Increasing Public Participation, Understanding, and Transparency of the Legislative Process Through the Use of Web Dialogue

The Washington State House of Representatives developed and co-produced two WestEd WebDialogues with two legislative committees, the Health Care and Well Committee and the Higher Education Committee. The pilot project is described in the Summer 2008 issue of the National Civic Review. The article outlines the public engagement challenges of the Washington legislature and provides details on who joined, what participants said, and lessons learned, from the two web dialogues. The paper is co-authored by WestEd's WebDialogues Developer and Manager, Laurie Maak, and Rich Nafziger, Chief Clerk of the Washington House of Representatives. To review the article, send your request to Laurie Maak.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Web Dialogue

This article describes a fully bilingual web national dialogue hosted by the International Joint Commission (U.S. and Canada) held as part of the organizations public engagement regarding the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. It was published in the Fall 2007 newsletter, How E-Government is Changing Society and Strengthening Democracy" by the USA Services Intergovernmental Solutions Division, GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications. The article was written by WestEd’s WebDialogues Developer and Manager, Laurie Maak, the International Joint Commission staff Frank Bevacqua and Paula Fedeski-Koundakjian, and the dialogue facilitator, Nicholas Dewar.

"Public consultation in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence river basin: Online and face-to-face"

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Review Dialogue, developed by WestEd and hosted by the International Joint Commission (IJC) is described in the Summer 2006 issue of the National Civic Review. The article, "Public consultation in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence river basin: Online and face-to-face", describes and compares the IJC's public outreach strategies and examines the challenges and successes of their first online fully bilingual dialogue. Authors are WestEd's WebDialogues Developer and Manager, Laurie Maak, IJC's Public Information Officer (U.S.), Frank Bevacqua , IJC's Public Affairs Adviser (Canadian), Paula Fedeski-Koundakjian, and the dialogue facilitator, Program Manager, CDR Associates, Nicholas Dewar. To review the article, send your request to Laurie Maak.

National Student WebDialogues

This guest column published in Citizenship Matters by the Education Commission of the States, describes how web dialogues can engage students in focused, informed and facilitated discussions about issues important to them. The article is written by Laurie Maak, WestEd's WebDialogue developer and manager and John Minkler, director of the Center for Multicultural Cooperation.

The Deliberative Democracy Handbook: Strategies for Effective Civic Engagement in the Twenty-First Century

Insights from WestEd’s WebDialogues developer, Laurie Maak, and colleagues, “Bringing the Public and the Government Together Through On-Line Dialogues” are included in “The Deliberative Democracy Handbook: Strategies for Effective Civic Engagement in the Twenty-First Century”, edited by John Gastil and Peter Levine.

Web Dialogues Facilitate Citizen-Lawmaker Communication in California

Planned legislative WebDialogues are described in the June 2005 National Civic Review article, “Web Dialogues Facilitate Citizen-Lawmaker Communication in California”. The article is authored by WestEd’s WebDialogues Developer and Manager, Laurie Maak, Michael Ricketts, Chief Consultant of the California Assembly Education Committee and Bruce Hamlett, Chief Consultant of the California Assembly Committee on Higher Education. To review a copy of the article, send your request to Laurie Maak.

National Dialogues for Public Participation

This brief article is written by Robert D. Carlitz, Laurie Maak, and Patricia Bonner and is published online (2001) by the U.S. General Services Administration, Intergovernmental Solutions. It describes a national dialogue, Libraries as a Community Resource for Environmental Information, produced under a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).