One of the things I learned from being a collaborative partner in the application of IF process to a series of independent policy explorations of contentious subject matter is that it is difficult to broach conceptual possibilities when so many minds are already...
One of the ideas that has been recently been under discussion within IF is the possibility that citizen or public discussions of the approaches developed within IF sanctuary projects (that are ultimately published as reports) could be used to further refine or...
Despite warnings from colleagues and apoplectic reactions from partisans of various stripes, I have been working during the last year to see if it is possible to develop general starting points for discussion of climate change. These efforts first came together as...
Owen Coyle, a friend of over thirty years duration, passed away a week ago and the time since has been filled with memories of political collaborations and stories shared about our other adventures. The collaborations started with sharing the same office at the...
A policy dust-up was in the news recently in the form of Congressional action to end the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” stance on gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces. Opponents of ending current discriminatory policies have been making much of the...
IF public discussions provide participants with opportunities to discuss contrasting policy possibilities in neutral, non-partisan settings. Because these possibilities are meant to be anticipatory of possible policy approaches that allow participants to...
The Democracy Imperative's most recent newsletter has an interesting write-up detailing a recent forum exploring how federal policies and programs might be expanded to enhance the civic skills of American...
Colleague Jeff Prudhomme and I spent this last weekend in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Central States Communication Association Conference at the invitation of 2009 Summer Institute participant Professor Laura Black. We were there to participate in a “beyond the town...
IF’s policy possibility discussion process was developed with face-to-face meetings in mind. From time to time I have been asked whether or not this process might lend itself to use in web-based discussions or video-conferencing of various types. IF has been fairly...
Two previous installments in this practical tips series have attempted to glean wisdom from the facilitators who have led dozens of discussions on IF reports. We have looked at some of the issues involved in putting behinds in the seats and jump-starting conceptual...