Check out this amazing visualization technology from EarthKnowledge, on display at the 2010 ECR Tech Fair:

Do YOU have an example when technology came into play during an ECR project? A good experience? A bad one? Maybe it was something simple - you used Doodle to schedule 3 interviews efficiently. Maybe it was more complex - you used (or partnered with someone who did!) the Google Maps API family to allow participants to integrate and tag GIS data into a digestible and malleable format - from their cell phone!

Please share in the Practitioners forum under case studies!

PS - API stands for Application Program Interface

This Ning site is an online space to talk about the topics that were discussed in the ECR 2010 Conference session called "Making NEPA documents better reflect public participation: How can we do it?"

Check it out here.

From the presenters:

"There are four forums in this website where we encourage you to engage with us and discuss the topics that we have selected as the framework for this discussion.

• Question #1: What purpose does NEPA give to public participation?
• Question #2: Why go beyond strict compliance with NEPA's public participation requirements, and when might this be worthwhile?
• Question#3: How can the public participate collaboratively in the development of the documents that NEPA requires?
• Question #4: What new tools, procedural changes, and other innovations are needed to make this collaborative participation feasible and useful?

There is a fifth forum where we hope you’ll go if you think that we’re missing something that needs to be discussed."

I've been developing, training and consulting on decision communication technology for 20 years, for the first 15 years in a corporate setting.  Five years ago I was invited by Carie Fox, an Institute Roster member in Portland, to work on a fast moving, high-tension County-level public engagement dispute.  It was a baptism of fire but the process and the technology we deployed to support it delivered a success.  I discovered that there are a bunch of core principles that have been developed in the crucible of ECR that are missing from a lot of corporate decision making processes.  I also discovered how important the issues that ECR is addressing - even when it's about sewage disposal!  

Since then we've partnered on a bunch of federal projects, with Carie leading on the assessment and project design, bringing me in to co-design how the technology can support, sustain and (sometimes) expand the process.  In doing this we discovered that we each have very different, but very complementary areas of expertise.   Lots of things that each of us can do that the other can't, but a heck of a lot we can do together.  A key to our growth was knowing that we have a long term business partnership, that we each can rely on when the going gets tough (which seems to happen a lot in this ECR world!)   More collaborations and partnering is what this network is all about.  Philip Murphy

Check out some video from the 2010 US IECR Conference... we'll add more content as the conference progresses.

Here's Cindy at the end of the breakfast urging everyone to stay involved:

Please join the network, and contribute your thoughts and priorities!

Just log into the TypeWith.me document here:

http://typewith.me/rVaSHyzc16

Here's the latest version of the Tech and ECR Guiding Principles Colleen just referred to in her presentation:

http://www.ecrtech.net/files/GuidingPrinciples526a.pdf

Please share your comments and reactions!