Category Archives: online & hi-tech

Check Out the April Tech Tuesday with EnCiv!

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Last week, we held the April Tech Tuesday featuring EnCiv and the Undebate platform! We were joined by 40 participants as Will Ferguson, David Fridley, and Adolf Gundersen of EnCiv walked us through their Undebate platform, and the newer Unrountable they are developing. If you weren’t able to make the call, this post includes all of the key link and information – check it out!

EnCiv automates proven human-interaction methods to scale productive democratic discourse. The Undebate is being made available to voters across the country this election season by EnCiv partner Ballotpedia under the label “Candidate Conversations.” In this Tech Tuesday event, EnCiv shared with us an example of how Undebate was used for the San Francisco District Attorney race, which can be viewed at this link.

They also introduced us to the Unroundtable, a platform to allow people to share their thoughts or stories about a topic or issue through brief video responses. You can check out the example they shared with us of an Unroundtable on “What is Democracy?” at this link.

THANK YOU to Will, David, Adolf, and everyone who joined this call! We recorded the whole presentation if you were unable to join us, which you can access here. We had several excellent questions offered in the chat, which you can find the transcript of here.

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Tech Tuesdays are a series of learning events from NCDD focused on technology for engagement. .To learn more about NCDD’s Tech Tuesday series and hear recordings of past calls, please visit www.ncdd.org/tech-tuesdays. If you have an idea for a future Tech Tuesday event, please email keiva[at]ncdd[dot]org with your great ideas!

Finally, we love holding these events and we want to continue to elevate the work of our field with Confab Calls and Tech Tuesdays. It is through your generous contributions to NCDD that we can keep doing this work! That’s why we want to encourage you to support NCDD by making a donation or becoming an NCDD member today (you can also renew your membership by clicking here). Thank you!

Practical Academics shares: Online Meeting Best Practices

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NCDD Member Michael Freedman of Practical Academics shared the following blog post with us. In the post, Michael shares best practices for your online meetings – a timely topic for this moment! We encourage you to check out the article below, or over at the Practical Academics site here.

Online Meeting Best Practices

The advantages of online meetings are to save travel time, convenience, and flexibility while retaining or augmenting the benefits of group interactivity. For interactivity, we need engagement; for engagement, we need encouragement and trust.  A one-way webinar is not a lot better than a video or a one-to-many lecture. Here are some points to consider in developing and running an interactive online meeting.

Development

Leverage time together for interactivity and sophisticated communications. Ask your participants to prepare in advance. Be clear on what this means: what they should come equipped with, and what should they be prepared to do.

Minimize large group time, maximize small group time. Large group time is for opening comments and announcements, setting the tone and agenda, for sharing results of small group efforts, wrap-up, and follow-up. Replace lectures and one-to-many instruction and guidance with pre-work sent in advance.

Group management. Small group models suggest optimum group sizes are 5-9.  If this is a short ad hoc session, try less, perhaps 3-5. Use break-out sessions or hold multiple meetings if that’s what it takes.

Present structured activities and conversations with targeted outcomes; and be flexible if those outcomes evolve as this is the point of having people work things over: to develop the thinking.

Provide timeframes for working sessions with the Goldilocks model: not too short and not too long. Provide enough time for all to participate, along with a deadline to drive action. Most of the small group working sessions will have specific tasks that can be addressed in five – twenty minutes.  If the working session agenda is long, use multiple working sessions.

Have an end game.  What are you seeking to accomplish, and what will you do with the results?

If you have unstructured conversations, then make that distinction and ask folks to come with some thoughts on the topic to be discussed.

Have two leaders: One focuses on content delivery (short and succinct) and the other on the chat and looking at participants to get an idea of their engagement. This person then “presents” next. One can play the role of synthesizing with help from the group.

Consider a group participation agreement, formal or informal, depending on the group.

Include an opening round-robin so that everyone has a chance to say something – this will “break the ice,’ and set the tone for full participation.  Make sure opening is on topic and relevant, not a timewaster.

Plan carefully to avoid time-zone and cultural snafus.

Use easy-to-use technology and make sure you know how to use it. Offer to train participants in advance.

Operations

Be consistent with your start time protocol and start on time. Consider an “unofficial” start time where folks can get set up and say hello.  But start on time.

