For new ideas and discussion about innovations and issues impacting the field of deliberative democracy, please join the DDC blogger corps at http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog. Recent entries include dispatches from Joseph Goldman of AmericaSpeaks on online dialogues in Ohio and Amy Lang of the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Citizens' Assemblies in Ontario.

Also, be sure to visit the Journal of Public Deliberation's practitioner and scholar editions online at: http://www.auburn.edu/jpd/ and http://services.bepress.com/jpd/. Recent contributions from Jane Mansbridge, John Gastil, and Jim Snider.

FInally, we'd like to increase our reader base. If you value the eBulletin as a resource, please pass it along to your colleagues and encourage them to subscribe at http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/ebulletin/

Many thanks,

lars hasselblad torres

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The Deliberative Democracy Consortium's Knowledge Building team is continuing its efforts to document experiences in deliberation around the world. The effort, begun in 2004, has captured data on nearly one hundred efforts from Canada, Australia, the United States and several other countries. The DDC would like to reach into Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe and invites you to submit contacts in these regions, whether individuals or organizations. Alternatively, you can complete the online survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=27135485798

For more information about this effort, please contact Project Researcher Gabrielle (Gabby) Higgins ghig3811@mail.usyd.edu.au

The Mandel Leadership Institute and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund (San-Francisco) have provided seed-money and facilities for the establishment of a new center for civic life in Israel. The Israeli Center for Engaging Citizens in Governance will work in three primary areas during its first year: Practical demonstration of civic participation in decision making modeled on AmericaSpeaks' “21st Century Town Meeting”; training “change agents” ("Democracy Fellows") for the promotion of Deliberative Democracy; and e-Democracy initiatives.

For more information about KOL contact Ronen Goffer roneng@mandelinstitute.org.il

The African Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (ACDD) is an African led network of practitioners, researchers, students, and organizations interested in connecting African practitioners to each other, assuring access to the full benefit of African experience and expertise for the larger dialogue and deliberation community, and in gaining financial and collegial support for African initiatives. The ACDD seeks to support the rapidly growing numbers of African facilitators, mediators and trainers working in Africa to connect with each other on an on-going basis for collegial support and for the exchange of knowledge. The ACDD also seeks to become a "go to" resource for the growing interest world-wide in African practices regarding participatory democracy, both indigenous and emergent, and conflict resolution and reconciliation in the African experience. Where appropriate, the ACDD will model itself after the American NCDD (National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation) and C2D2 (the Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation).

For more information and to participate in building the ACDD please contact Tokunbo Awoshakin awoshakin@civiclifeint.org

[From the deliberative-democracy.net blog] The Citizen’s Health Care Working Group -- a panel created by a 2003 law that added a drug benefit to Medicare (originally the 'Health Care that Works for All Americans Act' sponsored by Senators Ron Wyden [D-OR] and Orin Hatch [R-UT] -- released its report on the American health care system this week that will go to the President and Congress. The report, based on a national discussion that took place over the past year that was managed by AmericaSpeaks and the Public Forum Institute, recommends, according to the New York Times yesterday, that "Congress should create an independent 'public-private entity' to define a basic set of health care benefits and services for all Americans." "It should be public policy, written in law" the panel concluded, "that all Americans have affordable access to health care.'"

For more information about the report, visit Joseph Goldman's entry to the d-d.net blog at http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/?p=157

Amy Lang, a new addition to the DDC blogger corps, is doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has written an excellent report of the Ontario Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform. The Assembly, modeled on the ground-breaking British Columbia Citizens Assembly of 2004, has several unique characteristics -- among them a provision that could allow more seats to be added to the legislature -- that could make a big difference for how deliberation is carried out, and the results. To read Ms Lang's report, please visit the d-d.net blog at http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/?p=155

Ms Lang will be providing further updates on the process through May 2007 as she continues to pursue the lines of investigation opened during her doctoral research. Browse Ms Lang's papers here: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~alang

Senior staff at the Case Foundation, under the guidance of consultant Cynthia Gibson, have authored "Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement." The central claims of the paper are: public “service” is a more powerful frame around which to rally Americans for democratic renewal than “civic engagement;” and the encouragement of public deliberation should be at the center of renewal efforts. Scholar Peter Levine of the University of Maryland has written that he considers the paper a breakthrough. "It may," Mr Levine has written at d-d.net, "have a significant effect on the traditional funders and organizers of 'service' (a field that dwarfs deliberation). Cindy Gibson makes deliberation-linked-to-action the heart of 'civic engagement,' instead of voting and/or service. That could be revolutionary."

