Missed Our “Democracy Machine” Confab Call? Hear it Now!

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

NCDD hosted another one of our Confab Calls last week, and it was one of our most engaging calls yet! We hosted a conversation with the dynamic duo behind the concept of the “Democracy Machine” and had a very lively discussion with nearly 40 participants about the possibilities and practicalities of building a massive, integrated, deliberative online commons. You really missed out if you weren’t there!

Our presenters were John Gastil and Luke Hohmann, who have been working together to outline the technical, organizational, and collaborative process that would be needed to begin to link and integrate the many existing online D&D tools and platforms to create a functioning digital public commons that could facilitate sustained deliberative engagement and send ongoing feedback to both government and citizens to improve how the public interfaces with the public sector. It’s hard to understate the enormity of this undertaking, but the Confab Call presentation and discussion with John and Luke was a great opportunity to wrap our heads around the idea and discuss its pros, cons, and potentials.

If you missed out on the call but still want to see and hear the presentation and conversation, then we encourage you to watch the recording of this Confab Call by clicking here. This Confab Call also had one of the most active discussions we’ve had in the accompanying chat box, and the great back and forth is also worth reading along with the presentation, so you can find discussion from the Confab Call’s chat by clicking here.

NCDD is proud to have supported John and Luke in taking another step in making the Democracy Machine a reality by hosting this first broader conversation on our Confab Call. As you can hear in the call recording, there is still a lot more work to do to make the idea feasible. But the next step that John and Luke have planned is to use their interactive session on building the democracy machine during our NCDD 2016 conference in Boston this October 14th-16th. They’ll be using the session to collect more feedback and ideas from leaders in the field and also to enlist collaborators for the future, so if you’re interested in being involved in their project, be sure to register for the conference today so that you can continue the conversation in person!

Source: Challenges to Democracy blog

If you are looking for a bit more background on the idea of a “democracy machine,” we encourage you to read about the basic concept in John’s recent post on the Challenges to Democracy blog or read his full essay, “Building a Democracy Machine: Toward an Integrated and Empowered Form of Democracy,” by clicking here.

Thanks again to John and Luke for relying on NCDD to help advance their ideas and for collaborating on this Confab Call! To learn more about NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series and hear recordings of past calls, please visit www.ncdd.org/confabs.

Join NCDD’s “Democracy Machine” Confab Call on Thurs.

Posted on August 22, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

We wanted to share a friendly reminder that time is running out to register for our next NCDD Confab Call, which takes place this Thursday, August 25th from 1-2 PM Eastern (10am-11am Pacific)! We are excited to be hosting a call with NCDD members John Gastil and Luke Hohmann about their expansive vision of creating a “Democracy Machine” – an integrated online commons comprised of today’s best civic technology and digital deliberation platforms. Be sure to register today to join the conversation!

On the call, John and Luke will introduce the NCDD network to their project of making this vision a reality. They are gathering together software designers, civic reformers, academics, and public officials to envision and build the “democracy machine” as a digital public square that would draw new people into the civic sphere, encourage more sustained and deliberative engagement, and send ongoing feedback to both government and citizens to improve how the public interfaces with the public sector. NCDD members will have an important role to play, so make sure to register for the call to find out how you can be involved!

Participants in the call are invited to bring ideas and questions about the design and development of the “democracy machine” to share with John and Luke. We also encourage participants to read about the basic concept in John’s recent post on the Challenges to Democracy blog or read his full essay, “Building a Democracy Machine: Toward an Integrated and Empowered Form of Democracy,” by clicking here.

Don’t forget! John will also be hosting an interactive session on building the “democracy machine” during the NCDD 2016 conference, so be sure to register for the conference today so that you can continue the conversation in person!

Join Our Aug. Confab Call on Building an Online Commons!

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Courtney Breese

You’re invited to join us for our next NCDD Confab Call on Thursday, August 25th from 1-2 PM Eastern (10am-12pm Pacific)! This interactive conference call will feature John Gastil, a democracy scholar and long-time NCDD member, and Luke Hohmann, CEO of Conteneo, Inc., who will share about a ground-breaking civic tech idea that they are working together to make into a reality. Register today to save your spot!