As the leader, show up early and kick off the conversations. Get people comfortable and participating. Try the “one-word” exercise: share a word that reflects how you are and what’s going on.

Keep a roster of participants and take notes on crucial contributions, factoids, and follow-ups.

Put on a show – prepare a solid opening, make it positive and constructive, if not joyful. Make time for people to add their ideas and modify the agenda.

Don’t overuse technology. Tools should serve their purpose without getting in the way.  A show of hands might be better than an online poll.

Seek buy-in where possible. Buy-in engenders commitment and commitment fosters participation.

Allow some personal clearing and ideation; these are trust-building and tone-setting activities.

The downside of virtual conferencing is the limited ability to read non-verbal cues. Encourage all to use video so that expressions are readable, and to counteract the narrow “bandwidth,” slightly exaggerate your expressions and tone.

Wrap up

Follow-up. Distribute the results of the meeting with any action items and clear responsibilities as soon as possible following the end of the session.

Keep the momentum going.

Thanks to the members of the Right Company for their contributions.

Join Webinar on Optimizing Online Engagement for Planning

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NCDD member organization MetroQuest is hosting another of their great webinars on optimizing online engagement for planning. This webinar is free and happening next Wednesday, May 6th at 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern. You can read more in the post below and find the original on MetroQuest’s site here.

MetroQuest webinar – “Optimizing Online Engagement for Planning with MetroQuest”

Wednesday, May 6th
11 am Pacific | 12 pm Mountain | 1 pm Central | 2 pm Eastern (1 hour)
Educational Credit Available (APA AICP CM)
Complimentary (FREE)

After reviewing hundreds of case studies, it turns out that there’s a formula for success with online public engagement to support planning.

Online tools are a critical part of the planner’s public engagement toolbox, especially as we look for safe, effective methods to engage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital town halls? Online surveys? Social media? Online forums? Find out which options result in positive, actionable community input for your urban and transportation plans.

It’s time to learn from the best performing case studies. In this webinar, you’ll learn how hundreds of agencies have engaged 1000s of participants, collecting 30,000 to 200,000 data points by combining well-designed surveys with targeted social media.

Discover the critical success factors to help you replicate the exceptional results that agencies and firms have been able to achieve – unprecedented levels of participation, broader demographic reach, informed public input, and actionable results to support data-driven plans.

This deep-dive session is the fastest way to get up-to-date on MetroQuest and a wide range of other tools and best practices for optimizing public engagement for planning.

Online public engagement can help teams move forward safely and effectively. In this webinar, we’ll explore how to:

  • Identify the right tools to achieve the best engagement results for planning
  • Deliver outstanding public engagement experiences using online tools
  • Embed microlearning to ensure that public input is informed
  • Achieve your top public engagement goals
  • Collect thousands of data points to support local plan

REGISTER: https://metroquest.com/webinars/optimizing-online-engagement-planning-metroquest

Announcing NCDD’s April Tech Tuesday with EnCiv!

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NCDD is thrilled to announce our next Tech Tuesday event featuring EnCiv and their new tool, the “Undebate.” This free event will take place Tuesday, April 28 from 2-3 PM Eastern/11-12 PM Pacific. Don’t miss this opportunity – register today to secure your spot!

EnCiv is a tech start-up led by NCDD Members Will Ferguson, David Fridley, and Adolf Gundersen. EnCiv automates proven human-interaction methods to scale productive democratic discourse.

In this Tech Tuesday event, these three principals from EnCiv will share with us an exciting new tool for online discourse, the “Undebate,” and the expansive vision that spawned it. The Undebate is being made available to voters across the country this election season by EnCiv partner Ballotpedia under the label “Candidate Conversations.” EnCiv will share with us more about this tool, and also ask for your input on other ways to use Undebate! We’ll also have an opportunity to hear about what else they are working on.

About our presenters

Will Ferguson is co-founder and CEO of Enciv, Inc. and a technology leader involved in numerous successful startups. He is also a co-inventor on eight patents in machine learning solutions.

Adolf Gundersen is co-founder and COO of EnCiv, as well as VP & Research Director at Interactivity Foundation. Adolf has thirty years experience as theorist and practitioner of democratic discussion.

