Dotmocracy in City Hall

I recently uploaded 72 photos of City of Toronto staff and partners using Dotmocracy for internal and external consultations. 

Browse New Dotmocracy Photos

These photos show good examples of how to set-up a self-facilitating Dotmocracy wall...

Using Dotmocracy Sheets and the step-by-step Dotmocracy process to recognize agreements in large group meetings can be very productive, but it doesn't always work out that way.

On more occasions then I'd like to count, I've seen plans for a Dotmocracy process get abandoned in favour of a more traditional meeting format, sometimes during the late stages of event planning or even  during the actual workshop.  Why does it happen and how can it be avoided?  Here are a few examples based on my experience...

Big events like a conference are such amazing opportunities to recognize important agreements among the many participants with shared interests, professional experience and related work.

Here are a few ideas of how you might use Dotmocracy sheets at your next conference:

UK event organizer and blogger, Julius Solaris, has included Dotmocracy as an example of the top 10 trends in event planning for 2011.  View his quick and insightful slide how on slideshare.net.

 

I am proud to announce the publishing of a new version of my Dotmocracy Handbook.  After three years in the making, version 2 is more than twice the length of my original handbook. It's filled with full colour photos, improved layout and much clearer and refined instructions based on years of challenging and inspiring Dotmocracy facilitation experience.

I recently conducted two Dotmocracy sessions and took some great snap shots.  Check them out on flickr.com:

• Canadian Conference for Dialogue and Deliberation 2009 photo set
• BikeCamp Toronto photo set

I'm currently working to finalize the Dotmocracy results of the BikeCampTO uncoference into an online database you can browse. See the database in action within the BikeCampTO case study page.

A 1 1/2 minute video that shows the set-up of a Dotmocracy wall using hanging clipboards.

CV Harquail of AuthenticOrganizations.com blogs "Dotmocracy, a little example of a big change... it is a deceptively simple, easy way for a group of people to generate ideas and evaluate options. I especially like the way that this process helps us circumvent obstacles created by power dynamics and imbalances within groups of diverse participants."

Read the full article

 Soon I plan to release a new version of the Dotmocracy Handbook and I need to know:

• Have the Dotmocracy Sheets and instructions worked for you?

• What worked well and how could the Handbook be improved?

Please contact me with your stories and suggestions. I would especially love to see photos of groups using the Dotmocracy Sheets.

You are also invited to post comments directly on pages of this site, join and start a conversation on the Dotmocracy Facilitators Google group or submit a short case study

If you are really savvy, you could post pictures from your Dotmocracy session on flickr.com, tag it with Dotmocracy and it will soon appear in the gallery.

I will use your suggestions, stories, insights and photos to develop version 2.0 of the free Dotmocrcay Handbook.

Thanks in advance!

- jd