IF will participate in and conduct a presentation/demonstration on public discussions of water policy at a Water Ethics Conference held by the D.B Reinhardt Institute for Ethics in Leadership, Viterbo University, La Crosse, WI, April 16-18, 2015. The conference is...
One of the things that the Interactivity Foundation does is to teach people how to think about public policy possibilities. This will sound patronizing only if you misunderstand why, what, and how we do it. I heard an interview with former Supreme Court Justice...
There are many different kinds of the interactivity going on in IF public discussions. But the interactivity of ideas is one of the most important ones. Our reports are developed by two groups of people who meet every month for over a year to explore, develop, and...
I’ve known it for years: that all great ideas derive from beer—or at least television commercials for beer. Though for my purposes here, perhaps a better version of this slogan would be “Great Discussion, Less Text”. As we continue to develop the format of our...
Election time is probably the time when people hear and talk about policy the most. So you may feel that you have already heard way too much about policy debates in recent months. And you may feel—just like me—completely disgusted with all the negative campaign...
What are IF public discussions like and how do they differ from other type of policy discussions? IF typically organizes a discussion series—usually 3 or 4 meetings—for small groups of people to explore the possibilities in our reports. The possibilities in our reports emanate from the different concerns, beliefs, values, goals, and interests that Americans might have about an area of concern. They thus present contrasting possibilities that emanate from conceptual differences. We ask our participants to try to consider the possibility from the perspective of someone who might propose it before they begin to assess it from their own perspective.
First, IF reports neither make recommendations nor aim for consensus. Most of the public policy reports produced today end with a list of things that must be done to avert Armageddon. It is true that IF reports often include lists of ‘possible implementations’, but...
IF’s public discussion Reports are akin to the curricular materials that all teachers rely on—with two critical differences. First, citizens--no less than experts—have a say in what IF Reports say. Second, and even more importantly, the end of IF Reports is to...
IF conducts projects that result in reports containing contrasting policy possibilities so that others may have the benefit of “starting points” in their own discussions of policy areas. Presumably, a helpful report could assist other citizens in getting an initial...