Atocha Workshop is a workshop aiming to bring together diverse opinions and backgrounds to develop viable policy initiatives. Here each participant is asked to shape and strengthen their own policy opinions and not focus on consensus.
The Atocha Workshop on Global Terrorism held on March 11, 2005, was hosted by the Safe Democracy Foundation. This repository will include original thoughts on Global Terrorism. It was also mentioned that a weblog will continue to feed the topic weekly by creative thinkers from all over the globe. The launch event was held at the Atocha Train Station, at the restaurant Samarkanda on March 11, 2005. In a relaxed atmosphere encouraging creativity, 200 people took part as policy proponents, webloggers, or the public in discussing the proposed policies.
Homepage
On the homepage of the website, a few articles can be seen. The topics include: Identifying the Roots of Modern Terrorism, Models for Promoting Democracy, The Right Way to Promote Arab Reform, Stopping the Proliferation of WMD, Pursuing Terror as an Open Society, and a lot more topics relevant to understanding and creating solutions to Global Terrorism.
A brief overview of The Topics, The Workshop, The People, and The Proposals can also be seen at the side panel of the website to give visitors an insight into what the workshop is about. It is also mentioned here that the Atocha Workshop is sponsored by the Safe Democracy Foundation which is formerly the Varsavsky Foundation. To read other related articles, visit Real Estate Law News.
About atochaworkshop.org
On the About the Workshop page, in-depth information about the workshop can be seen. Here, interested individuals can see the information they need.
It was mentioned there that the participants of the said workshop will be asked for creative ideas to create policy in the context of 12 topics. Each participant will take part in two Creative Debate Sessions, each dealing with a different topic. A policy is a plan of action or course by a government, political party, or institution, organization, or business that is intended to influence or determine decisions, actions, and other matters.
The Workshop will bring together journalists and politicians as well as activists, scholars, and journalists in the areas of democratic advocacy and terrorism analysis. They will be introduced through “One Question Interviews.” Anybody can register for the Workshop. Participants can further ask the guests questions, challenge assumptions, and offer alternative ideas.
Information about Creative Debates can also be found in this page. According to the website, there will be two Creative Debate sessions with 120 participants. They will each meet in roundtable groups of 10-11 persons. Each roundtable group will be given a question on global terrorism and each participant will have to devise innovative policies that will deal with the issue.
Creative Debate sessions are designed to help members develop innovative and creative policies. Each session ends with the moderator compiling a list of members who wish to present their ideas in the Policy Forum. The Safe Democracy representative will compile this list at each Creative Debate session.
The Structure of Creative Debates can also be found here. The structure and components of each group were described on the page as well as the roles of each individual during the debate.
The People
On The People page, an update on the participant list can be seen. With less than a week until the event, 110 participants have already confirmed their appearance in the Atocha Workshop. The full list of the participants can be seen by accessing the link provided.
One Question Interviews and a brief biography of some prominent individuals in the fields of democratic advocacy and terrorism analysis like professors, doctors, lecturers, editors, and the like. Some of them include Dr. Yael Danieli, Brazilian UN Ambassador João Clemente Baena Soares, Prof. Mona Makram-Ebeid, internationally recognized expert on information security Chris Goggans, Vice President of international and mobility for Technorati Joichi Ito, and European Coordinator of the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court in Brussels Irune Aguirrezabal Quijera.
By clicking the Trackback button below each biography or One Question Interview, visitors can see links that reference the speaker they are interested in.
The Topics
The Topics page contains all the articles and updates regarding the workshop. It also showcases some of the participant’s answers to the Creative Debate Policy questions during the workshop. Images of the participants while brainstorming can also be seen. The images were categorized based on the topic in which the participants were assigned. Comments for each article can be accessed by clicking the link provided.
Proposals
On the Proposals page, Policy Proposals of Creative Debate Sessions Participants can be seen. Each proposal was carefully developed according to the proposed structure provided. The Proposals were evaluated using a grading system with the following criteria:
• Is the idea persuasive?
• Are the components logical?
• Is the idea relevant?
• Can the idea be implemented?
Each Policy evaluation was also posted along with the conclusion for each Proposal.
