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This looks like an excellent mix of in-person gatherings, place-based group technology, and "anywhere, any time" online communications. Steven Clift Democracies Online ------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5,000 Residents of NYC, Region To Help Shape Future Of Lower Manhattan July 20th Javits Center Event Will Use Interactive Technologies, Up to 5,000 residents of New York City and the surrounding region will gather in a 21st Century town meeting on Saturday, July 20th at the Jacob Javits Center to consider plans for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan and the creation of a permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11. The meeting will utilize a citizen engagement design that combines intimate face-to-face dialogue with large group interactive technology. Citizens will continue their participation in the process in the weeks following the town meeting through online forums. Entitled "Listening to the City" (http://www.listeningtothecity.org), the event is being organized by the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York (http://www.civic-alliance.org), a coalition of more than 85 civic, business, environmental, community, university and labor groups, and supported through generous grants from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (http://www.renewnyc.com), the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (http://www.rbf.org) and other members of the corporate and foundation communities. The meeting will be facilitated by AmericaSpeaks (http://www.americaspeaks.org), a DC- based nonprofit that specializes in large-scale citizen engagement and the integration of new technologies with face-to-face deliberation. Participants in the Town Meeting will have an opportunity to view and comment on up to six alternatives for the site, adjacent areas and related transportation to be released by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and Port Authority in July as part of a three-phase study now underway. They will also be able to voice their opinions on the process for creating a permanent memorial, which LMDC will announce in July. In addition, participants will be encouraged to share their own ideas and to react to a variety of proposals created by organizations and individuals through the public input process. "Listening to the City" will be the largest town hall meeting of its kind, according to AmericaSpeaks, the non-profit organization that created the innovative model for large-scale public engagement. Participants will come from all walks of life -- residents and workers, survivors and families of victims, emergency and rescue workers, business and property owners, citizens and civic leaders. They will reflect considerable age, income ethnic, racial, geographic and gender diversity. "The design allows us to engage large, representative groups of people," said Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer, President of AmericaSpeaks. "It's the ideal way to involve individuals in a democratic planning process for Lower Manhattan, and we think it will serve as a model for 21st Century citizen engagement in public policy." "Our goal is to create a great urban space in Lower Manhattan -- one that sensitively memorializes the thousands of people who lost their lives and serves the long-term needs, interests and dreams of people throughout New York City, the surrounding region and the entire nation," said Robert D. Yaro, President of the Regional Plan Association (http://www.rpa.org). Arthur J. Fried, Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in New York City Governance (http://www.nyu.edu/wagner/excellence), added, "'Listening to the City' is exciting not only because it makes a significant contribution to the rebuilding effort, but also because it introduces a new method for bringing rich public input into the large-scale planning process in New York City." LMDC Chairman John Whitehead said, "As an integral part of our rebuilding and revitalizing plans, the LMDC has been gathering valuable input for the past several months from the many constituencies involved with Lower Manhattan. This unique forum will be especially useful in reaching out to gain the views of an additional 5,000 participants in a town hall setting." The online dialogues following the Town Meeting will be supported by Web Lab (http://www.weblab.org). Using Web Lab's Small Group Dialogue technology, the online discussions will provide the effort with the opportunity to: explore issues in much greater depth than the one-day in-person deliberations; to include people who cannot be available on July 20th; and to use the value of the Internet as an "instant archive" of opinion, consensus and dissent that offers a detailed record of first-hand comments, available for "mining" by a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. "Listening to the City" builds on a prior, 600-person event devoted to the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, which took place on February 7, 2002, at the South Street Seaport. AmericaSpeaks has staged over 50 such events around the country for groups as large as 3,700. Led by a team from AmericaSpeaks, the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, the New School?s Milano Graduate School, the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development and the Regional Plan Association, the Civic Alliance has moved quickly to organize the July gathering. A planning team is working out the specifics of the event, which will include up to 500 round tables, each with 10-12 participants. Professional facilitators at each table will lead face-to- face discussions, capture thoughts on laptop computers and then wirelessly transmit them to a "theme team." This team will combine the inputs, frame questions and project them on large video screens for the entire group?s consideration. Individual participants will then use wireless polling keypads to "voice their opinions" on the questions, with results being instantly displayed. A final proceedings report will be widely disseminated to decision-makers, who have committed to seriously consider its recommendations. For more information about "Listening to the City" and to register as a participant for the 9:00 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m. event, individuals should call 1-800-862-3154 or visit http://www.listeningtothecity.org. Individuals unable to attend on July 20th for religious observance or other reasons are invited to register -- on a first-come/first-served basis -- for a smaller event on Monday, July 22nd. ------- End of forwarded message ------- ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
