The 2015 International Conference on the Science of Dialogic Design: Symposia for Scientists and Practitioners

Conference Dates: May 2-7, 2015
Post Conference School: May 8-10 May, 2015

Place: Cyprus

Aims:

1. Create an opportunity for scientists and practitioners of the Science of Structured Dialogic Design (SSDD) from across the world to get together for a whole week and engage in structured democratic dialogues that would help us all not only advance the science and plan its future, but also to get to know each other and become friends.
2. Offer a unique opportunity for younger colleagues and people interested to learn more about the Structured democratic Dialogue Process (SDDD) and engage in the science or the practice, to meet and interact with world pioneers as well as attend specially designed summer school trainings.
3. Combine efforts to

Format: Mixed; Most sessions will use SDDP; some presentations; very short presentations for specific tasks; contributions to be sent before the actual symposion.

Participation Fees:

• International participants €200 (€175 if prepaid)
• Students €25/day
• SDDP School €45/session (€35 if prepaid)

Accommodation

Special prices to be announced once deal is closed.

Financial Support and Student scholarships

Fees will be used to support students and people who need financial support.

Justification of the Need

The need for far-reaching social transformations in our world is now widely accepted. All stakeholders also accept the fact that changes can also be implemented using participatory, democratic processes. The SDDP is positioned as a powerful tool in this context. The purpose of this very timely symposion in Cyprus is not to revisit the history of the past 40 plus year but to create the history of the future. The community of practitioners of the science of dialogic design has now expanded to include people from all parts of the world and a variety of languages and cultures. This dedicated community of scientists will gather for this symposion for a week and will deliberate formally and informally on how to evolve the process and retain its scientific credibility together with its cultural sensitivity.

Furthermore, we recognise the fact that our third millennium world needs new tools that can protect its sustainability and foster up harmony into its evolution. The Symposion will include sessions dedicated to identifying needs, recognising challenges and exploring options for new features and new solutions.

The Symposion is furthermore very relevant to our present state of the world, since it could convey a possible extension of our SDD practices to include the birth of a Global Observatory. This could be managed by a group of us and give a relevant service to governments and companies and NGO's during the whole 21st century. The Global Observatory could be providing information of the results of applications of collaborative action plans in different parts of the world, as well as data, and series of data regarding the main variables that we could establish for a follow-up policy by civilians all around the planet.

In sum, no claim is being made abour the superiority of the SDDP, even though there is substantial empirical evidence, from more than 1,000 applications in the arena, to this effect when dealing with the management of complexity. SDDP belongs to the Third Phase of science, and as a consequence it is meant to be complementary to other methodologies originating from First and Second phases of science.

A Glimpse into the Preliminary program

1. Get to know each other and what everyone is doing

We intend to invite participants to their 5 minutes of fame by making a short, TEDx-style, presentation. The presentation will be videotaped using quality systems. To present, one should submit a video 3 months ahead of time: to ensure that people are truly preparing for such a short, but very rich presentation. At the launch of ever day's program, a few people will be presenting. To support the preparation people will be asked to offer answers to questions like who s/he is, what s/he is doing, interests, dreams etc...

1. SDDP to define future features of Cogniscope- and Cognicope analogous software. An analogous virtual SDDP was organised more than 4 years ago and has driven developments since then. The vision is for a new process to kindle developments for the next 3-4 years using the authentic needs, ideas, and wishes of the community of scientists and practitioners.
2. Scaling-up; The next frontier. An SDDP on the challenges of scaling up and engaging thousands
3. Challenge: How do we coordinate our efforts in organising dozens, if not hundreds, of SDDPs around the globe, letting people world wide know about the potentials of SDD.
4. Positioning SDD within the framework of other systems science methodologies and approaches.

questions such as the following:

-- is the assumption being made that SDD is the appropriate response at this time and necessarily to be preferred over others -- and that a global consensus can be cultivated in support of this view

-- is it considered complementary to other approaches offering other insights

-- how best to interrelate complementary approaches, each with a tendency to consider that it is of primary value -- especially in seeking to reinforce that perspective through the gathering

-- supposing that significant support for SDD emerged as a consequence of the exercise, how is it assumed that the cases for marginalizing other approaches (considered to be of lesser relevance) would be undertaken

-- how best to deal with advocacy of competing approaches and their constituencies

-- if it is possible that "different strokes are required for different folks", how is this consideration to be recognized and integrated, especially if those marginalized by SDD strenuously object in some way

-- what questions remain unasked in framing the SDD initiative -- as they are in the framing of initiatives by others -- and how do such questions constrain the wider appreciation of the outcome

==Such questions arise at a time when consideration is being given to the process of argumentation on the web and the only too evident weaknesses of current methodology

Examples

Implementing the Argument Web http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168171-implementing-the-argument-web/abstract

Arguing on the web 2.0: (Amsterdam, June 30 - July 1, 2014) http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.region.europe/10664

Arguing on the Web 2.0 http://philevents.org/event/show/12234

8th Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation http://cf.hum.uva.nl/issa/

Confirmed International Pioneers (alphabetically)

1. Alexander (Aleco) Christakis
2. Tom Flanagan
3. Nenad Rava
4. Nikitas Assimakopoulos
5. Kenneth Bausch
6. Jeff Diedrich
7. Norma Romm
8. Paul Hays

A Historical Perspective

For the last 40 plus years there have been more than 1,000 applications of the Co-Laboratory of democracy approach in a variety of settings around the world. For example in Cyprus, the location of this Symposion (it is the original Greek word meaning drinking together), we have a history of more than 15 years of applications and more than 100 colaboratories for government agencies, such as the Ministries of Finance, Transportation, Interior, and others, as well as bi-communal Co-Labs involving Greek and Turkish Cypriots as well as Israelis and Palestinians addressing issues of conflict resolution and peace on the island of Aphrodite.

The first test of the Interpretive Structural Modeling algorithm, developed by John Warfield in 1971, was conducted by Dave Malone and Aleco Christakis on the table top of Warfield’s office at the Battelle Columbus Laboratories in Ohio, USA. The first application of ISM with real people was conducted by Brother Raymond Fitz, who later on became the President of the University of Dayton, with the City Council of Dayton in 1973. There is a video of this session with the members of the city council deliberating on setting budget priorities for allocating the city revenue. The first Center for Interactive Management was established by Warfield and Christakis at the University of Virginia in 1982, and was moved to George Mason University in 1984. The firs consultancy employing the ISM methodology was established by Christakis in Philadelphia in 1989, and it worked for 25 years with more than 50 clients in government agencies, corporations, foundations, and NGOs. The Institute for 21st Century Agoras was founded by Dr. Ken Bausch and Aleco Christakis in 2002 in preparation for the 2003 International conference in Crete of ISSS (www.ISSS.org) when Christakis was serving as President of the systems society.

Useful Links

• www.dialogicdesignscience.wikispaces.com