John and Luke are gathering together software designers, civic reformers, academics, and public officials to envision and build an integrated online commons – a commons that would link together the best existing civic tech and other online deliberation and engagement tools by making them components in a larger “Democracy Machine.”

The purpose of the call is to discuss ideas about the design and development of the machine in advance of a session on the same topic during NCDD 2016 this October. The aim is to draw new people into the civic sphere, encourage more sustained and deliberative engagement, and send ongoing feedback to both government and citizens to improve how the public interfaces with the public sector. In advance of the call, we encourage participants to read about the basic concept in John’s recent post on the Challenges to Democracy blog or read his full essay, “Building a Democracy Machine: Toward an Integrated and Empowered Form of Democracy,” by clicking here

John Gastil is a professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, particularly as it relates to how people make decisions in small groups on matters of public concern. His recent books include The Jury and Democracy, The Group in Society, and Democracy in Small Groups: Participation, Decision Making, and Communication (2nd ed.).

Luke Hohmann is CEO of Conteneo, Inc. Conteneo is the leading provider of collaboration – not communication – solutions for the public and private sector. Through their cutting-edge technology and customized services, Conteneo enables employees, customers, and partners to work better together – no matter where they are in the world. Thousands of business leaders are using the Conteneo Collaboration Cloud and our Collaboration Consulting services to be more productive, innovative and competitive.

NCDD’s interactive Confab Calls are free and open to all members and potential members. Register today if you’d like to join us!

About NCDD’s Confab Calls…

NCDD’s Confab Calls are opportunities for members (and potential members) of NCDD to talk with and hear from innovators in our field about the work they’re doing, and to connect with fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

Recap of Our Tech Tuesday Event with Trusted Sharing

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

We had another fantastic Tech Tuesday event earlier this week with the team from Trusted Sharing. The webinar featured NCDD member Duncan Work, founder and CEO of Trusting Sharing, and Ruth Backstrom, Director of Marketing and Outreach who walked participants through an in-depth demonstration of the features and capabilities of their asynchronous conversation platform.

The walk through was hugely informative, and it was clear to all of us how helpful a tool like Trusted Sharing can be to folks working not just on planning, engagement, and decision making processes, but also in classrooms, organizations, and all manner of other collaborative endeavors. We got to ask Duncan and Ruth specific questions about Trusted Sharing’s functionalities and the case studies we explored, and heard a bit more about their next steps in rolling the tool out. It was a wonderful call!

If you missed out on the call and still want to see and hear the presentation, then we encourage you to check out the recording of this Tech Tuesday call by clicking here.

The Trusted Sharing team is still developing and refining the tool, and since NCDD’s member network is such a rich repository of knowledge and expertise, they created a special Trusted Sharing conversation page where NCDDers are invited to offer input and suggestions to the TS team about templates for conversations based on method and process you use. So we encourage NCDDers to visit www.trustedsharing.com/ncdd to continue the conversation from the call, ask more questions, and offer your professional feedback on the Trusted Sharing tool.

Thanks again to Duncan, Ruth, and everyone who participated in the call for an engaging and educational event!

To learn more about NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series and hear recordings of past calls, please visit www.ncdd.org/tech-tuesdays.

Don’t Miss the June Tech Tuesday Call with Trusted Sharing!

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

We want remind our network that time is running out to register for NCDD’s June Tech Tuesday event this Tuesday, June 28th from 12-1pm Eastern/9-10am Pacific. This time, our webinar will the Trusted Sharing tech tool – a free, asynchronous platform for hosting online conversation using facilitation methods such as World Café, TOP, and Open Space – and you won’t want to miss it!

We will be joined on the call by NCDD member Duncan Work, founder and CEO of Trusting Sharing, as well as Ruth Backstrom, the Director of Marketing and Outreach. Duncan and Ruth will give participants an overview of the tool, walk us through how it can be used in a few case studies, and talk about their collaborations with thought leaders, educators, nonprofits, businesses, and more.

We’re confident that our members will find Trusted Sharing’s platform useful because there already are NCDDers using it! Here’s what NCDD member Rosa Zubizarreta of DiaPraxis had to say about her experience with Trusted Sharing:

I’ve been using Trusted Sharing for the last nine months, as part of a mastermind group I initiated to create a stronger community of practice among those drawn to Tom Atlee’s co-intelligence work. Our main intention with Trusted Sharing was to have a place for online conversation before and after each of our video conference sessions. This tool offered a space where we could prepare in advance for each session, as well as continue our conversations afterward. We now have a rich repository we can continue to harvest, as each person moves forward with their individual projects, enriched by the input and perspectives of our learning community.

