The Year of Civil Discourse on Israel was a year long initiative organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties. The Initiative was designed to foster discussion and community building among the Bay Area Jewish Community over disagreements regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. From December 2010 to December 2011 a number of events were held to help tackle this issue, such as facilitator training sessions and book and movie reviews.
The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement (CCCE) is a Seattle, WA-based organization whose mission is to understand “communication processes and media technologies that facilitate positive citizen involvement in politics and social life”[1].
The Occupy Seattle movement is a Seattle based organization created by the 99%, in response to the 1% who control 99% of all the wealth in America. Through public assembly, the participants challenge the roles of government, corporations, and big banks throughout the greater Seattle area.
Occupy Vancouver, during the occupation of the Vancouver Art Gallery last fall, needed to implement a consensus-based decision making process in order for the encampment to function in a fair and inclusive manner. The General Assembly and it's processes were developed by consensus for this pourpose.
The Constitutional Council was a body of 25 appointed Icelandic citizens, which was charged with creating a constitutional draft between 6 April and 29 July 2011. Initially the constitution was meant to be revised by a nationally elected assembly, but following a controversial Supreme Court decision to void the assembly elections, the Icelandic parliament (Althingi) appointed the elects to form a council.
The National Forum 2010 (also known as the National Gathering on the Constitution) was a deliberative and participatory one-day forum of 950 Icelandic citizens, held on 6 November 2010.
Gacaca courts are community trials, which try the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. They are a unique and large-scale national experiment in collaborative justice systems, and pose an important precedent for participatory community justice across the world.
Since 1879, the seven-member Presidentially appointed Mississippi River Commission has developed and matured plans for the general improvement of the Mississippi River from the Head of Passes to the Headwaters. The Mississippi River Commission brings critical engineering representation to the drainage basin, which impacts 41% of the United States and includes 1.25 million square miles, over 250 tributaries, 31 states, and 2 Canadian provinces.
