[Air-l] Dialogue on CA Education Master Plan

[Laurie Maak]

Hello all,

I'm new to this list and wanted to share information on a project 
that might be of interest to some researchers.

Information Renaissance, a non-profit non-partisan organization, 
produces an online public policy dialogues. From June 3-14 we will be 
conducting a dialogue on the draft Master Plan for California's 
Kindergarten-University education. The plan is being developed by an 
18 member Joint Legislative Committee and is based on the 
recommendations of seven working groups that have involved over 300 
people during the last year. This is the first time a Master Plan for 
the state's education has been created.

The two-week moderated dialogue will focus on selected 
recommendations in the draft plan. Each day a panel of policy and 
subject experts will join the discussion. Members of the Joint 
Committee, Working Groups and representatives of the Governors' 
office, the Department of Education and the Board of Education are 
being invited to join the dialogue.

Participants are being recruited through many channels-online and 
traditional media. We are announcing the discussion through the state 
League of Women Voters, PTA, major education organizations, and many 
other groups. Staff for the Joint Committee is handling relations 
with the press.  We anticipate there will be a great deal of interest 
in the dialogue. A registration form will gather demographics on 
participants. 

Discussion summaries will provide an overview of the main points 
covered each day. Daily survey forms based on the summaries will 
capture the views of the larger group, both discussants and observers.

Info Ren has conducted six similar dialogues, on the E-Rate, Social 
Security Reform, Money and Politics, and two for the U.S. EPA. The 
last discussion for the US EPA was on the agency's revision of its 
Public Involvement Policy. EPA recently won an E-Gov 2002 Explorer 
Award in recognition of that effort.

The dialogue on the CA Education Master Plan will be a great 
opportunity to learn more about online communication from the 
perspectives of leadership and collaboration, public policy, public 
participation, group dynamics, etc.

The Web site will be open after May 1st: http://www.network-democracy.org/camp

Please contact me if you are interested in more information about the 
dialogue for research purposes.

Laurie Maak
Dialogue Producer
Information Renaissance
510-527-6474