DC City Council Brings Citizens into Bill Amendment Process

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

We saw an interesting post recently from our friends at the Davenport Institute – an NCDD organizational member – about a new program for public input on city council bills in DC. We encourage you to read more below or find the original post here on their Gov 2.0 Watch blog.

Washington, DC has launched an online program where citizens of the city can propose amendments and opinions on certain aspects of a bill before the city council. The idea of this program is to allow more transparency and use technology to enhance voter participation. Although this is in its beginning stages, the idea is to bring the workings of the city government to the people directly so they can have a voice in the shaping of bills:

Washington, DC has launched a program where citizens of the city can propose amendments and opinions on certain aspects of a bill before the city council. The idea of this program is to allow more transparency and use technology to enhance voter participation. Although this is in its beginning stages, the idea is to bring the workings of the city government to the people directly so they can have a voice in the shaping of bills.

You can read more here.

Key Questions for Beginning Solid Collaborations

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

Many of us know from experience that the way in which collaborations begin can mean the difference between success and failure. That is why we appreciated this piece from the New Directions Collaborative, an NCDD organizational member, that offers a few questions to guide our thinking on building worthwhile collaborations. We encourage you to read the piece below or find the original here.

Art of the Start: Strategic Questions to Build Focus and Engagement

As I write this, I am on my way to a gathering of practitioners who work on networks approaches for large-scale social change, sponsored by the Garfield Foundation. We’ll be discussing the “art of the start” – how to navigate the early stages of an initiative. This is timely, as lately I have seen some of the common challenges in this stage, for example:

In a conversation with the Executive Director of a small non-profit, she shared her exasperation that funders are “pushing collaboration for collaboration’s sake and it’s not helpful.”
Some organizational leaders get enthused about the concept of “collective impact” and/or the idea of being a backbone support organization for collaboration, without a sense of where to start or how to coalesce around an issue, need, and or place.
In coaching a network coordinator on how to launch a new national network, a frequent theme of our conversations is how to motivate and engage people to participate, when they have lots of existing day-to-day organizational activities and priorities.
In teaching about more energizing and powerful ways of convening meetings and conversations that matter, I emphasize that the aim is to create a container for a group to self-organize and find the best answers together, rather than pushing or advocating one approach or solution – even the imperative to collaborate.

As I weave together these threads, a key question is:

How can you enable a group to find a focus for collaboration that inspires people to participate and engages their time and talents effectively?

What we found works is to host a series of conversations, seeded with open strategic questions. Here are some of the key ones (welcome your comments on additional suggestions):

Encourage storytelling around what motivates people

Strengthening relationships and trust is the foundational practice of building collaboration. As Meg Wheatley says, “the shortest distance between two people is a story.” I recently facilitated a World Café where we had groups of four discuss:

Share a story of what sparked or motivated you to get engaged in your community or this cause/issue.
What common themes do you hear?

This kind of conversation can happen across the whole group and in networked approaches, within each work group – to help people recognize the spark of motivation within themselves and discover where there is shared motivation.

Ground the conversations in the specifics

Move fairly quickly into real conversations about the issue, system, local context, and needs/aspirations. Talking too generally about collaboration or building networks using those terms can start to lose people. They are the means, the work coalesces around the ends: the shared purpose and goals. Here are sample questions:

What would be the most important issue to work on together (e.g., that none of us can address alone)?
How do you see this issue playing out in your experience (for yourself, and/ or people around you)?
In the work you do, what do you see as the most pressing challenges related to [larger goal] (such as enabling all children in our community to reach their full potential)?
What is the most important conversation we are not having related to these challenges?
When you consider all the programs and organizations working in this space:
- What is working that could be scaled?
- What is missing or not having the desired impact?
What is a big goal we all share and are motivated to achieve?

Have people name what will make participation valuable

A question that comes up a lot from those who want to broaden collaboration, is “how do we get more people to the table?” This question often leads (unproductively in my opinion) to one group trying to guess at what will entice another group to participate. Also, this dynamic can happen when a funder or other convener tries to engineer or direct a collaborative initiative, e.g., requiring participation.

