Category Archives: NCDD confab archives

Register for NCDD’s next Tech Tuesday event — on Zilino

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Our second “Tech Tuesday” event will take place on September 17th from 4pm-5pm Eastern (1pm-2pm Pacific). We’ll be taking a look at Zilino, a web-based solution that enables practitioners to host deliberative online forums and other types of well structured, well facilitated engagement processes.

Tech_Tuesday_BadgeThe webinar will be hosted by Tim Bonnemann, founder and CEO of Intellitics, Inc., a long-time NCDD organizational member and co-sponsor of the 2012 NCDD Conference. Intellitics is a digital engagement startup based in San José, CA that helps its clients apply technology to support, enhance and extend participatory processes.

Intellitics is currently working with a non-profit on the East Coast to translate their in-person citizen deliberation process (National Issues Forum approach) into a meaningful online experience using Zilino. This session will provide a brief overview of the tool and present insights from this ongoing project.

As with our first Tech Tuesday, we”ll be using GoToWebinar.  Please register today to reserve your spot:

Tech Tuesday is a new initiative from NCDD focused on online technology. Many in our field are curious about how they can use online tools to support their engagement work, and many tool creators are excited to talk to this community about their innovations.

These one-hour events, designed and run by the tool creators themselves, are meant to help practitioners get a better sense of the online engagement landscape and how they can take advantage of the myriad opportunities available to them.

If you have an idea for a Tech Tuesday event you’d like to run (or a tool you’d like to see featured), email NCDD’s Director, Sandy Heierbacher, at sandy@ncdd.org — or leave a comment here. Please note that unlike our “Confab calls,” which NCDD runs, promotes, and archives, we ask Tech Tuesday presenters to run these events on the platform of their choice. This frees us up to hold more events, and allows the presenters to use the platform that makes the most sense for their tool.

Audio from August Confab Call with Rich Harwood

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We had a great confab call on Wednesday (August 7, 2013) with special guest Rich Harwood of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. The call was facilitated skillfully by Marla Crockett, NCDD’s Board chair and a close colleague of Rich’s.

Earlier this year, Rich was asked to facilitate a series of meetings in Newtown, CT to help the grieving city decide what to do with Sandy Hook Elementary School, site of the horrific mass murder of children and school personnel last December. We asked Rich to talk to NCDD members about his work in Newtown, and the broader work he and his colleagues are doing at the highly regarded Harwood Institute.

Confab bubble imageUse the links below to listen to the audio recording of the call and check out other call-related material.

We had over 120 participants this week, with about half active the call’s collaborative doc at Hackpad.com, where they took great notes, introduced themselves, posed questions and shared links.  One of our participants even mind-mapped the confab conversation, and that link is on the Hackpad as well!

Through community conversations, constant innovation, and nationwide research, The Harwood Institute has developed an approach that’s helped cities, organizations, and individuals “Turn Outward” and build on public aspirations to get things done for the common good. Rich has worked in struggling communities such as Newark, Detroit, and Flint, Michigan and has created a group of “Beacon Communities” to develop a critical mass of public innovators. He’s partnered with influential organizations like United Way Worldwide, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the American Library Association in order to enhance their relevance and impact in the communities they serve.

His latest book, The Work of Hope, asserts that fixing our politics shouldn’t be our top priority. “The central task in our society is to restore belief in ourselves and one another that we can get things done, together.” It was that philosophy which guided Rich’s work in Newtown and brought about an emotional, yet harmonious, decision.

Registration open for Aug 7th Confab call with Rich Harwood

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We have a special guest lined up for our August confab call — Rich Harwood, president and founder of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation in Bethesda, Maryland. The call will take place on Wednesday, August 7th, from 2:00 to 3:30 Eastern (11-12:30 Pacific), and registration is now open!

RichHarwoodEarlier this year, Rich was asked to facilitate a series of meetings in Newtown, CT to help the grieving city decide what to do with Sandy Hook Elementary School, site of the horrific mass murder of children and school personnel last December. We’ve asked Rich to talk to NCDD members about his work in Newtown, and the broader work he and his colleagues are doing at the Harwood Institute for Public Engagement. (Read the amazing story here.)

He brought 25 years of experience to the task in Newtown. Through community conversations, constant innovation, and nationwide research, The Harwood Institute has developed an approach that’s helped cities, organizations, and individuals “Turn Outward” and build on public aspirations to get things done for the common good. Rich has worked in struggling communities such as Newark, Detroit, and Flint, Michigan and has created a group of “Beacon Communities” to develop a critical mass of public innovators. He’s partnered with influential organizations like United Way Worldwide, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the American Library Association in order to enhance their relevance and impact in the communities they serve.

His latest book, The Work of Hope, asserts that fixing our politics shouldn’t be our top priority. “The central task in our society is to restore belief in ourselves and one another that we can get things done, together.” It was that philosophy which guided Rich’s work in Newtown and brought about an emotional, yet harmonious, decision.

NCDDs’s “Confab calls” provide opportunities for members to connect with each other, hear about exciting projects in our field, and explore our most difficult challenges. And since many of you may be hosting and facilitating conversations on mental health as part of the White House’s initiative, we hope you’ll sign up and benefit from the conversation about Rich’s experiences in Newtown.

Register for the August 7th Confab today to reserve your spot!