A Revolution: 21st Century Town Meetings
World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2005
HOW DID PARTICIPANTS ARRIVE AT SIX PRIORITIES?
The Global Town Hall engaged participants in facilitated, technology enabled discussions at tables of ten. All commentary was fed into computers, synthesized and returned to the full room. This methodology encouraged dialogue on the issues at each table, while also connecting to insights from across the room, before participants voted on the six priorities by keypad. The fast-cycle process allowed participants to build on the earlier prioritization dialogue to identify challenges.
READ THE GLOBAL TOWN HALL REPORT 26-JAN-2005
700 GLOBAL LEADERS PRIORITIZE KEY ISSUES FACING OUR WORLD
America speaks electronic town meeting
USING A COLLECTION OF ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES INCLUDING LAPTOP WIRELESS COMPUTERS AND KEYPAD VOTING TECHNOLOGIES
TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE 21ST CENTURY TOWN MEETING...
CLICK THE PICTURE TO THE LEFT TO BEGIN.
AMERICA SPEAKS USES NEW ENGLAND TOWN MEETING TRADITIONS BUT ADDS MODERN COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES...
This film is over 8 minutes long but it is worth watching the whole segment. New England Town Meeting respected and followed but with modern day electronic networking, communication, displaying of ideas and inclusion of all participants.
The article being proposed for May 2010 town meeting just uses a piece of this technology. The remote control voting keypad to accurately tally and secretly process the opinions of large groups of people very fast. Counting votes is no longer the mission. The exchange of ideas and problem solving with instant feedback empowers all of the participants.
READ THE REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS JULY, 2002; CLICK BELOW
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 5,000 CITIZEN *9/11 tower REBUILDING* TOWN HALL
AMERICA SPEAKS USES AUDIENCE RESPONSE in NY
AmericaSpeaks, a nationally recognized non-profit organization, worked with a diverse advisory group to develop the format for "Listening to the City" and provided the technology that made it possible for people to make real connections with each other despite the enormous size of the gatherings. Participants could see their ideas and votes flashed on giant screens as the sessions progressed, allowing the large and diverse group to discuss an array of issues and make its feelings known almost instantly.
Each participant used a wireless polling keypad to vote on these questions and the results were immediately displayed. This process also allowed the agenda to be modified to correspond more closely to the tenor of the discussions.
