What is a Town Meeting?
Some history
The ‘Town Meeting’ (TM) was born about four hundred years ago in the colonial
villages and towns of the New England region of the United States. From the very
beginning it represented an expression of direct democracy through which
communities deliberated their needs and made decisions collectively.
In its original form, the TM is well suited for making policy decisions at a limited
scale, and it is still in use today in small urban areas in New England and elsewhere.
The various forms of a TM include the “open” TM in which all citizens are invited to
participate directly as well as the “representative” TM where citizens elect
representatives to deliberate and vote for them.
Experiments in deliberative democracy
With the introduction of new technologies over the last 30 years, the practice of
deliberative democracy has evolved to allow for collective discussion of public policy
between thousands of people, even in different locations.
One of the most recognized methods (utilized in Great Britain, Denmark, and
Australia as well as in the USA) is deliberative polling which was developed by
James Fishkin and is based socio-demographically representative sample groups
engaging in informed discussion followed by opinion polls. Other adaptations
include facilitated discussions and online forums.
Along side these, and resulting from continued reflection on the possible applications
of deliberative democracy, a modern version of the TM has been developed which
innovates on the original model by integrating new technologies: the Electronic
Town Meeting [e-TM]. Without a doubt, the most publicized experiment with the
ETM was Listening to the City, an event which gathered about 4,300 people in
New York City to discuss community priorities for the reconstruction of Lower
Manhattan after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Characteristics of the e-TM
The “electronic town meeting” [e-TM] method is unique in that it combines the
advantages of small group discussions with opinion polls targeted at large
groups.
The continual alternation between periods of discussion and voting creates an
additional advantage: the ability to build the agenda throughout the event, or
rather, allowing the discussions to give rise to questions and proposals which can be
immediately posed to the larger group.
YOUNG WORDS HAPPENING - September 22, 23, and 24, 2005 - Torino, Italy www.comune.torino.it/treguaolimpica [email protected]
The e-TM is characterized by three distinct working phases intended to facilitate the
participants’ discussion:
1. an informative phase consisting of previously prepared documentation as
well as issue experts;
2. a second phase of small group discussions
3. a third phase in which the main themes of the discussions are synthesized
and ‘returned’ to the larger group, at which point participants can express
themselves individually by voting using polling keypads.
The potential of this model in deliberative democracy processes is already
recognized internationally. In the USA the method has been experimented in
diverse contexts, and in Europe it was applied on a small scale, and at an
exclusively political level, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Young Words Happening: Olympic truce for youth
The organization of a gathering of 2,000 youth in connection with the Olympic Truce
of Torino is inspired by a particular incarnation of the electronic town meeting [eTM]1 which unites even thousands of people in a single space to deliberate – or
simply discuss – specific issues or policies. The primary purpose is to reintroduce
the voice of young people in the choices made by public administrations, and
specifically to offer an alternative to exclusively informative public consultation.
How does it work?
The first objective is to ensure participants have a broad understanding of the
three main topics of the event: cultural integration, access to information, and world
poverty. Informational documents provided prior to the event, as well as the
expertise of acknowledged issue experts, will increase the participants’
understanding and – consequently – render the debate more productive. The
method makes rigorous use of small group discussions, the results of which are
reported, using advanced technology, to the large group in order to facilitate a
vote on individual proposals or alternatives.
Small groups seated at round tables are accompanied in their discussions by trained
facilitators who guarantee an inclusive and democratic dialogue. The main ideas
that emerge from the discussions are sent by each table, using wireless laptop
1
For the organization and planning of this event Avventura Urbana was inspired by the
methodology of the 21st Centrury Town Meeting developed in Usa by AmericaSpeaks and its
international arm Global Voices.
The electronic Town Meeting software was developed and innovated autonomously by
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella and Avventura Urbana
YOUNG WORDS HAPPENING - September 22, 23, and 24, 2005 - Torino, Italy www.comune.torino.it/treguaolimpica [email protected]
computers, to a “theme team” whose task it is to identify and summarize the most
common and stimulating themes. These summaries, which are supported by direct
citations from the discussions, are then displayed on large screens to the attention
of all participants.
This material is fertile ground for the creation of new questions, proposals or
alternatives to be presented to the entire room, and regarding which participants
then express themselves individually through an instant vote using wireless
keypads.
Because the polling results are instantly tallied, it is possible to immediately create
additional questions that take into account the results of previous polls.
During the event, which is coordinated by a central facilitator and production team,
participants are interviewed, videos are produced, and a report is created
summarizing the characteristics of the group, the process and the results of the
polling. The report is then distributed to all the participants at the end of the day.
An exceptional occasion
An event such as Young Words Happening has not yet been attempted in Italy: the
event will be the first experiment with the combination of methodological techniques
and technological instruments of the “electronic town meeting” [e-TM] model. YWH
will, in fact, attempt to create an open and democratic context within which the
participants, with the assistance of trained facilitators, will be able to confront the
three topics of discussion, abandoning verbal aggression and the sterile clash of
positions.
YOUNG WORDS HAPPENING - September 22, 23, and 24, 2005 - Torino, Italy www.comune.torino.it/treguaolimpica [email protected]