David Fridley is CTO of EnCiv and Founder of Synaccord, LLC. David is a social entrepreneur, product manager, full stack developer, and has 30+ years experience in voice and video over the internet.

This event will be a great opportunity to see a new tool in action and connect with the presenters! Don’t miss it – 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.

Upcoming NCDD-NCL Joint Webinar on Social Distancing and Public Engagement

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Wow! We are a bit blown away to announce, we have reached max capacity attendance for our upcoming webinar this week with our partner organization, the National Civic League. The webinar happening this Wednesday, April 15th at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific, will give strategies for public engagement work during this period of physical distancing due to COVID-19.

While participants are no longer being accepted, we will be recording the webinar and can send it to folks afterwards. For those who are already registered for the event, you will be receiving the recording already. If you were not able to register, please sign up via this Google form and we will send the recording to you as well.

About the webinar

The webinar will feature Wendy Willis, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and Larry Schooler, Director of Consensus Building and Community Engagement, CD&P.  Wendy and Larry will showcase strategies for virtual public engagement in this time of social isolation.

This webinar will include information about leveraging government access television at all times, including this current time, to enhance the efforts of local government to connect with their residents and stakeholders.  Presenters will also talk about differences in various forms of online engagement and when it might make sense to use them, as well as tips for turning your in-person meetings into virtual ones. Sign up here to receive the recording!

Presenters:

Wendy Willis, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium

Wendy Willis is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, a global network of major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public engagement. Wendy is also the Founder and Director of Oregon’s Kitchen Table, a program of the National Policy Consensus Center in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.  Wendy is also a widely published poet and essayist, writing often on issues of public life.

 

Larry Schooler, Director of Consensus Building and Community Engagement at CD&P

After an award-winning career as a journalist across the globe, Larry Schooler became a mediator, facilitator, public engagement consultant, and educator. He works with agencies around the world to resolve disputes, build consensus and involve the public and stakeholders in decisions that will affect them. He also specializes in land use mediation, strategic planning, and visioning.  Dr. Schooler has written a manual on facilitating public meetings and has a forthcoming book on involving the public in the resolution of major community issues.

Join NCDD and NCL’s Webinar on Social Distancing and Public Engagement

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NCDD is thrilled to announce a joint webinar with our partner, the National Civic League! This webinar takes place next Wednesday, April 15th at 1:00 PM Eastern/10:00 AM Pacific. Register today to reserve your spot!

The webinar will feature Wendy Willis, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and Larry Schooler, Director of Consensus Building and Community Engagement, CD&P.  Wendy and Larry will showcase strategies for virtual public engagement in this time of social isolation.

This webinar will include information about leveraging government access television at all times, including this current time, to enhance the efforts of local government to connect with their residents and stakeholders.  Presenters will also talk about differences in various forms of online engagement and when it might make sense to use them, as well as tips for turning your in-person meetings into virtual ones. We hope you will join us – register today!

Presenters:

Wendy Willis, Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium

Wendy Willis is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, a global network of major organizations and leading scholars working in the field of deliberation and public engagement. Wendy is also the Founder and Director of Oregon’s Kitchen Table, a program of the National Policy Consensus Center in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University.  Wendy is also a widely published poet and essayist, writing often on issues of public life.

 

Larry Schooler, Director of Consensus Building and Community Engagement at CD&P

After an award-winning career as a journalist across the globe, Larry Schooler became a mediator, facilitator, public engagement consultant, and educator. He works with agencies around the world to resolve disputes, build consensus and involve the public and stakeholders in decisions that will affect them. He also specializes in land use mediation, strategic planning, and visioning.  Dr. Schooler has written a manual on facilitating public meetings and has a forthcoming book on involving the public in the resolution of major community issues.

ConversationCafe Recording and Resources

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Last week NCDD held our first virtual Conversation Cafe session, and we were blown away by the turnout – thank you to the 125+ of you who joined us to learn about how to host Cafes online and participated in one on the call!