Rather than guessing, we found it works best to ask potential participants to articulate what will make participating valuable for them. Here are some sample questions:

Assume you have ample funding and that being involved with this group was not a request/requirement of the funder. What would make this so valuable that you would make time for it?
How might this collaboration enable you/your organization to [support students, e.g.] in ways that you can’t do alone? What’s the bigger aspiration that you want to work on that you can’t do now?
Share a story of a successful network/collaborative initiative you have experienced. What were the elements that made that work? What can be learned from collaborative initiatives that didn’t work?
What will motivate/support you to contribute and participate in working together for positive change over the long haul?

All of these questions lend themselves to participatory meeting formats such as World Café or others from Art of Hosting and/or Liberating Structures. The answers to these questions, when documented and synthesized, can provide design guidelines for a collaborative initiative/network that can be referred back to again and again.

You can find the original version of this piece on the NDC blog by visiting www.ndcollaborative.com/blog/item/art-of-start.

Charlie Wisoff reviews “Making Democracy Fun” by Josh Lerner

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

We just love Making Democracy Fun – a great new book by Josh Lerner, an NCDD member and ED of the Participatory Budgeting Project. We love to work with Josh and his ideas – from hosting his great “gamification” talk during the final NCDD 2014 plenary to co-sponsoring PBP’s recent conference – and we hope you’ll read the review of his book written by Charlie Wisoff of the Kettering Foundation below.

In Making Democracy Fun, Josh Lerner addresses a key problem of democracy: “For most people, democratic participation is relatively unappealing. It is boring, painful, and pointless.” This is the case in traditional public hearings that end in bitter conflict and have little impact, but Lerner argues that even idealized forms of participation, such as deliberation, are not intrinsically fun.

To address this problem, Lerner draws on the growing field of game design. Games are defined as, “systems in which players engage in artificial conflict, defined by rules, that result in measurable outcomes.” Lerner has in mind a broad range of games including sports, board games, video games, or play-oriented games like tag. In contrast to the paltry numbers many public engagement processes get, 183 million people in the US report playing computer or video games regularly, 13 hours per week on average.

Lerner suggests utilizing a number of game design concepts and mechanics and applying them when designing democratic processes. He outlines 27 game mechanics organized under the categories of conflict and collaboration, rules, outcomes, and engagement. He also notes that the effectiveness of games does not depend on digital technology, that face-to-face interaction is essential for democracy, and that digital games should only be used to supplement rather than replace in-person engagement.

Throughout the book, Lerner draws on a number of case studies in Rosaria, Argentina and Toronto, Canada to illustrate his points about incorporating games into democratic processes. In a participatory planning process called Rosario Hábitat Lerner notes how a map puzzle game was used to prompt slum residents to make collective decisions about where they want their lots of land to be developed. A core game mechanic highlighted here is group vs. system conflict. This mode of conflict presents a group with a collective challenge, such as limited land, orienting participants towards collaboration rather than competition over scarce resources.

Another game mechanic Lerner highlights is the importance of having enjoyable core mechanics. Core mechanics are the basic activities of a game like bowling a bowling ball or rolling dice, which should be intrinsically enjoyable in a well-designed game. In Rosario, Lerner notes how theater-like games were used to get participants moving while at the same time allowing participants to act-out a new law in particular contexts. In Toronto, during Participatory Budgeting events, simple activities like putting color dots up to rate proposals made a voting process more enjoyable.

Lerner concludes by arguing that, while there “are no simple or universal recipes,” there are certain principles that should guide the application of game design mechanics to democratic processes: engage the senses, establish legitimate rules, generate collaborative competition, link participation to measurable outcomes, and participant-centered design.

For more info or to order Making Democracy Fun, visit www.mitpress.mit.edu/demofun.

