Let’s vote up our colleagues’ videos in the Looking@Democracy Challenge!

Happy Saturday, everybody! Voting is underway in the Looking@Democracy video contest, and a bunch of NCDD members have submitted videos for consideration — Jeffrey Abelson (Song of a Citizen), Living Room Conversations, the Participatory Budgeting Project, Evelyn Messinger, and Cynthia Farrar’s Purple States project.

There are $100,000 in prizes altogether (first prize is $25,000), and these funds and exposure could really make a difference to our colleagues’ work. I looked at a bunch of the videos that have been submitted, and I think some of our colleagues have a GREAT chance of winning prizes.

Let’s show our support by voting for their videos, adding supportive comments, liking your favorite videos on Facebook and Twitter, and forwarding this email to others! If a video on dialogue, deliberation, or public engagement wins one of the top prizes, the exposure will benefit all of us. Please note that voting ends this Thursday at 3pm Eastern.

Here are our colleagues’ entries that I’m aware of…

Living Room Conversations:

• Video1: http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15125-living-room-conversations-open-your-ears-open-your-mind-open-your-home
• Video2: http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15075-living-room-conversations-building-a-healthier-democracy

Re-Inventing Democracy Through Participatory Budgeting

• http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15201-re-inventing-democracy-through-participatory-budgeting

Evelyn Messinger’s DigitalCitizen.tv

(this video mentions the winning Catalyst Award for political bridge-building, as Evelyn is a key team member)

• Us? Work Together? http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/14896-us-work-together

Jeffrey Abelson’s two videos

(Jeffrey is the one who created all the videos from our 2012 conference which are up at http://tinyurl.com/bneoz9s)

• Video1: http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15177-era-of-the-serious-citizen (a revised version of his 60-second “Song Of A Citizen” teaser video)
• Video2: http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15179-the-only-way-to-fix-broken-government (new video that calls for more active citizens and specifies deliberation as the “how-to”)

Purple Couples on Red/Blue Union from PurpleStates.tv / Cynthia Farrar:

• http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/14838-purple-couples-on-red-blue-union

The GeoDeliberation Project at Penn State:

• http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15202-the-geodeliberation-project

David Grant (who’s not an NCDD member) asked me to support his videos. He has 3 up, including:

• Towards a Two-Legged Democracy: http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/14994-towards-a-two-legged-democracy

Also, Ines Sommer, an independent filmmaker I just met in Chicago at the PB conference (also not an NCDD member – yet), has a great submission in:

• YOUR DATE WITH DEMOCRACY – Participatory Budgeting in Chicago: http://lookingatdemocracy.org/submissions/15001-your-date-with-democracy-participatory-budgeting-in-chicago

I hope we can show our collective support for our colleagues’ hard work and important messages by voting for their projects, adding supportive comments, and sharing the videos on Facebook and Twitter.

Looking@Democracy is a national competition to bring attention to ideas, perspectives and stories that are not currently featured in our mainstream political conversation. It’s a project of the Illinois Humanities Council, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The best place to learn more about the project is http://lookingatdemocracy.org/details/faq.

Original post