I haven't had a chance to formally use your tools as yet. However I certainly intend to at the first opportunity as I believe they are a great way to encourage buy-in, gain support, drive and advance outcomes from large events that may otherwise quickly lose momentum.

We at BoardSource included the Dotmocracy Handbook in a binder full of resource materials that we gave to people attending our training class, Vital Facilitation Techniques, in May. The class is designed for consultants and others who provide facilitation services for nonprofit boards of directors (in their board meetings, planning retreats, or other aspects of their work). We did not do any specific exercises or training around the Handbook, rather it was for participants to add to their “toolboxes.”

I inadvertently discovered the dotmocracy posters in the spring as I was preparing to facilitate a session - and since then have used them with 3-4 different groups, e.g a) university faculty as they explored creative ways to partner with their external community and b) stakeholders interested in planning for diversity and social inclusion in a regional health authority. I love the fact that they 'force' folks to actually stop and weigh in on each individual item - different than typical dotmocracy processes. I'm quite kinesthetic and the idea of moving folks around the room to stop at each poster was very appealing! And the opportunity to build in a SWOT analysis is perfect. Participants have reacted very positively to the dotmocracy posters - I blow them up to 11" x 17" in size and they become very visual and easy to work with. An excellent toll to support a democratic decision making process.

Thanks Jason for sharing the Dotmocracy Handbook. I am a College professor and teach community development to social service students and community workers. I find your handobook to be a useful and practical 'how to' resource. It clearly explains dotmocracy as a tool for working with communities and larger groups. We do our own dotmocracy process in class and it always works beautifully enabling everyone to have a voice. I really love your handbook. I think it is an EXCELLENT resource and I tell people far and wide about it. -- Linda Hill, Professor & Coordinator, Social Service Worker Program, Humber College, School of Social and Community Services.

As the public are embracing and taking ownership of their public spaces more and more, certainly facilitation has to accommodate this, and make more productive the process to involve the community - a tool like Dotmocracy would definitely be helpful.

We used Dotmocracy to tackle problems in workplace investigations. Dotmocracy was an incredibly effective, participatory method to have workers identify workplace problems and then specific solutions. It allowed them to be an integral part of the process from start to finish, allowed buy-in, and left no one feeling vulnerable or at risk of losing their jobs. - Bruce P. Bernard, M.D., M.P.H., Captain, USPHS, Chief Medical Officer, Health Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance, CDC/NIOSH

What a great idea, and it functions very well. Also, it helps take emotion out of the decision making process.

A dotmocracy exercise worked well at my office last month. We were trying to pick a new tag line, and we put 7 different suggestions on the walls around the room at the Xmas open house. We laughed about it being the opposite of an ice breaker (asking people to face the walls for a solo thinking exercise) but about 20 of the guests participated â???? some were highly engaged and wrote in new suggestions. The outcome was very informative, effectively ruling out several contenders that would have been a mistake. The results were surprisingly unambiguous (to the extent that it did make me wonder if later voters were falling into "group think").

I came across your dotmocracy tool while doing an internet search on group facilitation methods. Just wanted to let you know you have developed a wonderful tool and I am glad you have allowed people to use and share freely. I will definitely take you up on the offer and will probably use it before the end of the year on a large group I am facilitating for our church. Thanks again. With lovingkindness, Grissel

Hi, We recently used your dotmocracy handbook to conduct an all-staff review of our strategy for public engagement. The tool was used to review isolated sections of a draft strategy and to gather, in principle, agreement from all staff on the sections in their draft form before continuing with the polishing and wordsmithing. The feedback we received from staff was very positive; participants found the dotmocracy tool useful in building consensus while also giving them some room to provide feedback. Instead of using the conventional process of <create draft>-<circulate link>-<Track Changes in MS Word> we are circulating something much closer to final...people are encouraged to make additional feedback and feel that they were inculded in the strategy's development without having to have gone to every meeting, or made comments in the document itself.

Lyn Carson was visiting Melbourne last week, and suggested I take a look at your site and the sheets. They're exactly what we're looking for as we go to the stage of choosing expert witnesses for a Citizens' Jury. Each member of the steering group will be able to respond in a focused and constructive way, with the use of this approach. Thanks a lot!

We used the dotmocracy tools for association strategic planning at our recent conference in Vancouver. We worked with 8 key ideas for PWAC priorities, previously identified through an online survey, and had a great response from the close to 80 people in the room. Your system lends itself to such simple tabulation of the room's overall preferences. We were able to get the full results of the "voting" back to participants and to our wider membership the day after we returned from the conference. We now have a fully, democratically prioritized list of "PWAC should" suggestions for our Board to consider. It is an incredibly effective tool for us, and we'll be using it again.

The old world of the hierarchy is slowly fading, and people are replacing it with new ways of being together. I haven't tried dotmocracy yet, but it appears to be one of those potentially disruptive tools that are helping to usher in the new world, where real people interact with each other to unleash their individual and collective creativity. Great stuff!

The University of Toronto's Faculty of Information Studies recently utilized dotmocracy to figure out the best way to serve up cups of tea at our weekly talks. It was a great experience for all involved- and the not only the best result (down with Styrofoam!) came about, but everyone pitched in (first with ideas, then with donations of cups, now with the wash-up). Dotmocracy is a great way to brainstorm solutions to issues and has helped with community-building around here. Thanks.

I am impressed with your idea of facilitation. The handbook is well written and down to earth. making Dotmocracy easy to grasp. I will apply it soon and keep you posted. Remain Blessed

This is a test of the guestbook form. I hope many other people submit a message over the coming months. Yup this is neato.