Mathews Center Hosts Teachers’ Institute, AL Issues Forums

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

We are pleased to share about a couple of announcements about from our friends with the David Mathews Center for Civic Life – an NCDD organizational member – about some exciting work they are doing in Alabama. We originally found these announcements separately on the National Issues Forums Institute’s blog, but we’re combining them here to make sure NCDDers hear about it all.

First, for all of our education-oriented members, be sure to note that the Mathews Center is hosting a great civic learning training for teachers this January:

The Mathews Center is pleased to announce that registration for Teachers’ Institute 2015 is now open. Teachers’ Institute is an interactive, hands-on professional development experience designed to equip teachers with skills and tools to increase active civic learning in the classroom and beyond. The workshop will be held January 15 – 16, 2015 at the American Village, and A+ Education Partnership and Alabama Public Television will be co-sponsoring the event.

Registration is free*, but space is limited. Reserve your spot today HERE. For more information, contact DMC Program Director Cristin Foster at cfoster@mathewscenter.org.

* The Mathews Center will reimburse substitute pay for all attendees. CEUs will be provided.

Second, if you live in Alabama, the Mathews Center is launching a yearlong series of dialogues across the state on children’s health:

After months of work, the David Mathews Center for Civic Life is excited to announce that we are kicking off Alabama Issues Forums (AIF) 2014 – 2015 in two weeks. During the yearlong series, we will be focusing on “Minding Our Future: Investing in Healthy Infants and Toddlers.” The first forum will be held on Thursday, November 13 from 6:00 – 8:00pm at the Harris Early Learning Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The Early Care and Education Work Group of the Children’s Policy Council of Jefferson County is convening the event, and everyone is invited.

If you are interested in convening a “Minding Our Future” forum in your community, please contact DMC Program Director Cristin Foster at cfoster@mathewscenter.org.

You can learn more about the David Mathews Center for Civic Life at www.mathewscenter.org.

A Note from John Gastil, NCDD 2014 Co-Emcee

Posted on October 15, 2014 by NCDD Community

Before our wonderful community starts arriving in droves for NCDD 2014, we wanted to make sure you all see a message from our co-emcee, John Gastil. NCDD has inspired John to complete revisions on his best-selling book on democratic methods, and he’s using it to help NCDD continue our work. Read more about it below, and we’ll see in Reston this week!

Serving as co-emcee of the NCDD conference spurred me to bring to the finish line a project three-years in the making. I’ve brought into the digital world my very first (and best selling) book, Democracy in Small Groups. And in celebration of NCDD’s conference, all royalties from the first week of sales – from Oct 14-21 – go to NCDD.

Yup, all of ‘em.

Then again, it was NCDD attendees who convinced me to make my next book cheap enough for anyone to buy, so the royalties on a $2.99 book won’t go too far. But everyone needs to buy new office supplies, so it’ll pay for somethin’.

The book’s now available in Kindle format (which can be read via a free Kindle app on phones/PCs/Macs) at http://tinyurl.com/DSG2Kindle

The new edition is expanded and revised, with a special feature built just for online reading. As much as the Internet makes possible, the references link to original sources, so you can drill down as deep as you want while you read.

Twenty one years have passed since the first edition (blackjack!), so there are more than two decades worth of new sources filling out the book’s argument. If you want to make your own groups more democratic or better understand how small groups can change our larger world, this book might help you get there.

Versions for iBooks (I hear ya, iTooners), Nook (anyone using that?), and print will be following shortly.

John Gastil

Great Things Start at NCDD Conferences: The San Diego Deliberation Network

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

We know that amazing work in our field often begins with the connections made and synergies ignited during NCDD conferences, and we are so pleased to share a great example of how that happens. The piece below from NCDD supporting members Mary Thompson and Martha Cox tells the story of how, from a conversation at NCDD’s 2012 conference, the new San Diego Deliberation Network was born. We can’t wait to see what other great work will begin this week at NCDD 2014!

A new twist on a collaborative model of deliberation and dialogue has emerged in San Diego, based on the old adage: begin with the end in mind. In this hotbed of bio-science, communications technology, security and defense innovations, San Diego has incubated a new development, a network of networks, to benefit the region by helping citizens develop their role as producers in the region’s democracy, building stronger communities.

