Also, please be sure to browse the latest edition of the Journal of Public Deliberation, available online through Berkeley Press: http://services.bepress.com/jpd/vol3/iss1/

Finally, please help us expand our circulation and the visibility of public deliberation throughout the world: encourage your colleagues and friends in you network to subscribe: http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/ebulletin/

Best regards,
lars
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lars hasselblad torres
editor, ddc ebulletin

1 | Invitation to Publish
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The Institute for Community Involvement is developing a new ejournal and seeks articles that address current issues, stories about public involvement from working professionals, and case studies from the real life experiences of practitioners.

According to the recent announcement, all submissions will be reviewed by a panel of public involvement professionals, and will be subject to peer review. Articles with a copyright will require a wavier from the author prior to being published, and all materials require written permission to publish from the author. For more information contact ldecker@community-involvement.net.

2 | Involve UK Releases Participation Evaluation Guide
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Involve, a think tank dedicated to understanding and improving civic and civil participation in the UK, has released a guide to evaluating public participation intended to help those involved in planning, organising or funding these activities to understand the different factors involved in creating effective public participation. The guide will help planners set and measure attainable objectives, evaluate impact, and identify lessons for future practice. Using clear language, simple instructions, illustrative case studies and a glossary, this guide is a valuable tool for anyone involved in running or commissioning public participation in central government and beyond.

Visit http://www.involve.org.uk/evaluation/ to access the guide or to download the full pdf document. Questions or feedback can be sent to evaluation@involve.org.uk or call Karin Gavelin at Involve on 020 7632 0123.

3 | Deliberative Elections: The National Presidential Caucus
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[From the National Presidential Caucus website] To help Americans prepare for a de facto "National Presidential Primary" in February 2008 -- when early State primaries may prematurely propel two Presidential candidate finalists to the front of the field -- a group of partisan, bipartisan and non-partisan interests have initiated the National Presidential Caucus: thousands of local, self-organized, web-enabled, and face-to-face gatherings across the country beginning December 7, 2007. The goals of the National Presidential Caucus are to help the country better prepare for the 2008 election, foster deeper and more meaningful access to the country's political system, and to create a new voice for those willing to participate in person.

For more information about the effort and to register as an individual or a group, visit: http://www.nationalcaucus.com

4 | Tomorrow's Europe: First EU-wide Deliberative Poll
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[From the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University] Tomorrow's Europe, the first pan-European Deliberative Poll, will bring together a representative sample of 521 citizens from all 27 member countries of the European Union, providing them with balanced information about possible options for Europe's future and by bringing them together for several days of discussion in the European Parliament. The poll, which will launch in the Fall of 2007, will seek answers to questions like: What would ordinary Europeans think, if they all came together in the same room? How would their views on the future of Europe change and a balanced confrontation with their different visions?

The project is being coordinated by Notre Europe (http://www.notre-europe.eu) , a think tank founded by the French Economist and two-term EU president Jacques Delors which seeks to promote the thinking necessary to bring about a "united Europe." Tomorrow's Europe is being advised by Bobby Fishkin, an accomplished social entrepreneur and the son of Deliberative Poll founder James Fishkin. For more information visit http://www.tomorrowseurope.eu

5 | EU Citizen Consultations on the Future of Europe Wrap
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[From the European Citizens' Consultations site] The results of 27 nation-level citizens' consultations on the future of Europe have been summarized in a single final report to the European Parliament titled, "European Citizens' Perspectives on the Future of Europe" delivered in Brussels. To develop the report, citizens from the member nations substantiated the national-level findings during two days of debate in early May and developed a "global vision" and set of policy recommendations to EU policy-makers. EU Vice-president for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy was on hand to receive the results and discuss with citizens ways they relate to current actions and initiatives at the European level.

The report's recommendations and policy implications were discussed in-depth by a small group of EU citizens and policy-makers at a June 6 forum organized by the European Policy Center. For more information please visit http://www.european-citizens-consultations.eu

6 | Civic Life International and Kettering Foundation Kick Off "Race and Violence" Study in Ohio
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The Fielding Graduate University is offering its fourth innovative certificate course and our second year of offering the program in partnership with the 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. It strives for the development of "virtuosity" in our skills in the practice of dialogue and deliberation. Designed and delivered in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, the Kettering Foundation, and the Public Dialogue Consortium, it features an outstanding core faculty of scholar-practitioners, (Hal Saunders, Barnett Pearce, Phil Stewart, Keith Melville, Jan Elliott, Lyn Carson), it also features guests in Phone Dialogues who are widely recognized scholars and innovative practitioners. Prior programs have featured guests such as Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Juanita Brown, Martha McCoy, Bob Stains, Shawn Spano, Joe Peters, Janette Hartz-Karp and Frank Barrett.

Learn with others who share your energy and enthusiasm for this work. Learn with others from different cultural backgrounds and different countries. Participants from several countries will learn together online, on the phone and will participate in face to face workshops in either the US or Australia. Please visit http://www.fielding.edu/hod/ce/dialog/index.html for more information. Join an information teleconference and conversation with core faculty May 16 @ 5 pm Eastern/New York time. To register for the call contact Nathan Lewin Nlewin@fielding.edu.

7 | Civic Life International Seeks Partners for 2007 Nigeria Democracy Summit
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Civic Life international has initiated talks with the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, to host a 2-day summit in Washington D.C in the Fall of this year. The proposed summit will be an opportunity to engage and interact with key Nigerian leaders (governors, bureaucrats, diplomats, media owners and policy researchers who have granted their consent). Democratic aspirations require a transparent, fertile and dynamic seed bed of peaceful dialogue and deliberation to grow and flourish. Together, we can better understand and assist Nigeria to affect positive change, reducing chances for corruption, increasing profits and fairness from oil and other natural resources, and improving cooperation on concerns of terrorism, among other issues. Counterparts from the State Department, World Bank, and relevant Non-Government Organizations have been invited to participate in this mutually beneficial exchange.

