April 18, 2008
Excellent Care But Rising Costs: Is There a Better Balance? New NIF Issue Book on Paying for Health Care
Paying for Health Care–National Issues Forum Issue Advisory
Excellent Care But Rising Costs: Is There a Better Balance?
April 15, 2008
Hearing Voices: a New Way to Listen
This was the title of the presentation Virginia Beach staff gave at the Transforming Local Government conference in 2007 on our Public Voices on Redevelopment project. You can look at the roles the public library played in researching and presenting background information and in hosting and moderating.
Creating Aging-Friendly Communities
In February and March, I participated in Creating Aging-Friendly Communities, an online conference at http://www.icohere.com/agingfriendly/. One of the tracks was civic engagement and a couple of presenters were excellent!
The AdvantAge Initiative had a particularly useful paper on using focus groups, available at http://www.vnsny.org/advantage/tools/3a_Focus_Groups.pdf
Lara Birnback of Public Agenda, http://www.publicagenda.org/ talked about 10 Lessons of Successful Engagement. I have not found these on the Public Agenda site, but she sent them to me:
1. Begin by listening;
2. Attend to people’s concerns;
3. Reach beyond the usual suspects;
4. Frame issues for the public, not experts;
5. Provide the right type and amount of information at the right time.
6. Help people move beyond wishful thinking.
7. Expect obstacles and resistance.
8. Create multiple, varied opportunities for deliberation and dialogue;
9. Respond thoughtfully to the public’s involvement;
10. Build long term capacity as you go.
For these two alone the conference was worth my time. And while I am wortking on a senior services plan, this information is applicable to any age.
April 14, 2008
using 2.0 for civic engagement
Here are some interesting web 2.0 resources for civic engagement that I’ve run across this spring. The idea behind all three is to lure young people into civic engagement through Web2.0 tools.
- Using Participatory Media and Public Voice to Encourage Civic Engagement by Howard Rheingold http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/dmal.9780262524827.097
- Participatory Media Literacy, a wiki follow up to Rheingold’s essay https://www.socialtext.net/medialiteracy/index.cgi
- Unrelated, except in spirit is this “Serious Game for the Public Good” where players are invited to imagine we are running out of oil and to contribute words and images to the collective discussion using 2.0 media. http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/
Carolyn
April 13, 2008
Case Foundation “Make It Your Own Awards” Online Voting
Case Foundation “Make It Your Own Awards” Online VotingLast fall, the Case Foundation launched an exciting initiative called the Make It Your Own Awards™. It invited inspired individuals from all walks of life to choose what matters most to them, decide what kind of community they want, and take action together. It received nearly 5,000 applications.
In keeping with the spirit of Make It Your Own, the foundation is inviting the online community to vote and decide which of these finalists will be its Final Four and receive an additional $25,000.
Help Decide Who Wins
The projects submitted by the Top 20 finalists represent fresh and innovative ideas for improving communities. The Case Foundation is committed to helping these dreams come true. In preparation for online voting, the Foundation is reaching out to organizations who share its desire to inspire people to connect with others, form solutions and take action together. It needs action oriented people to review their stories and decide who makes it to the Final Four.
5000 Dreams. 20 Finalists. Help Decide the Final Four.
The Case Foundation has announced the Top 20 Finalists in the Make It Your Own Awards. Now, it’s up to the online community to vote and decide which of these finalists will become the Final Four and receive an additional $25,000 to make their community dreams come true.
Beginning March 25th, to vote, visit http://miyo.casefoundation.org/vote.
April 3, 2008
Turning Student Discontent into Deliberation by David D. Cooper, Michigan State U.
Turning Student Discontent Into Deliberation
During the last few years, my interests as a writing teacher and American Studies scholar have turned to the relationship between rhetoric and democratic practices and, in particular, to how I might use deliberative democracy techniques — problem-solving strategies based on public consensus building rather than debate, partisanship, and polarization — for teaching writing and critical thinking. These disciplinary and pedagogical interests came bundled with closely related concerns about how to better involve my students in the life of the university and in the civic affairs of Michigan State University’s neighbor, the local state capitol. I wanted to find ways, in short, for students to develop their public voices. Deeper down, I was also looking to renew my energies as a teacher and ratchet up the relevance of the humanities classroom by trying to connect the usual and venerable fare of the humanities— principles, ideas, and critical reflection — to the crucible of lived community problems where ordinary citizens conduct the extraordinary work of democratic citizenship.
Read the full article at: http://insidehighered.com/views/2008/04/03/cooper
March 31, 2008
Reframing Framing from Public Agenda’s Center for Advances in Public Engagement
Public Agenda’s Center for Advances in Public Engagement has released an interesting report on “framing” in democratic politics. “Reframing Framing,” authored by Center director Will Friedman, argues that, ”The current infatuation with framing is concerned virtually exclusively with the power politics of parties and interest groups, and the winning or losing of their respective battles.” Instead, the report asks, “What if we asked instead about the relationship of framing to fostering citizenship and enabling democratic deliberation and dialogue? What if we were to reframe framing to focus less on how it can help one side or another win the political game and more on what it means, and can mean, for strengthening the democratic process?” In the report, Dr. Friedman delineates “Framing-to-Persuade vs. Framing-for-Deliberation” and tackles honest vs. dishonest framing.
Read the full report here: http://www.publicagenda.org/pubengage/pdfs/reframing_framing.pdf
March 25, 2008
Ford Foundation Publishes The Public Square in the Digital Age
The New Public Square
How an unheralded network of organizations is making room for diverse voices and true public space in a digital era.
Ford Reports
2007, Volume 37, No. 2
THE PUBLIC SQUARE IN A DIGITAL AGE
http://www.fordfound.org/impact/fordreports/publicsquare
Ear-budded Americans listen to podcasts on virtually any imaginable topic and text message friends and colleagues about everything from grocery lists to leveraged buyouts. This constant connection and limitless expanse of fact and opinion would seem to be the perfect incubator for democratic involvement and participation. Yet as the media sector reinvents itself, there are real questions about how citizens learn about the issues affecting their lives, make choices, and take part in the governance of a continuously changing media environment where enormous sums of money and power are at stake. Over the past five years, the Ford Foundation has renewed its longstanding commitment to the media field. Our objective is to ensure that diverse voices are heard and that citizens have access to media that enrich the way we practice democracy.
March 23, 2008
Join the Deliberate Listserv
How to Subscribe to the Deliberate listserv
1. Got to: http://lists.ala.org/wws
2. Click on “View All Lists”
3. Scroll down to “deliberate@ala.org”
4. Click on “Subscribe”
Civic Engagement Links
Civic Engagement Web Sites Find out more about civic engagement activities around the country. Web sites on civic engagement compiled by Nancy Kranich, Convener, ALA Libraries Foster Civic Engagement Membership Initiative Group.
