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We believe that governments can make better use of scarce technology dollars by working together to solve common problems. We're helping them share their solutions, knowledge, and best practices. Civic technology experts have recognized the benefits of sharing technology among governments and institutions. However, instances of successful collaboration and sharing are still few and far between, in part because there is no easy, structured way to share knowledge about this software, let alone the software itself. There is no one place to go to look for civic software that cities need, and no roadmap to share what they have. Enter the Civic Commons. As infrastructure for the open government movement, Civic Commons is a community-edited resource to find out what's working, where. Ok, so what is it, really? Civic Commons is an information product, made up of the Marketplace, Engagement Commons, and the Wiki:

Today, Global Integrity plays the unique role of innovator for the transparency and accountability community: working with a global community of local contributors, we produce innovative research and technologies to ensure that the field continues to evolve with better data and research tools. We believe that accountable, transparent, and honest government is a fundamental right of every citizen.

Smart Growth America advocates for people who want to live and work in great neighborhoods. We believe smart growth solutions support businesses and jobs, provide more options for how people get around and make it more affordable to live near work and the grocery store. Our coalition works with communities to fight sprawl and save money. We are making America's neighborhoods great together.

We face an entangled communications challenge. Becoming a sustainable city is less a technological issue than one of mindset, understanding and behavioural. Too many people still believe there is no problem. How can this be overcome? Do we approach it by engendering fear, cajoling, or persuasion? By providing evidence of the threats or examples of good practices? Do we jolt people into focus by ascending graphs of problems or imagery of iconic events like Katrina or Superstorm Sandy? It is best to show how the shift is doable and already happening and that those at the forefront have a better life economically and socially. The image of the sustainable city needs to feel as emotionally satisfying as the lure of consumer culture.

At The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), we believe journalism that moves citizens to action is an essential pillar of democracy. Since 1977, CIR has relentlessly pursued and revealed injustices that otherwise would remain hidden from the public eye. Today, we're upholding this legacy and looking forward, working at the forefront of journalistic innovation to produce important stories that make a difference and engage you, our audience, across the aisle, coast to coast and worldwide.

We're very inspired by Ezio Manzini, the Italian design strategist and founder of DESIS network, who says: When we design, we search for problems to solve. If you take the capability approach, you search for capabilities to support. He continues, "You don't ask what you can do to make people behave differently. You ask what you can do to recognize people's capabilities and help people use those to solve the problems they face." In the social sector, problems and unmet needs are almost too easy to find. Rather, we look for assets-the people, resources, behaviors, relationships, and systems-that are already working well. Our designs leverage those assets to create more and better life. A structured process We believe strongly that design is a process, and we've often found the design process to be transformative for both students and clients. Ours can be represented by a "double diamond," a two-part sequence of broadening and narrowing.

Our approach to work is Appreciative and Deliberative and encourages shared learning. We provide strategic advice to our clients. Experience has taught us that we make the greatest difference in the world when we work with decision-makers to build their organisational readiness to collaborate with their stakeholders. We do this strategic work by building relationships with our clients, understanding their needs and working closely with them as they collaborate with their stakeholders to help find enduring solutions to complex dilemmas. We believe that conversations build relationships and that relationships are an essential ingredient of enduring solutions.

Democracy made Athens a dynamic, creative force 2500 years ago. Even then, however, democracy was fragile, sometimes stupid, and short-lived. Plato held it in low esteem and Aristotle likened it to "mob rule." Why, then, do we want to create 21st Century Agoras. What we want to create are communities energized by vibrant participative democracy. In our Information Age as old hierarchies prove dysfunctional, it is imperative that human communities have flexible ways to tap their wisdom and power. We do not believe that unstructured discussion on the Athenian model is adequate for dealing with the complexities of the Information Age. It was not adequate even for the simpler (by an order of magnitude as determined by a metric called Situational Complexity Index) situations of that bygone age. The Information Age challenges us to make participative democracy a liberating force in the world today. Research and proven methodology, aided by networked computing, has resolved at least one basic dilemma of democracy:   How can we hear perspectives of all the stakeholders, make collective sense of them, and reach decisions and act on pressing issues? The approach that overcomes this dilemma and multiple other hindrances to dialogic democracy is called the Structured Dialogic Design (SDD). The Agoras Institute convenes these dialogues as Co-Laboratories of Democracy. This process is a fusion of the theory of Generic Design Science and the consultative practice of Interactive Management, both developed over the last 30 years by Dr. John Warfield and our founder, Aleco Christakis.

CivicSolve is a consulting firm with a focus on civic engagement, and a mission of "building better communities through civic engagement."  We believe in connecting people with their own power as citizens and the power that exists in communities. 

