*** Democracies Online Newswire - http://www.e-democracy.org/do *** See announcement below. When you hear about "online consultation" you often think of a more technologically sophisticated web-based systems for well organized online events. In fact, if your goal to end up with quality deliberative content with an extended time value and your online event is time-limited (i.e. specific start and finish), with a structured agenda and process, with staff and significant promotional resources, then I do feel the use of web-focused tools for political discourse and information exchange can work quite well. If you are willing to put as much into an online event as an in-person conference and _give up_ any notion that the online event will just happen easily and instantly because of technology, then you can achieve success. While I tend to recommend facilitated e-mail lists with web archives for _sustained_ political discussion for geographic places (coffee talk), e-mail can also we used for wider audience, more topical deliberative events. A couple of years ago, Tim Erickson experienced the limits of E- Democracy's "coffee talk" model where our general state political discussions <http://e-democracy.org/mn-politics>, while sustainable, often touch only the surface of complicated issues and can easily become personality and ideologically focused. As I have noted in person many times, "Ninety-nine percent of political discussion on the Internet is pure junk, E-Democracy's is only half junk. The miracle is that any of this has any value. Our challenge is to build upon what works and sustain the foundation we have built." Tim started Politalk <http://www.politalk.com> in his spare time to experiment with time-based topical exchanges using multiple e-mail lists - a public stage e-list and small group discussion lists. Tim does one of the best jobs with structured e-mail exchanges I have seen. He is also E-Democracy's volunteer list manager for the St. Paul Issues Forum and produced our St. Paul Mayoral Candidate Conversation. While facilitation of our general discussion spaces in my opinion should remain fundamentally volunteer, online special events and original content should at least have their costs and production time covered. If resources present themselves, Tim and E-Democracy will explore adding occasional major public policy online events to our non-profit family. (Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.) Drop us a note if you can help in this department. Once you subscribe to the main Politalk list <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Politalk/join> you can explore the web archive <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Politalk/messages> and see how you might try these tools and techniques for your own projects or perhaps work with E-Democracy and Politalk to produce future events. Steven Clift Democracies Online ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 03:22:55 -0500 From: Tim Erickson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ================================================================= ANNOUNCEMENT: Please Forward ---------------------------- Please join us for a 2 week moderated e-mail discussion on: -- Public Financing Of Professional Sports Stadiums -- Focus on Portland, Boston, Miami, Mpls/St. Paul http://www.politalk.com/pages/topics/stadium/index.html JUNE 11-22 ================================================================= Please join with Politalk, E-Democracy, Quorum.Org, and our other partners, as we host a virtual conference of journalists, legislators, and citizen activists from 4 cities currently debating the public role in the construction or rehabilitation of professional sports stadiums/arenas. Please visit our web site for a partial list of the nationally known experts/guest commentators that will also be participating. Including economist Andrew Zimbalist, stadium expert and architect Philip Bess, journalists Neil DeMause and Jay Weiner, and many others. http://www.politalk.com/pages/topics/stadium/index.html ---------- To join our two week e-mail discussion, send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] hyperlink = mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- Our discussion will specifically draw on the experiences and lessons learned in the following four cities/sports markets: Minneapolis - St. Paul Miami Portland Boston Note: This discussion is open to anyone (from anywhere) who has an interest in this topic and would like to participate. We'll be addressing such questions as: -------------------------------------- What is the proper role for government in maintaining and attracting professional sports franchises to a city or region? What is the role of a stadium in a metropolitan area? Is it basic infrastructure? How involved should local government be in the planning and development of stadiums? What, if any, economic impact does a stadium/team have on a city? What, if anything, can cities do collectively to diminish the competitive pressures for sports franchises and to lessen the leverage that team owners have on local governments? Is there a need for Federal involvement/regulation regarding the movement of professional sports franchises? -------------------------------------- This discussion will primarily take place via e-mail, with the option for some web based participation at http://www.quorum.org. E-mail participants can expect to receive between 5 and 8 event related e-mails per day for the duration of the two week event. =========== Partial List of Participants ============ Council Member, Paul Scapicchio, Boston District 1 Council Member, Paul Ostrow, Minneapolis - Ward 1 Representative Chris Beck, Oregon - District: 12 Representative Phil Barnhart, Oregon - District 40 Drew Mahalic, CEO Portland Oregon Sports Authority Dan Cook, editor of The Business Journal Portland Ron Paul, Chief of Staff - Portland Commissioner Charlie Hales Andrew Zimbalist: editor of "Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of Sports Teams and Stadiums" author of "Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Business of Our National Pastime." Dave St. Peter, Minnesota Twins Jay Weiner, author of "Stadium Games: Fifty Years of Big League Greed and Bush League Boondoggles" David Brauer, Freelance journalist, former sports business reporter for City Business, Corporate Report Minnesota, and City Pages Thomas Montgomery, Fans4MN Neil DeMause, co-author of "Field of Schemes" Brett Mandel, author of "Minor Players, Major Dreams" Tom Goldstein, Elysian Fields Quarterly: The Baseball Review Brad Humphreys, is an economist who is actively involved in research on the economic impact of professional sports franchises and facilities on local economies. A full list of his publications in this area can be found on his curriculum vitae. Shawn McCarthy, Ralph Nader's sports industry watchdog Participating Organizations / Web Sites: ===================================================== Politalk - http://www.politalk.com E-Democracy - http://www.e-democracy.org Save The Minnesota Twins - http://www.savetheminnesotatwins.com/ Quorum - http://www.quorum.org Save Fenway Park - http://www.savefenwaypark.com/ Neighbor Network News - Boston - http://www.nnnonline.org/ ====================================== Note: Politalk is an ongoing discussion forum for individuals of differing political ideologies to discuss and exchange ideas on hot topics in a moderated and respectful environment. For more information, please visit our web site at: http://www.politalk.com ====================================== For more information, contact: Tim Erickson Politalk Moderator 651-643-0722 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Tim Erickson http://www.politalk.com St. Paul, MN - USA 651-643-0722 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ: 105978430 ------- End of forwarded message ------- ^ ^ ^ ^ Steven L. Clift - W: http://www.publicus.net Minneapolis - - - E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota - - - - - T: +1.612.822.8667 USA - - - - - - - ICQ: 13789183 *** Please send submissions to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** To subscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** *** Message body: SUB DO-WIRE *** *** To unsubscribe instead, write: UNSUB DO-WIRE *** *** Please forward this post to others and encourage *** *** them to subscribe to the free DO-WIRE service. ***