For more information, please send us an e-mail or contact: Tokunbo Awoshakin: 937-259-9889 or Amy Jones 937- 241-8213

8 | Making The Health of Democracy The Issue
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[From makeitanissue.org.uk] June in the UK saw the kick-off of an exciting new effort in the the UK, "Make It An Issue." makeitanissue.org.uk is a campaign of The Power Inquiry that seeks to build a more inclusive, democratic process for the next phase of constitutional reform in the UK - one that places ordinary citizens at its center; Make It An Issue (MIAI) is a campaign to ensure that the process is opened beyond politicians and decision-makers. The primary aim of MIAI to elevate the debate surrounding the problems facing UK democracy through its website and in local and national events around the country. Ultimately, Make It An Issues seeks to unite a community of people who not only believe that British democracy is in trouble, but who also want to do something positive about it.

The Power Inquiry, which oversees MIAI, was set up in 2004 to explore how political participation and involvement can be increased and deepened in Britain. The Inquiry established a Commission under the chair of Helena Kennedy QC, to investigate why the decline in popular participation and involvement in formal politics has occurred and to provide concrete and innovative proposals to reverse the trend. The Commission published its final report, Power to the People, in February 2006. The report outlined 30 recommendations for change, but most importantly it argues that there is a need for a re-balancing of power between the Executive and Parliament, between Central and Local Government and between the Citizen and the State.

For more information about the "Make It An Issue," visit: http://www.makeitanissue.org.uk

9 | Call for Contributors: Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation
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The Canadian Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) has announced that it is seeking contributors to this year's conference, to be held November 11-14, 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia. With the theme of this year's conference "Facing Complex Issues Together," C2D2 will gather people from diverse sectors and practices to share and explore methods and living examples of projects and programs that successfully bring dialogue and deliberation methods to complex public issues. Conference organizers invite a wide range of proposals, from health, the environment, urban and regional development, resource management, or a unique collaboration among businesses, government and communities. Successful proposals for concurrent sessions will highlight the specific methodologies employed in real-life contexts.

For more information and to propose a session, please visit: http://www.c2d2.ca/

10 | US Office of Technology Assessment Mix-up
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On June 7, Sunlight Foundation researcher Paul Blumenthal wrote, "Lawmakers renewed funding for the Office of Technology Assessment yesterday at a markup for the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. We don't have full details yet but the subcommittee approved $2.5 million to reestablish the OTA, which will provide nonpartisan technological and scientific research to members of Congress and the general public." If this had, in fact, been true it could have signaled a boon for deliberative democrats who seek greater influence of citizens in technology decision-making on Capitol Hill. However, what has happened, as Paul later reported, is that Congress directed the $2.5 million appropriation to the General Accounting Office to carry out technology studies. This is, Paul writes, "still a great step forward as the GAO is respected for its research and, unlike CRS, posts all of its research online for the general public. This is a great victory for anyone wants members of Congress to have access to the best technology research available."

For more information, and to track recent efforts to revive OTA, visit http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/taxonomy/term/918

11 | State of the USA Support Bolstered
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The State of the USA, an educational non-profit with a mission to provide quality information -- including quantitative indicators -- to the American public on key changes in societal, economic, and environmental conditions, has received $3.15 million in new grants from the William and Flora P. Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the F.B. Heron Foundation. The most recent grant of $2 million was awarded June 12, 2007 by the Hewlett Foundation as, according to Hewlett Foundation President Paul Best, "a tribute to the progress that the State of the USA has made in developing a key national indicator system for the United States and its strategic potential for the future."

The State of the USA has recently developed version 0.5 of its experimental prototype web site, which can now demonstrate a nearly complete interactive simulation of a candidate key national indicator -- the unemployment rate. The State of the USA site can dynamically generate answers to user questions about national unemployment through an easy-to-use graphical interface that can provide breakdowns of the data by age, gender, occupation, marital status, educational attainment, race/ethnicity, and industry or any combination of those subgroups. Work is now proceeding to explore similar capabilities for answering questions about candidate key indicators on a variety of other social, environmental, or economic topics.

It is hoped that a resource like the Key National Indicators project will a) educate the public about the state of the United States of America; b) increase the public's awareness of what we know, how we know it, and what we don't know; c) encourage an enriched civic dialogue about the progress of the nation; and d) support more informed decision-making on issues affecting our collective future.

12 | [Resource] Planning Public Forums: Questions to Guide Local Officials
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[From the Institute for Collaborative Governance] The Institute for Collaborative Governance of the League of California has a relatively new report (January 2007) available online which provides practical steps to help local agencies build their capacity to use public forums effectively. The report draws lessons from local officials are, with greater frequency according to the Institute, organizing and supporting public forums to help inform their decision-making and achieve the best policy result by promoting the overall public interest; maximize the public's satisfaction with the ultimate decision; and foster the public's support for the agency. These efforts go beyond the important but more limited purposes of public hearings and comment periods. The information provided in the guide is framed as questions that local officials can use to answer questions such as: Are public forums appropriate for us? Are we ready to undertake such an effort? How do we design these forums to best meet our goals?

For more information and to download the report, visit: http://www.cacities.org/index.jsp?displaytype=11&zone=ilsg&section=coll&sub_sec=&tert=&story=26138