For more info on this impressive tool, you can peruse this overview – or you can just register today for this Tech Tuesday event! It’s going to be a wonderful opportunity, and we look forward to hearing you all on the call.

Register for June Tech Tuesday featuring Trusted Sharing

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Courtney Breese

Registration is now open for June’s Tech Tuesday event featuring Trusted Sharing. Join us for this FREE event Tuesday, June 28th from 12:00-1:00pm Eastern/9:00-10:00am Pacific.

Trusted Sharing is a free, asynchronous platform that allows people to host deeper, more coherent online conversations using specific facilitation methods such as World Café, TOP and Open Space.

Contemporary research highlights how essential high quality conversations are in our complex Information Age; yet our current online exchanges often fall short of our hopes and expectations. Trusted Sharing is trying to change that. Early adopters of this new platform have been educators, consultants, bloggers, facilitators and small businesses. It is user-friendly and good for informal groups that want to extend their interaction time through online conversations.

Teachers have used Trusted Sharing to launch the learning experience prior to the first in person class. A consultant commented that she could cut the amount of in person time down by 40-50% by using Trusted Sharing to gather online thoughts first. A blogger was able to answer questions that readers had and add depth to his blog. A coaching training academy is using Trusted Sharing as a way to catalogue conversations and make decisions across multiple informal groups they interact with.

Joining us for this call will be NCDD member Duncan Work, founder and CEO of Trusting Sharing, and Ruth Backstrom, Director of Marketing and Outreach. Duncan and Ruth will provide a brief overview of the tool and demonstrate how it can be used with several case studies. They are collaborating with a number of facilitators, thought leaders, educators, and others to bring more coherent, effective conversations into old and new realms like nonprofits, schools, businesses, blogs and public online spaces, and they will talk more about this on the call.

For an overview of the benefits and potential for Trusted Sharing in different contexts, you may peruse this overview and the Trusted Sharing website.

Don’t miss this opportunity – register today!

Tech Tuesdays are a series of learning events from NCDD focused on technology for engagement. These 1-hour events are designed to help dialogue and deliberation practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them. You do not have to be a member of NCDD to participate in our Tech Tuesday learning events.

Following Up on Our Tech Tuesday Call with Urban Interactive Studios

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

Earlier this week, NCDD hosted another one of our Tech Tuesday calls with the good folks from Urban Interactive Studios (UIS), and we had a great conversation. The call featured the sophisticated suite of engagement technology that UIS has developed in their EngagingPlans and EngagingApps software, and together with nearly 40 participants on the call, we all learned quite a bit about the cutting edge of civic tech.

Our presenters – NCDD member and UIS Founder & CEO, Chris Haller, and UIS Partnership Manager Emily Crespin – impressed us with a demonstration of the attention to detail and versatility that UIS has built into their civic tech tools while keeping it accessible for everyday people who may only have a limited amount of time to use it. They helped spark a rich and engaging discussion on the call – so engaging, in fact, that there were more questions from participants than we had time to answer!

If you missed out on the live event, don’t worry – we recorded the presentation and discussion and you can watch the recording by clicking here. And as a bonus, Chris and Emily were kind enough to take the time to actually write out answers to the questions that we didn’t get to on the call, which you can find by clicking here.

Many thanks, again, to Chris and Emily for leading us through the demonstration and for following up with even more info!

To learn more about NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series and hear recordings of past calls, please visit www.ncdd.org/events/tech-tuesdays

Join Our Next Tech Tuesday Call with Urban Interactive Studios, May 17

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

As we announced last month, NCDD is hosting another on of our fabulous Tech Tuesday webinars this Tuesday, May 17th from 1-2pm Eastern/10-11am Pacific, and you’re invited! This time, the event will feature Urban Interactive Studio (UIS), an innovative leader in public engagement technology and creator of the popular EngagingPlans and EngagingApps tools. You really don’t want to miss this one, so register today!

