In our sanctuary projects we ask our panelists to develop contrasting conceptual policy possibilities pertaining to their areas of concern, and to then explore the practical policy possibilities that might flow from them if they were actually adopted as public...
The current tendency within IF is to recruit at least the generalist panels via Public (or "Citizen") Discussions. Those of us who use Meetup to recruit Citizen Discussion participants have a greater chance of connecting with a broader public. We are not limited...
In our sanctuary projects we ask our panelists to explore and develop an area of concern and the various conceptual policy possibilities pertaining to it. But we also try to prevent them from focusing upon problems--and especially from trying to find solutions to...
Much of what goes on by way of facilitated group discussions in this country and around the world is aimed at forging a consensus of opinion amongst the members of the group. The group may explore a number of possibilities in the course of their discussions, but...
I am six months into my first project, and both of my panels are now completing the concern-generating phase of the IF process and are now transitioning to the question-generating phase. Most participants seem to have a much easier time listing their concerns with...
Our focus in the blog and in the Summer Institute is on exploring connections between the Interactivity Foundation's "sanctuary discussion process" and the classroom. In earlier postings I've talked about the character of our approach to collaborative and...
In the Interactivity Foundation (IF) we often talk about "sanctuary discussions" or "the IF discussion process" in pretty interchangeable ways. In this post I'll describe some of the key features of of what we mean by calling them sanctuary discussions.
Here's a quick overview of what we do in the Interactivity Foundation, including our 3 focal areas of Sanctuary Projects, Citizen Discussions, and Education.
The Foundation has published 3 guidebooks for facilitating discussion. You can download a pdf of these guidebooks by clicking on their titles below. Facilitation Guidebook (Jack Byrd, Jr., edited by Adolf Gundersen, 2005) Facilitation Guidebook for Small Group...