In 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), a Japanese governmental administration, organized a National Consensus Conference on genetically- modified foods in Tokyo.
ConsiderIt is an internet-based platform that stems from the basis of personal deliberation into a form of public deliberation. It allows users to examine trade-offs and the vantage points of other users on proposed actions such as ballot measures, by forming deliberation around a list of pro and cons authored, adopted, and shared by various people using the platform. The design process began with the goal of supporting a voters guide written by community members in the 2010 U.S. election.
Habitat Conservation Planning (HCP) in the U.S. is a plan that prepared under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by nonfederal parties who want to obtain permits for the incidental taking of threatened and endangered species. They are planning documents that describe the anticipated effects of the proposed take permit. It must also describe how those impacts will be minimized or mitigated and how the HCP is to be funded. They have to ensure that the species will be conserved and that they will contribute to their recovery.
Model UN is a simulation of the United Nations that aims to reach students from all walks of life by educating them about international political issues within the United Nations[1]. The Model UN encourages students to act as leaders and ambassadors of a nation within a particular UN member states. The students play the role of an ambassador and are encouraged to gain knowledge of a current issue set on the UN agenda.
A Scenario Workshop is a participatory method encouraging local action with a mix of scenario and workshop which aims to solve local problems and anticipate future ones[1]{C}{C}{C}. Scenarios involve narrative descriptions of potential future problems that emphasize relationships between events and decision points{C}{C}{C}[2]{C}{C}{C}.
VoterMedia is an incentive structure for encouraging public interest media to develop, to flourish and to cover issues that matter to a voter community. A typical first-step implementation is a blog competition in a small democracy such as a student union or a municipality. Voters allocate a limited budget of community funds among various competing blogs. This can be seen as a variant of Participatory Budgeting.
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 spokes council model is a structure for democratic process that has been used for many years. It has been employed by many organizations and struggles including the Zapatistas, Chaipas, the Women’s Movement, Anti-Nuclear Movement, and Global Justice Movement. It is also currently being used by Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Portland.
In the context of the perpetual crisis of urban transportation in Bucharest, there is a growing population of city dwellers fighting for bicycle rights and advocating for a new, bicycle friendly infrastructure in Bucharest. The bicycle fans coagulated since the mid 2000’s into different groups and NGO’s and developed into a new movement and a powerful presence in the urban landscape, adopting several strategies of public participation.