For more information and to download the paper, please visit http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/?p=148

Youth Service America seeks proposals for its 2006 Youth Service Institute: Building the Movement, which will be held in New Orleans December 5-7, 2006. The Youth Service Institute, which aims to unite colleagues from the service, service-learning, and youth development fields for three days of skill-building and innovation, will focus on four target areas of service and service-learning success: Engaging children and youth effectively; Scaling up and managing your program; Developing inclusivity by engaging youth not normally asked to

serve (disadvantaged youth, youth in foster care, youth with disabilities, younger children, etc.); Creating sustainability by developing community and financial support. YSA is looking for presenters to share innovative and successful approaches that address one or more of these components. These are all excellent topics to which the deliberation community has much to contribute in knowledge and experience. The Call for Presenters deadline is October 13, 2006.

For more information, please contact Cassandra Miller at cmiller@ysa.org

Sandy Schuman, a collaborative process advocate and leading practitioner in group facilitation, is the editor of the recently released book, "Creating a Culture of Collaboration Along with Schuman, thirty-six preeminent practitioners and scholars contributed to "Culture of Collaboration," which integrates the underlying bases of collaboration with field-tested approaches. Published by Jossey-Bass as part of its Business and Management series, this new book provides examples of collaboration in action that illustrate the application of theory in practice contributed by an international group of practitioners and researchers–from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States – who describe proven approaches to creating a culture of collaboration within and among groups, organizations, communities, and societies.

For more information about the book visit www.culture–of-collaboration.com.

[Adpated from european-citizens-consultations.eu] The first event of the European Citizens’ Consultations (ECC) will take place on the 7th and 8th of October 2006 in the Brussels Exhibition Centre. 200 citizens from the European Union's 25 Member States will gather for this "Agenda Setting Event" of the ECC to discuss the overall question of “What Europe do we want?” Participants will identify three topics for the subsequent national discussions in all 25 Member States. Simultaneous interpretation into all official languages of the EU will be provided to ensure every voice is heard. The European Citizens’ Consultations are the first-ever pan-European debate involving citizens from all 25 Member States to debate the future of the European Union across the boundaries of geography and language. A limited number of "observer" seats are available to decision-makers in a specially designed Observer Programme.

For more information please visit http://european-citizens-consultations.eu/

On Friday, September 29, Voices & Choices will begin the final engagement activity of its three year effort to involve residents of the Northeast Ohio region in an unprecedented outreach strategy to revitalize the regional economy. The forums, dubbed Online Dialogues, will engage residents in online discussion over a three-week period to deepen understanding and commitment to key actions and solutions raised during the second Regional Town Meeting, which engaged more than 900 residents in face-to-face discussion on September 16 in Akron. The dialogue will be broken into three phases: Introductions, Exploring Action and Committing to Actions. The moderated forums are a great example of the Canadian online consultation firm Ascentum at work.

For more information about the online dialogues visit http://www.voiceschoices.org

IAP2 will host its annual conference November 12-15 in Montreal, Quebec. According to website, "the 2006 annual conference will give practitioners an improved conceptual understanding of "the decision". Those who make the final decision will share their point of view on the importance and benefits of involving the public before, during, and after a decision is made. The conference will focus on the decision through the eyes of the decision maker; a distinctive perspective for public participation practitioners." The annual meeting is also the occasion for IAP2's presentation of its "Core Values Awards," which are presented to one organization and one project that exemplify excellence and innovation in public involvement guided by the Association's seven "Core Values for Public Participation."

More about the conference and the Core Values award available on the web at http://www.iap2.org

Planners, technology innovators, theorists - all will come together in Denver October 19-21 to share their insights in the ways we can build vibrant, sustainable communities through evolving forms of community participation. This year's conference has several sessions that should be of particular interest to deliberative democrats, among them:

- Turning on the Lights: Civic Engagement in Energy Facility Siting

- Stories that Connect: The Role of Media in Local and Regional Planning

- eParticipation: Technology and the Future of Collaborative Decision-Making

For more information about the conference, please visit: http://www.placematters.org/

The International Association for Public Participation (http://www.iap2.org) and the Kettering Foundation (www.kettering.org) have recently launched "Painting the Landscape: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Public-Government Decision Making." The effort seeks to develop greater understanding around how and why public participation/deliberation is used in different social, political and community settings. Findings from the study -- which seeks to engage 70 people in seven different regions (Africa, Australasia, Canada, Latin America, Southeast Asia, United States and UK/Western Europe) representing groundwork for future research about what public participation/deliberation practices, terminology and outcomes are like within different countries and different regions of the world.

For more information about this effort, please contact Beth Offenbacker, Project Director beth@waterfordinc.com

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