As interest in deliberative democracy grows, more and more people are looking for resources to launch an initiative in their communities. Many people have heard of one tool or another (“Study Circles,” “World Café,” etc.) but wonder if this tool is the best fit for their needs; others only know that something needs to happen, but aren’t sure where to begin.
Thanks to Tom Atlee of the Co-intelligence Institute, here is a draft list of clearinghouses, databases, and resource sites related to democracy and participation. Slow Democracy authors have recommended NCDD before, and will again – it’s on the list – but as you can see, there is a wide variety of others as well. Each of these is its own clearinghouse – a doorway to another set of doors. The good news is, many (including NCDD) feature list-serves and other means for you to ask questions and get guidance as you move along. In hopes that this will be invigorating rather than overwhelming, we wish you joy in your exploration. And feel free to add to the list!
1. Participedia - http://participedia.net/
2. ParticipateDB - http://participatedb.com/
3. The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation - http://ncdd.org - especially their resource page - http://ncdd.org/rc/ - and even more especially, their participatory practices http://ncdd.org/rc/item/category/participatory-practices
4. Deliberative Democracy Helpline - http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/helpline/
5. Involve: e.g., http://www.involve.org.uk/tag/tools/
6. WiserEarth - e.g., http://www.wiser.org/all/search?phrase=democracy and http://www.wiser.org/all/search?phrase=participation and others
7. Wikipedia.org - e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Democracy and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Collective_intelligence and others
8. Innovations in Democracy database - http://democracyinnovations.org/wagn/Resources_by_name
9. E-Democracy - http://forums.e-democracy.org/
10. Aarhus Convention Clearinghouse - http://aarhusclearinghouse.unece.org/resources/?sortby=da&c=1000003&c=1000006&c=&c=
11. Democracy and Elections Database - http://www.idea.int/resources/databases.cfm
12. Arts for Democracy Database - http://animatingdemocracy.org/great-links/specialized-databases
13. The Deliberative Democracy Consortium - http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/ - especially their resources page
http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=74
14. Amazon books on Democracy - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=democracy
15. Co-intelligence Institute lists:
a. Community Resources from the Co-Intelligence Institute - http://co-intelligence.org/CommunityResourcesCII.html (includes extensive materials on multi-process programs)
b. Compilations from the Co-Intelligence Institute http://co-intelligence.org/CI_compilations.html (which features
https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/03/toolbox/ )
16. A Pattern Language for Group Process - http://groupworksdeck.org
17. Tom Atlee's list of participatory budgeting resources - http://www.tomatleeblog.com/?p=43549766