Building common ground for the common good.

Dear Subscriber First Name,

We are charging into 2025 with new energy to promote community-driven democratic engagement to foster inclusive problem solving. We invite you to check out our new video that explains our work! 

At its heart, democracy is about collective decision making. It is a way to solve common problems together and foster trust. Citizen Assemblies — used by governments and nonprofit organizations worldwide — are one way to promote democracy by increasing public engagement in government decisions. They bring together everyday people to examine a public issue and propose a way forward; this amplifies community voices and enhances policymaking.

We dedicate our first newsletter of the year to recent and ongoing Citizen Assemblies and their potential to integrate digital technologies. It's a reminder that within our democracy, we are not limited to elections, political parties, or elected representatives — there are other ways to promote democratic engagement to solve problems.  

Share your experiences and stories, let us know if you were involved with a Citizen Assembly. As always, we are open to questions and ideas on how to advance our mission of community problem solving that leverages digital technology: info@commongoodai.org.

Sincerely,

Victoria Stanski, Managing Director

Founders John Seely Brown, John Clippinger, John Cordier,

Tom Kehler, and Kim Polese

Understand the Citizen Assembly process and practice

Structured around learning, deliberation, and decision making, since the 1980s, over 600 assemblies have been organized at a local, regional, national, and international scale. They’ve tackled a wide range of issues as outlined in Democracy Next’s best practice guide.

Recent example: Youth homelessness in Oregon

Hosted by Healthy Democracy, City of Bend, Deschutes County, and Democracy Next’s Central Oregon Citizen Action Project and others, this recent Citizen Assembly included 30 residents who convened for 5 days to deliberate on the question: what should our priorities be for building community solutions to prevent and end youth homelessness? They produced a series of recommendations, 23 of which were supported by 75% or more of the Assembly. Learn about the process and outcomes, including a 7-minute video.

Current example: Rising healthcare costs in Switzerland

In spring 2024, the Swiss resident population determined the topic of the Citizens' Assembly by means of a representative survey. Over 40% of respondents voted to discuss the issue of rising health costs in the Citizens' Assembly. Currently underway, it is organized by the Centre for Democracy Aarau and Universities of Zurich and Geneva and has potential to identify breakthrough solutions on this critical systemic issue.

Future use: Incorporating digital tools in Citizen Assemblies

The experience of Citizen Assemblies across communities shows us the great power in gathering diverse individuals to develop solutions to local and national-level challenges. Traditional face-to-face Assemblies can be limited by geographic constraints and budget. We believe that in-person Citizen Assemblies can be enhanced by integrating online deliberative engagement. It would expand the number of participants and allow more flexible, asynchronous forms of engagement.

We seek to collaborate with organizations hosting Citizen Assemblies who want to integrate digital tools to their process. We see several ways to use digital tools, examples include:

• Online discussion forums: Participants can share ideas, ask questions, and engage in detailed discussion on the topic at hand, even if they cannot attend in-person meetings

• Real-time polling and voting: It can be used to gauge group sentiment on different proposals and facilitate decision-making processes

• Data analysis and reporting: Advance analytics can help identify trends, key themes, and diverse perspectives emerging from the discussions, as well as summarize topics

• Accessibility features: Help with translation and text-to-speech to cater to a wide range of participants

If you believe — as we do — that tech solutions have an important role in expanding democratic deliberation and you would like to collaborate with us, please reach out because we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas: info@commongoodai.org