1. What is the difference between an open forum and an invited, structured forum?  Open forums are literally open to anyone's participation. The invited, structured forums are for public viewing and discussing observations about them, but they do not involve public participation. Small groups of people with some expertise around the subject of specific articles are invited to the structured forums. The invited forums are intended to use the more disciplined approaches outlined in our Guidelines for Integral Dialog.

2. Where do I find the guidelines for participating in the forums?  Here.

3. Are the forums run on regular bulletin board-type software, like the open source phpbb?  Yes, we are changing the forums over to phpbb software. Registration via login and password are now required to protect the forums from spammer sign-ins.

4. Do I have to pay a membership fee?  No.

5. Do I have to make any kind of commitments if I participate in a forum?  We expect everyone to try to employ the Guidelines.

6. Can I start my own forum on a subject I am interested in?  Anyone can start a new topic within the forums that are going on. If you have an entirely different idea for a forum, tell us what it is, who you think would be interested, and why it would be worth doing. If you propose a new forum, we need you to be willing and able to moderate and maintain the forum using the Guidelines and the software. (We will help you get oriented.)

7. Is there a difference in using the term "dialog" rather than "dialogue"?  No.

8. Can I jump in and just start or is there something I need to know before doing so?  Read the IR Dialog Guidelines (linked above). Read the "Introduction" of whichever forum you are interested in. Then, answer the two About You questions. Then, dive in. Enjoy!

9. How familiar do I need to be with Integral theory or perspectives to participate in one of the integral dialog forums?  Not at all. The Guidelines should be applicable to any topic of discussion.

10. How safe are the forums? For example, will I get attacked if I say something innovative, or dumb, or controversial?  No guarantees!  But we have explicit steering mechanisms (see Guidelines -- Overview) to try to establish some level of intellectual and social quality, and the goal is to empower the members of any dialog to hold themselves accountable for their agreement to interact based on the spirit of those guidelines.  Also, "invited dialogs" should, in theory, have a higher quality than those open to anyone on the net.

11. What is "integral dialog" and how is it different from other forms of dialog?

12. How are these on-line dialog forums different from list-serve groups or blogs?

See the Guidelines for Integral Dialogs and article Toward Integral Dialog for thoughts on these questions. Very briefly, our interpretation of "integral," as seen in the Integral Dialog Guidelines aims to support dialog that:
- includes many perspectives, not only from many individuals, but to have individuals speak from several perspectives within themselves;
- explores perspectives in a somewhat methodical way (usually using some framework)
- finds perspectives that "transcend and include" many other perspectives (not in a totalizing or categorical way, but in an attempt to create ever more inclusive meaning for ourselves);
- is explicit about the perspective you are speaking from;
- values inner as well as outer-focused realities and phenomena;
- creates safe spaces to compensate for the vulnerability and cognitive dissonance engendered when one reveals inner phenomena or dwells in areas of personal uncertainty.
[You could link these to Wilber's AQAL model through the quadrants, emphasis on perspectives, invitation to share voices from all of one's lines and levels, and meaning holarchies.]