Here we explore the varieties of conversation that support democratic decision making.
We believe that shared decision making occurs through conversations in groups over time. We believe that conversations are always more than can be captured in print and we believe that diagrams are essential for ongoing and deepening deliberation.
We refer to these conversations as Campfire Conversations and to the diagrams as Cave Drawings.
Jack Park has extensive knowledge and experience with Topic Maps which are closely related to the idea of cave drawings we use.
We understand that participatory deliberative democracy has not yet scaled beyond small groups. We are interested in discovering ways to scale democracy without diminishing the deliberative aspect. We understand that party systems are at best representative democracy rather than participatory democracy and that they diminish the quality and inclusiveness of deliberation on particular issues.
We are drawn to the potential of internet based tools that may democratic decision making, "digital democracy". We are interested in improved forms of voting. We do not think that voting ever replaces deliberative conversations.
recording
Thursday, May 8, 2025