decision Making, the Laura Jane Musser Fund will support projects by  public or not-for-profit entities that undertake consensus-based activities in environmental stewardship or dispute resolution in rural areas.  Applications will be accepted in following two funding areas:

 1) The Environmental Stewardship Program will support  programs that work to manage resources (whether of  ecological, economic, or aesthetic values) where a broad  range of community members and stakeholders are involved  in both planning and implementation.

 2) The Environmental Dispute Resolution Program will  support programs that engage in a collaborative process  that works to build consensus instead of confrontation,  particularly where both the environmental health and economic livelihood of a community are at stake.

For more information please visit the Laura Jane Musser Fund  online (http://www.musserfund.org/)