Are you looking for digital tools to make engaging a group or constituency you work with more versatile? Need to collect on-going feedback alongside face-to-face meetings? Have other planning and engagement issues that call for tech solutions? Then this is the Tech Tuesday call for you!

We will be joined by two members of the UIS team – NCDD supporting member, as well as Founder & CEO, Chris Haller, and Partnership Manager Emily Crispin. Together, Chris and Emily will give us an in-depth and behind-the-scenes look at both the EngagingPlans and EngagingApps tools that have been used by dozens of cities, companies, non-profits, and universities in multiple countries to help them engage their constituencies. You’ll have a chance to see both tools in action and hear about how the tools can be configured to suit specific project needs

There will be tons to learn from these two civic tech leaders, so we encourage you to join us on May 17th! We can’t wait to talk more with you then.

Learn more about our Tech Tuesday calls by clicking here.

Register for 5/17 Tech Tuesday with Urban Interactive Studio

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Courtney Breese

Registration is now open for May’s Tech Tuesday event with Urban Interactive Studio. Join us for this FREE event Tuesday, May 17th from 1:00-2:00pm Eastern/10:00-11:00am Pacific.

UIS Urban Interactive Studio helps agencies and consultants engage communities online through project websites and participation apps that can be tailored to any approach, process or project objective. As web and mobile technology has become commonplace, citizens now expect online participation options, but public engagement practitioners are often forced to cobble together inflexible off-the-shelf tools that only partially meet their engagement needs. UIS’s EngagingPlans and EngagingApps deliver a comprehensive, feature-rich, and adaptable solution that helps meet varied objectives at every project stage, from early visioning to final draft review and interactive online plans.

EngagingPlans and EngagingApps inform and involve broad audiences while also generating actionable insights for decision makers. EngagingPlans bundles the most widely used features into one project hub that reaches, informs, and involves citizens and stakeholders in civic projects and decision making. EngagingPlans websites form the backbone of digital project communications, keeping documents, events, news, and FAQs accessible and collecting community feedback through surveys, discussions, idea walls, and draft reviews.

As projects progress beyond open-ended visioning, the choices for online engagement software decrease drastically. EngagingApps are semi-customizable mapping tools, workbooks, interactive plans, and simulators that encourage informed, specific feedback about topics like commuting habits, proposed land use designations, design concepts, growth scenarios, and funding allocation.

On this call, NCDD Member Chris Haller, Founder & CEO and Emily Crespin, Partnership Manager of Urban Interactive Studio will walk through examples of both EngagingPlans and EngagingApps in action, with particular emphasis on how EngagingApps can be configured to address unique participation objectives during each stage of any public process. Participants are encouraged to review the UIS website prior to Tech Tuesday and be prepared for a high-level overview of EngagingPlans and an in-depth discussion about EngagingApps and strategies for implementation.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to see these tools in action – register today!

Register for NCDD Conference Input Call Tomorrow, 4/28!

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Roshan Bliss

As we announced last week, NCDD is hosting a special conference call on Thursday, April 28th from 3-4pm Eastern to collect more of the field’s ideas and input for our 2016 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation. What we cover at our conferences, and how we cover it, is important for this ever-growing, ever-changing field, so don’t miss this chance to help shape its direction!

NCDD’s leadership is hosting this conversation to hear how our field answers the question, “What would you like to see happen at NCDD 2016?” We are looking for a wide range of opinions, which is why the call is open to everyone in the NCDD community – current members, past conference attendees, subscribers, social media friends, and more are all welcome to participate.

The original announcement of this call detailed the NCDD Board’s initial ideas around NCDD 2016 working to address bridge building across political divides, and we encourage you to read it here before the call. But as you prepare for the call and think about NCDD 2016, we encourage you to read to ask yourself…

What topics would you like to see covered?
What ideas do you have for awesome activities?
What would you like to contribute to this year’s event?
What could we do this year that might improve your work?
What could we do that would help us move the field forward?
What can we do while we’re together that we can’t easily do virtually?

We can’t wait to hear all of your amazing ideas, so please be sure to register today for the call by clicking here.

Can’t make the call, but still have thoughts to share? Feel free to join the discussion already taking place in the comments section of the initial announcement, weigh in on our social media, or add to the conversation already underway on the NCDD Discussion Listserv. We look forward to hearing from you!

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