Category: civic engagement
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My Local Blog Is Not A Local Newspaper And I Like It That Way
As my readers know, at my recent session at the No Better Time conference on dialogue and deliberation, one of the things I talked about in depth was the local blog I founded over two years ago, Rockville Central. Civic idealist and geek that I am, I created Rockville Central in order to have a…
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Our "Tech-Savvy Citizenry" Session
As many of my friends know, I’ll be leading a session with Joe Peters of Ascentum at the upcoming “No Better Time” conference on participatory democracy. The session I’m a part of is called “Tech-Savvy Citizenry.” Here is the session description: A tech-savvy citizenry: New media for public participation, policy deliberation, and social change Facebook…
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I'm Afraid I Don't Understand This Open Government Thing
People in my field have been aflutter since January over the White House’s efforts to craft what’s called an “Open Governmemnt Initiative.” On his first full day in office, President Obama issued a memorandum calling for us to “work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration”…
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Does Dialogue Always Require Trained Conversation Leaders?
The White House’s Office Of Science And Technology Policy last week invited comments on a number of blog posts that summarized citizen recommendations to enhance participation and transparency. (This is part of the administration’s “Open Government Initiative.”) One blog post was on “Enhancing Citizen Participation In Decision Making.” People shared a lot of good ideas.…
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Moving Beyond Margaret Mead
My friend Peter Levine starts a recent article with the famous Margaret Mead quotation that graces the walls and annual reports of a significant fraction of nonprofits: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead He goes on to…
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Mayor's Sustainability Summit A Great Example Of "Governing Different"
Kai Degner is mayor of Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Before becoming mayor, he was also active (and still is, as you will see) in the civic participation community. He was elected about a month ago on what he refers to as a “process-based platform,” which means his basic promise is to change how…
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Working Well With Others: Five Things Organizations Learn When Engaging The Public
Friends, I am delighted to release a report that captures lessons learned by a handful of professional organizations as they work to engage the public. I am releasing the report only through my email list. In order to download the report from this page, you need a password that I will email to you. (Sign…
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Join Me At The Democracy Imperative
Today I am giving a presentation for a group convened by the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership. But since I’ve already written about them (more than once), I thought I would let you know instead about an exciting conference I will be presenting at later in July. It’s “No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative…
Brad Rourke 