The seedlings of the San Diego Deliberation Network: A Regional Collaboration for Civic Conversation were planted when Kettering Foundation fellow and NCDD Board member Dr. Martín Carcasson connected with NCDD supporting member Henry Williams at NCDD’s 2012 conference in Seattle. The two soon collaborated to have Martín give a talk on deliberative democracy at a local library in San Diego in the summer of 2013. Among the attendees were a few representatives of local universities as well as the League of Women Voters who, excited by the ideas and potentials discussed during the event, began working together on bringing more deliberative practices to San Diego.

A couple months later, a meeting was convened where Martín, San Diego Mesa College political science professor Dr. Carl Luna, and executive director of the San Diego Foundation’s Center for Civic Engagement B.H. Kim sketched a vision of a network of academic institutions and good governance groups which would leverage each node’s strengths, factor in each node’s needs for affiliation and publicity, and ensure the robustness of the overall network, including a plan for growth.

The built-in network would encompass the San Diego Foundation’s Center for Civic Engagement, the League of Women Voters, and representatives from all of the major academic institutions in the San Diego region:

San Diego State University
University of San Diego
University of California San Diego
San Diego City College; Mesa College
Point Loma Nazarene College
California State University San Marcos.

The result was recognition of the San Diego group – the largest cohort ever accepted by the Kettering Foundation – as a learning exchange and member of their 2014-15 New Centers for Public Life.

A team of nine people representing six of the network’s members have traveled to three Kettering workshops, conducted community surveys and conversations, and laid its institutional framework.

Feb. 26, 2014 • The San Diego Deliberation Network at the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, OH. From left: Dr. Leroy Brady, San Diego City College; Dr. Lindsey Lupo, Point Loma Nazarene College; Dr. Karen Shelby, University of San Diego; Mary Thompson, Martha Cox, League of Women Voters; BH Kim, Former Director, San Diego Foundation’s Center for Civic Engagement; Dr. Nancy Fredericks, San Diego City College; Dr. Kimber Quinney, California State University San Marcos; Tiveeda Stovall, University of California San Diego.

Mindful of another adage, the greatest strength can be the greatest weakness, the Network has worked hard to overcome its biggest challenge: a working organizational structure that would allow accountability of both the representing individual institution and the Network itself. At monthly sessions, the Network has mapped out how decisions will be made in the network’s name.

Committed to the goals of strengthening communities through a partnership with academia and community, the prediction is that the Network will continue to grow. Many of the Network members have joined NCDD as individuals and view NCDD in bio-science terms as an extension of its “genetic make-up!”

Though still in its infancy (neither a website nor a home base exists), given the San Diego Deliberation Network’s origins from NCDD 2012 onward and its growing affiliations, the future is so bright you’re going to need shades!

Mary Thompson & Martha Cox
League of Women Voters North County San Diego
San Diego Deliberation Network

Thanks so much to Martha & Mary for putting together this great piece and to Martín Carcasson for helping with it!

Free book for first 60 people to register on Friday!

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Sandy Heierbacher

Here’s an incentive for showing up early to get your name tag and tote on Friday morning! Registration opens at 8am.

This weekend’s NCDD conference coincides with the publication of a new book called Read the Room For Real: How a Simple Technology Creates Better Meetings. The book is intended for facilitators, presenters, conference planners, or anyone who is curious about how to use increasingly accessible audience polling technology to improve meetings.

We are happy to provide preview copies of the book – which include a back cover endorsement from Sandy for which we are very grateful – as a gift to the first 60 people who register for the conference.

Our book is one of the first that we know of focused on the use of audience polling technology outside of the classroom environment. We have a deep background in facilitating dialogues about difficult diversity issues and as well as refining dialogic processes on all matter of topics for very small to very large groups of people. In our view, polling technology is severely under-appreciated by not just the dialogue community, but also by city planners, public officials, diversity professionals, and many others. Our goal is to accelerate the time when audience polling technology is as commonplace a meeting tool as Powerpoint.