The level of interest and enthusiasm was overwhelming, and so we wanted to make sure that anyone who is interested in this simple, open-source model for dialogue has the information and resources to do so! The following is a list of links to new and existing materials that everyone is welcome to utilize:

  • NCDD’s current director Courtney Breese, co-founder Sandy Heierbacher, and Conversation Cafe co-founder Susan Partnow, created a bunch of resources for hosting Conversation Cafes online during this pandemic: http://www.conversationcafe.org/for-hosts/resources-cafes-online/. Resources include a guide for hosts, the mini guide for use in the cafe, topics and questions for cafes, and an instructional on using Zoom for Cafes.
  • Beyond Conversation Cafe, NCDD’s Communications Coordinator Keiva Hummel has helped curate resources for responding to this pandemic. They are available (and can be added to!) over in Google Docs.

The recording of the virtual Conversation Cafe session is available at this link. Please note: the recording includes an overview of Conversation Cafe, the set-up for the cafe, and then the Q&A and wrap-up at the end. It does not include the breakout group conversations. Additionally, numerous resources and lots of information was shared in the chat.

NCDD is excited to see all the enthusiasm for what’s possible. We’ll continue to support these efforts as best we can, particularly by continuing to share resources and events. We’ve created a new Events Calendar to start sharing upcoming events, and a simple form for posting your event.

NCDD can also definitely use your help! If you want to help with social media, blog posts (share your stories of Cafes!), helping to create a stronger community of hosts, or something else you’d like to offer, send Courtney an email at courtney@ncdd.org. We will convene a team if there is enough interest to support Conversation Cafes in this unique moment. If you are not in a position to give your time right now, perhaps you might consider making a contribution to help support Conversation Cafe: www.ncdd.org/donate. NCDD is a small nonprofit and we steward Conversation Cafe without any dedicated funding support, so any and all contributions are greatly appreciated.

We are all juggling a lot right now, no doubt, but it is so heartening to see you, connect with you, and talk about what we can do for our communities during these difficult times. NCDD looks forward to continuing to work with you all!

Join us in #WeavingCommunity during crisis

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NCDD is partnering once again with numerous organizations in our field to encourage a national conversation – this time around the importance of weaving community during times of crisis. We hope you can take part!

The National Conversation Project is a coalition of partner organizations inviting Americans into online conversations and mutual support to weave a stronger community even now–especially now. Together, we’re promoting conversations and community amidst fear and isolation. We seek to serve our neighbors and nation in a moment of acute social crisis.

This pandemic can drive us apart or it can drive us together. Americans often rise to common challenges like this with kindness, love, mutual support, and shared responsibility to endure together. We need community now more than ever. Although our nation’s social fabric is badly frayed by distance and division, together we can weave a strong social fabric and emerge healthy and united.

Though we may avoid gathering in person, we can support each other in many ways online, via phone, and through acts of kindness for neighbors. By #WeavingCommunity now, we will be a stronger, more genuinely connected society on the other side of the pandemic.

We invite you to…

  1. Check out the Weaving2020 website now.
  2. Use the hashtag #WeavingCommunity whenever you invite people to your own online conversations or talk about your work.
  3. Host a video or phone conversation, spark a social media or text conversation, or do an act of kindness for a neighbor.
  4. Become a partner by contacting pearce@weaving2020.org.

Check back at www.weaving2020.com, where we’ll soon be adding lots of resources for online dialogue, dialogues you and others can participate in, and more.

Announcing a Virtual Conversation Cafe about COVID-19

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Friends, the desire for connection and thinking together is overwhelming in this time of physical distancing. NCDD, along with our member and dear friend Susan Partnow, have decided to offer another opportunity for our network to come together in dialogue to support us all during this time. Next Wednesday, March 25th from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern/10:00 AM-Noon Pacific, we will hold a virtual Conversation Cafe – all are welcome! Register here to join us.

This Cafe is intended as an opportunity for us to connect around how we are feeling and what we are thinking at this time, as well as exploring what we do next. We hope this will help build community among us in this difficult time, as well as help generate ideas for what we might do individually and collectively.

It will also be an opportunity for you to experience Conversation Cafe in an online format. This model is an elegantly simple process for bringing people together in small group conversations to share, listen to one another, and deepen their understanding of one another and a topic. It was built for face-to-face conversations, but Susan and I have been experimenting with it online and are finding that it may be a great model to help people connect virtually during a time of distancing physically. We plan to share some materials for moving this to an online format in advance of the call!

If you want to participate, please register today!