In my previous installment on practical tips I looked at recruitment of citizen groups. The who, what, and where of that first step of gathering the bodies exerts considerable influence on how you might want to initiate discussion of policy possibilities. We will...
Life imitates art, or so they say. But not always. At least not completely. Take the story of Chicken Little. True, we’ve got no shortage these days of Chicken Littles. It’s hard to turn around without bumping into a Chicken Little leading a parade of experts,...
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...
A lot of people wonder why IF public discussions focus on conceptual possibilities. Instead of talking about abstract ideas, why not deal with something really practical? The short answer is that, from one perspective at least, nothing could be more practical...
One of IF’s ongoing tasks is to find the most useful scale and tone for the possibilities in its reports. While we have learned a great deal about how to present possibilities and discuss them, we are still grappling with a number of questions about the relation of...
One of the benefits of ongoing citizen conversation is the ability to talk about issues that might impact individuals and communities long before they become controversial or partisan. This type of citizen re-imagining was once part of our approach to governance....
IF staff, associated faculty, and contracted facilitators have accumulated many useful insights about the art of facilitating public or "citizen discussions" of policy possibilities. Most of these individuals brought significant facilitation experience or other...
The Interactivity Foundation (IF) engages in a number of different activities. We help faculty across the country integrate a student-centered discussion model into their classrooms to transform how students learn within the university classroom. The skills...
If you were to ask a cross-section of elected officials and public sector administrators about the need for embedding deliberative process in government many might respond with indignation. “We already deliberate!”, legislators might protest. “We hold many public...
Some people think there’s something magical or mystical about IF-style citizen discussions. Others think they’re just plain mysterious. They are none of these things. In fact, they’re a lot like the kind of thing most of us do on our own when faced with...