I'm optimistic about this. For those of you who don't know, the Public Conversations Project is an organization in Massachusetts that convenes dialogues around difficult and divisive topics.
"The Public Conversations Project is requesting your assistance to help recruit participants to serve as "beta testers" for our new RedBlue online dialogue project. For the past year, in partnership with Internews Interactive, we have been developing the capacity for people to connect with and learn more about the viewpoints of others with whom they differ. The RedBlue web site is about to open up and we need several hundred volunteers with different political points of view to try it out and provide us with feedback about their experience.
I'm writing you to ask for your help in identifying people who would be interested in spending a total of about two hours over a period of two weeks, beginning in early November.
Participants will be matched with a partner with a different political point of view. They will engage in an online dialogue that will offer many of the structures and processes developed in our face-to-face dialogue work over the past 17 years. We expect this will be an engaging, exciting, satisfying experience for people who are interested in:
* Connecting with others from across the political divide.
* Listening and speaking deeply with those whose points of view differ from their own.
* Reflecting on the nuances and complexities of their own and others' beliefs.
* Learning more about how the Internet can be used constructively to further respectful communication across differences.
* Providing feedback to help PCP learn more about how to translate our work effectively into an online format.
If you are interested in participating, please go to www.redblueus.org to sign up. Once you have signed up, Molly Campbell at RedBlue will be in touch by e-mail to begin the process. If you know of others who would be interested in participating, please feel pass this invitation along. For more information, they can also contact me directly at djoseph@publicconversations.org."