Goals of Dialogue and Deliberation

Here’s a great way to present the goals of public engagement from Sandy Heierbacher of the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation:

Valuing shorter-term first-order goals and the overall development of civic capacity may be more practical – and satisfying – than solely emphasizing second-order goals like collaborative action and policy change, since such goals usually depend on many decisions and factors outside the scope of any one project. Practitioners should consider all three types of goals when determining project design and when measuring their success. (full article is here)

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The Machine is [Changing] Us

Michael Wesch gave a very entertaining and informative presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum this year.  He discusses how the technology we create eventually changes us.

He criticizes the one-way, sound-bite culture that mass media created; he raises the possibility that online collaborative tools can invent new ways of engaging in deeper and meaningful conversation.

More information about his ideas is here.  Watching this presentation in person was exciting; he deserved the standing ovation.

I look forward to Micheal’s ideas becoming mainstream.  Currently most folks in the Gov 2.0 world are still focusing on social media.  Social media are useful, but getting everyone together in one place online is just the first step; the next (and more complicated) step is collaboration on a deeper level.