We are organizing a campaign to make this dialogue book an Amazon bestseller on its launch day, November 28 (Black Friday). All conference attendees will have information in their packet about how to participate in the campaign, how to get a discount on the book, and how to enter a drawing to get a full day of pro-bono in-person consulting on audience polling.

For those not coming to the conference but who are interested in learning more about the book, contact us at david@read-the-room.com.

- David Campt and Matthew Freeman

NIF Caucus at NCDD 2014 – Friday Dinner

Posted on October 13, 2014 by NCDD Community

We want to make sure that all of you who are attending NCDD 2014 this week know that there is going to be a dinner for past or present affiliates of our partners at the National Issues Forums Institute. Learn more in the note below from Nancy Gansender and RSVP to her.

Are you an NIF moderator/facilitator? Are you part of the NIF network, past or present? Do you remember the PPIs or are you part of its successors, Centers for Civic Life?

Can we talk? Let’s do so over dinner this Friday, October 16 at the NCDD 2014 conference.

Let’s share our common past, and build on our rich experience and chart a bright future.

Conveners: Patty Dineen, Craig Paterson and Nancy Gansneder.

Plan to join us? Shoot Nancy an email (nancyg@virginia.edu) so we can make reservations.

50 “Next Generation” Digital Engagement Tools

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

The theme for this year’s NCDD conference, “Democracy for the Next Generation“, is meant to invite us to build on all the innovative tools and practices that have been invigorating our field in recent years. Many of those innovations are digital, and that is why a major goal for NCDD 2014 is to help our field better understand how to utilize technology for engagement and to provide insights and know-how for harnessing the emerging technologies that support dialogue and deliberation. NCDD 2014 will feature tons of “next generation” engagement tech, so don’t miss it - register today!

In keeping with our theme, we are excited to share the great list of 50 “next generation” online engagement tools (no implied endorsement) that our partners at CommunityMatters compiled with help from our friends at New America, EngagingCities, the DDC, and NCDD’s own director. Check out the CM post and the comprehensive list below or find the original version here.

Online public participation is an effective complement to face-to-face events such as community workshops and design charrettes. Selecting the right platform to get the most out of digital outreach can be overwhelming.

The first step is to learn what tools are out there! Here are 50 tools for online engagement in no particular order (and with no implied endorsement). These digital platforms can help local government consult, collaborate with, and empower citizens in community decision-making.

Once you’ve perused the list, check out the notes and recording of our September 5 conference call with Alissa Black and Pete Peterson, who shared advice for selecting digital tools that align with engagement goals.

