Introduction

Welcome to the e-Discussion series of the Decentralization Community of India. This forum seeks your feedback, suggestion, experience and recommendations on key development issues related to the strengthening of the Panchayats and municipal bodies for more transparent and participatory governance and effective local development and delivery of services.

What is an e-discussion? An e-discussion is a virtual brainstorming by members of a Community of Practice to address a broad topic of interest and provide a range of insights, conclusions or recommendations for Community members to take forward in their work. It results in an “E-Discussion Conclusions” paper that reflects the highlights of the discussions and the conclusions reached. It is generally based on a brief “issues paper”, circulated in advance, and is carried out in a structured manner over a fixed and focused time period. An e-discussion can be led by a “guest moderator” who is well-known in the field and sufficiently influential to bring the conclusions to the attention of decision-makers. E-discussions are posted on the Community’s mailgroup and moderated in the same manner as the Query-Consolidated Reply process.

An e-discussion would not require additional resources. Documentation, including the issues paper and conclusions, are prepared by volunteers, and participation of a Guest Moderator is on a no-fee basis.

Preconditions for taking up an e-discussion. Because an e-discussion will replace three weeks’ worth of Queries, the Community should agree to it in advance. This can be done in one of the following two ways:

1. As recommendations of a Visioning Workshop
2. The Community is polled and at least 30 members agree

An e-discussion can then proceed once a Community member volunteers to be Guest Moderator.

The e-discussion process. An e-discussion is carried out over a period of six weeks:

Weeks 1-2:

1. Identify the topic and potential “guest moderator”.

2. Announce the e-discussion and timing to Community members.
3. Prepare the “issues paper” and identify supplementary resources for to make available on the site.

Weeks 3-5:

4. E-discussion convenes – launched with the “issues paper”, either as one question for the full 3 week period, or through a series questions for shorter time periods.

5. E-Discussion Summaries are prepared (in a Consolidated Reply format) either weekly or at the end of a question period reflecting discussion highlights over the period.

Week 6:

6. E-Discussion Conclusions are prepared to reflect discussion highlights and conclusions reached, and presented as the final product of the e-discussion.

The e-discussion series for the Decentralization Community. As currently planned, the Decentralization Community’s e-discussion series will begin with three topics that input into the Action Group assignments agreed at the Visioning Workshop held 7-8 April 2006. Subsequent e-Discussions will be taken up following the polling process mentioned above.