April 26, 2011 IF’s Citizen Discussion Reports* Sanctuary discussions, which I described in my previous post, need not culminate in a written document. But if their results are to be made available for public discussion, they need...
April 26, 2011 Sanctuary Discussion* At the mention of “citizen discussion,” we tend to conjure up images of rapid-fire, heated exchanges between partisans, often in the glare of the media spotlight. Haste, partisan heat, and...
April 26, 2011 “Going Public” and Citizen Discussion of IF Reports—Part One IF’s initial developmental plans for its policy possibility reports included the loosely described phase of “going public”. This left the door open to a number of potential approaches to getting...
April 7, 2011 A Comparative View of IF’s Approach to Public Discussion* In my last note I described our public discussions in terms of but four key aspects: active facilitators; small groups; interactivity; and exploration and development. Together they paint a very...
April 7, 2011 Key Aspects of IF’s Public Discussions• At least four interactive aspects are critical to useful public discussion of IF’s Citizens Discussion Reports. 1. Facilitation is critical in public discussions of IF Citizens Staff Work Reports. There is nothing...
April 7, 2011 Influencing public policy I am in the 8th month of a year-long discussion project on the “Future of Higher Education in the US.” At this stage, I get the sense that participants are...
April 5, 2011 Forward I appreciate the feedback I've gotten on my last note ("On Wisconsin"). To move that discussion forward, let me echo something University of Wisconsin-Madison history professor William Cronon said...
April 1, 2011 ‘You lie!’ On this April Fools’ Day, I have been thinking about people lying, and accusing other people of lying, and human folly in general. There are all sorts of lies: white...
March 30, 2011 Gamification and Motivating Civic Action How might public policy get people to act in certain ways? The question of how a democratic society could impact the behavior of its citizens is a near constant one...