Purpose of public participation conference

[Eileen Jones <egayjones@aol.com>]

  The purposes of a conference devoted exclusively to public participation are multiple.  One, not all folks (as we have heard) have access to internet or otherwise want to participate in this type of forum).  Two, face-to-face interchange is superior to other forms of communicaiton.  Three, more but DIFFERENT research needs to be written in papers and presented in a more formalized matter.  Why?  Because this forces people to think through their thoughts and memorialize them for future readers.  Four, a conference is a good forum for publishing papers.  Fifth, contacts can be made there which otherwise would not.  Sixth, new ideas are generated.

  In my opinion, particularly case study research would be invaluable.  Everyone has heard about trust, transparency, two-way street, etc.  The question is:  in practice what does this look like?  WHile we can get bits and pieces (of very valuable I might add) info in a forum such as this, again a face-to-face conference could be even richer.

  Just a thought of how to take what we ahve heard here and move forward.  Any thoughts on this are welcome.