As our politics and public life have become increasingly divisive and toxic, too many Americans no longer see their realities reflected and no longer believe that they can make a difference. Real progress in communities can be hard to come by. And yet, across the country, people yearn to believe that we can get things done together and make hope real for everyone. It is this belief in people's innate ability to come together and create authentic hope, that sparked a then 27-year-old Richard C. Harwood to found The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation and dedicate himself to making the case for a different kind of public life and politics. For more than 20 years, through innovation, on-the-ground efforts, and ground-breaking research, we know what it takes to get things done in communities and strengthen our civic culture. We help people develop into Public Innovators, build Boundary Spanning Organizations, grow common spaces for innovation and learning, and cultivate the conditions, norms, and productive narratives that help their communities move forward. Today, our approach is being used by tens of thousands of individuals in communities across the U.S. and around the globe. But more is needed. We have an audacious strategy to make a case for a different kind of public life and politics and to spread these ideas, insights, and approaches so that people can make them their own. Of course, no single organization or individual can make these changes on their own; but, together, we can.

This house believes that America needs substantial new fiscal stimulus.

Government transparency is an important issue to many in today's political environment. The recent controversy in the US over health care reform is just one example of how hard it can be to see the realities behind the rhetoric. As researchers, we believe we can help by giving people the right tools to understand, explore, and communicate about government data.

OK, this post is already way too long, but one final thing. Physicists, I think, become even more drawn to economics when we look into economics and see broad resistance to research pursuing this "complexity" perspective. It seems instead that most of mainstream research tries to get around system complexity with mathematical tricks, rather than facing up to it. I'm thinking about ideas like representative agents, or rational expectations. The assumptions make it possible to build models without having to deal with the complexity of interactions and the emergent structures they create; but the resulting models, naturally, look very pale and questionable as models of anything real. When physicists see that a small minority of ("heterodox") economists also find the standard approach hugely limiting, they feel an urge to help out. And they believe that some of their ideas can help.

OuiShare is a global community and think and do-tank. Our mission is to build and nurture a collaborative society by connecting people, organizations and ideas around fairness, openness and trust. We believe that economic, political and social systems based on these values can solve many of the complex challenges the world faces, and enable everyone to access to the resources and opportunities they need to thrive. OuiShare activities consist of building community, producing knowledge and incubating projects around the topics of communities and the collaborative economy, as well as offering support to individuals and organizations through professional services and education. Started in January 2012 in Paris, OuiShare is now an international leader in the collaborative economy field. A non-profit organization which has rapidly evolved from a handful of enthusiasts to a global movement in dozens of countries in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, our network of expert Connectors engage hundreds of members and contributors worldwide.

Welcome to the Change Management Toolbook! This site has been around since 1997, and we remain focused on the founding vision of offering really useful and free change management content to our web visitors. This is the fourth (and we believe the best!) major revision of the website - it's a lot simpler and much prettier, and we think you will find that it is easier and quicker to get to the information you want. The changes are not limited to the "look and feel" - we've added some really good additional content, and we look forward to ongoing high-quality contributions by our growing global network of contributors.  We hope your visit will be rewarding and hope to have you as a frequent visitor!

THE GOVLAB'S MISSION IS  TO IMPROVE PEOPLE'S LIVES BY CHANGING THE WAY WE GOVERN. Our goal is to strengthen the ability of institutions - including but not limited to governments - and people to work more openly, collaboratively, effectively and legitimately to make better decisions and solve public problems. We believe that increased availability and use of data, new ways to leverage the capacity, intelligence, and expertise of people in the problem-solving process, combined with new advances in technology and science can transform governance. We approach each challenge and opportunity in an interdisciplinary, collaborative way, irrespective of the problem, sector, geography and level of government.

Family Independence Initiative (FII) is a national nonprofit which leverages the power of information to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives. Using hard data and compelling stories, we are sparking a movement to transform the stereotypes, beliefs, practices, and policies that undermine families' efforts to get ahead. FII believes that our country is greatly underestimating the ability of low-income families to lead their own change. FII has tracked the progress of hundreds of families over the last decade and found that the lack of upward mobility is not the result of a lack of initiative but can be traced to two other factors: 1. Lack of information, and therefore lack of investment, in the initiatives low-income families take on their own or collectively. In order to access services and programs, families have to show neediness instead of initiative(bolstering already prevalent negative stereotyping). 2. Negative stereotypes and the focus on individualism have led to government and charitable practices that discourage families from turning to one another and developing the mutuality that historically built America's middle class.

This book is about effective change. It describes methods for changing "whole systems,"that is, change based on two powerful foundation assumptions: high involvement and a systemic approach to improvement. High involvement means engaging the people in changing their own system.It is systemic because there is a conscious choice to include the people,functions,and ideas that can affect or be affected by the work.Whole system change methods help you initiate high-leverage, sustainable improvements in organizations or communities. "High-leverage" is emphasized because in any improvement effort,we want the highest possible value for the effort invested. We believe that involving people in a systematic way is a key to high leverage and that the methods in this book can provide this leverage for you.You'll need to determine the one(s) best suited to moving your organization or community to the culture you want.We wrote this book to support your efforts. 

NLGN believes that local government, their partners, and the communities they lead, must undergo a profound cultural shift to embrace three core 'changemaking' values of creativity, collaboration and self-determination. Only then will councils and citizens be able to generate the many innovations necessary to solve our biggest social problems. 

e believe everyone should have the chance to make a difference. That's why we make it easy for good people and good causes to connect. We've connected millions of people with a great place to volunteer and helped tens of thousands of organizations better leverage volunteers to create real impact.