coUrbanize: List project information for development proposals and gather online feedback.
Cityzen: Gathers feedback by integrating polling and social media sites.
Community Remarks: Map-based tool for facilitating dialogue and collecting feedback.
Crowdbrite: Organizes comments for online brainstorming sessions and workshops.
EngagementHQ: Provides information and gathers feedback for decision-making.
MetroQuest: Incorporates scenario planning and visualizations for informing the public and collecting feedback.
SeeClickFix: For reporting and responding to neighborhood issues.
Neighborland: Forum that encourages community discussion and action at the neighborhood level.
PublicStuff: Communication system for reporting and resolving community concerns.
MindMixer: Ideation platform for community projects.
NextDoor: Private social network and forum for neighborhoods.
Adopt-a-Hydrant: Allows citizens to help maintain public infrastructure.
CivicInsight: Platform for sharing progress on development of blighted properties.
i-Neighbors: Free community website and discussion forum.
Recovers: Engages the public in disaster preparedness and recovery.
EngagingPlans: Information sharing and feedback forum for productive participation.
Street Bump: Crowdsourcing application to improve public streets.
neighbor.ly: Crowdfunding platform to promote local investment in improvement projects.
TellUs Toolkit: Map-based tools for engagement and decision-making.
Budget Simulator: Tool for educating about budget priorities and collecting feedback.
CrowdHall: Interactive town halls meetings.
Citizinvestor: Crowdfunding and civic engagement platform for local government projects.
Open Town Hall: Online public comment forum for government.
Shareabouts: Flexible tool for gathering public input on a map.
Poll Everywhere: Collects audience responses in real time, live, or via the web.
Tidepools: Collaborative mobile mapping platform for gathering and sharing hyperlocal information.
Community PlanIt: Online game that makes planning playful, while collecting insight on community decisions.
Open311: System for connecting citizens to government for reporting non-emergency issues.
DialogueApp: Promotes dialogue to solve policy challenges with citizen input.
Loomio: Online tool for collaborative decision-making.
PlaceSpeak: Location-based community consultation platform.
Citizen Budget: Involves residents in budgeting.
e-Deliberation: Collaborative platform for large group decision-making.
CrowdGauge: Open-source framework for building educational online games related to public priority setting.
Citizen Space: Manage, publicize, and archive all public feedback activity.
Zilino: Host deliberative online forums and facilitated participatory meetings.
WeJit: Collaborative online decision-making, brainstorming, debating, prioritizing, and more.
Ethelo Decisions: Framework for engagement, conflict resolution, and collective determination.
Community Almanac: Contribute and collect stories about your community.
GitHub: Connecting government employees with the public to collaborate on code, data, and policy.
VividMaps: Engages citizens to map and promote local community assets.
OSCity: Search, visualize, and combine data to gain insight on spatial planning. (EU only.)
Civic Commons: Promoting conversations and connections that have the power to become informed, productive, collective civic action.
Crowdmap: Collaborative mapping.
Codigital: Get input on important issues.
All Our Ideas: Collect and prioritize ideas through a democratic, transparent, and efficient process.
Neighborhow: Create useful how-to guides for the community.
OurCommonPlace: A community web-platform for connecting neighbors.
Front Porch Forum: A free community forum, helping neighbors connect.
PrioritySpend: Prioritization tool based on valuing ideas and possible actions.

Many thanks to the numerous sources whose work supported the creation of this list, including: @alissa007, @dellarucker, @challer, @mattleighninger and @heierbacher.

Did we miss something? Tell us about your favorite digital tools for public engagement in the comments section below!

You can find the original version of this CommunityMatters post at www.communitymatters.org/blog/let%E2%80%99s-get-digital-50-tools-online-public-engagement.

Updates from the Deliberative Democracy Consortium

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Roshan Bliss

We recently received a newsletter from NCDD supporting member Matt Leighninger of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), and we wanted to share it with you. The DDC has been working on some important and exciting projects, and they have 3 big announcements.

First, the DDC has released a significant new white paper:

Infogagement: Citizenship and Democracy in the Age of Connection is the latest white paper from PACE (Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement). Written by the DDC’s Matt Leighninger, the report – downloadable here - describes the innovative collision of journalism, technology, and public engagement. It is based on interviews with PACE members and many other leading thinkers, and presents the main arguments in the form of six sections, a series of charts, and a two-act play. Leighninger, Paula Ellis, and Chris Gates will discuss the report in a PACE webinar next Tuesday, September 16th – register at www.pacefunders.org/events.html.

Second, the DDC is part of hosting a new round of the wonderful Text, Talk, Act initiative, which is jointly supported by NCDD:

Monday, October 6th, will be the next big day for “Text, Talk, and Act” – a nationwide, text-enabled, face-to-face on mental health. Thousands of people have taken part in “Text, Talk, and Act,” which is a Creating Community Solutions event in the National Dialogue on Mental Health. Participating is easy: just get together with 4-5 other people on the 6th and text “START” to 89800. For more information, see www.bit.ly/texttalkact.

Lastly, Matt is releasing a great new textbook soon that is sure to be a key work for those teaching about our field’s work:

Coming soon: Matt Leighninger and Tina Nabatchi (Maxwell School, Syracuse University) are hard at work on a textbook on Public Participation in 21st Century Democracy, to be released in early 2015 by Wiley/Jossey-Bass.

We encourage you to learn more about the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and their work at www.deliberative-democracy.net.

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