The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) is an active network of people and groups with expertise in public engagement and group facilitation. The NCDD network should be included in the Open Government Directive as a resource to be tapped into for dialogue facilitators, participation consultants, and public engagement training for federal managers.
Engaging people around the issues that affect their lives and their country is a key component of a strong, open democratic society. Effective public engagement goes beyond public relations and information-sharing by providing ways for people with a variety of viewpoints to grapple with issues together and come up with creative solutions.
NCDD is a vibrant network of over 1000 organizations and individuals who, collectively, regularly engage and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people across the globe around today's critical issues. Formed in 2002, NCDD is a U.S.-based organization with international members and affiliations, all of whom are dedicated to expanding the capacity of people with divergent views from all walks of life to engage in honest dialogue and quality deliberation.
NCDD members include virtually all of the organizations that are breaking significant new ground in public engagement and conflict resolution – including AmericaSpeaks, the Center for Deliberative Democracy, Public Agenda, Everyday Democracy, National Issues Forums Institute, Viewpoint Learning, the World Cafe Community Foundation, and many others.
NCDD’s resource-rich website, at www.thataway.org, is a popular hub for public engagement and conflict resolution practitioners and researchers. Our website offers a comprehensive assortment of resources, tools and best practices related to participatory democracy, public engagement, political inclusion, restorative justice, organizational development, and conflict resolution at all levels, and we keep in touch monthly with over 25,000 people who do this work.
Comments (5)
NCDD is well positioned to make a contribution. An active network of groups committed to dialogue, public engagement, and civic participation of many kinds, NCDD brings experience, people, and lots of ideas.
Please make this happen! The way to have a true Democracy is for the people
to have a meaningful opportunity to influence policies and procedures in
governing.
Warm Regards,
Fr Harry J Bury PhD
I have voted for this, but insert a caveat here: kum-ba-ya dialog is WORTHLESS in the absence of shared information and sense-making. The public needs decision-support, public intelligence in the public interest. See Open Source Agency for an implementing idea that would absolute make NCDD a primary conduit for citizen engagement with real facts for real people.
The NCDD is a great gathering of intelligence, openness, continuous learning devoted to creating contexts for mutually respectful and beneficially inclusive process. I am very grateful for the integrity I experience in our evolution. Thank you Sandy.
The complexities of business and invention need not be compromised in supporting standard portal connections. The ability to connect to the rest of the world and access the strength of community the web has to offer is vital for all humanity to compete in future learning environments. The fundamental secure portal that this writing refers to is a high level secure portal connection, the device offers the user the immediate ability to connect and transmit or receive data on the move. It unifies what is technically possible and marketable into a single device. Vital statistics would be monitored and available to the user for analysis. Applications that enhance the user in interactions with the community at large offer advantages that right now while available, are weakened in usefulness by fragmented and independent design. The trends in communications design and embedded applications have made rapid acceptance in society. The convergence with green power generation from the user coupled with embedded applications that provide enhancements for connectivity would also assist in societies efforts to reign in cybercrime. A standard portal device will offer encryption levels that are hack proof and will be designed to ensure user privacy. A citizen standard connection portal, in the spirit of transparency the strength in the adoption lies in the societal acceptance. When all citizens have the power of connectivity to participate in the strength of community, opportunity for enhanced learning becomes more powerful as well.
The costs of governance have the potential for drastic reduction. By merely giving every person in America immediate connectivity no matter where they are in the world reduces the infrastructure costs of providing the services of government and society as a whole. By giving this level of possibility to all Americans the strength of what it means to participate in building success will become immediately apparent. The design of this device through peer review across the population’s diverse spectrum of scientists’, business leaders, social network professionals and government agencies, along with the public at large will give 21st century clout to the protection offered within the constitution.
Cyber security will be made highly affordable to implement as the standard would have the largest audience not only in its creation but as well in its deployment. Once deployed the increased connectivity to efficiently deliver the services primarily of government but of all aspects of societal interactions, will be the 21st century platform for all cumulative societal efforts engaged in national and global prosperity.
Wireless connectivity offers the most efficient transition to full participatory access for all Americans.