What is a “Virtual Public Think Tank”?
- Think Tank: An organization that facilitates interaction among people in pursuit of research and problem solving by adding analytical rigor to otherwise politicized discussions of controversial issues.
- Public: Our audience as well as the source of our advocates is the general public. But we also welcome subject matter experts from any field including lobbyists and special interest groups because all discussions will be transparent and subject to public scrutiny.
- Virtual: We don’t have an office. Everything is done online.
Our Goal
Our(1) goal is to create a destination(2) where advocates(3) from all sides of today’s most pressing social and political issues will interact(4) with each other to explain, discuss, and defend their position in view of the general public(5).
(1) This is an educational website. All expenses are paid out of the administrator’s pocket. For tax and accounting reasons we choose not to generate any income or accept money donations at this time. However we do accept volunteer editors, writers, webmasters, graphics, IT, SEO, marketing, accounting, legal, etc. In the future we would like to become a Section 501(c)(3) tax exempt non profit organization and receive tax deductible donations that will allow us to maximize our goal.
(2) Destination means a source of information that the public will seek out to understand an issue.
(3) Most think tanks are staffed by paid scientists and intellectuals. But in our case we welcome anyone with a knowledge and interest in a particular issue to contribute regardless of their academic background.
(4) Critical to this model is the interaction between all sides. This will demand that advocates state their assumptions and arguments openly and defend them against their critics.
(5) Dialogues will be monitored by the public who will ask questions and offer insights not covered by the advocates.
Definitions of what a think tank is
‘any open organisation built around a permanent cadre of researchers, whose mission it is to develop, on an objective basis, ideas relevant to policy-making or the formulation of private or public strategies, subscribing to a perspective of public interest.’ from an article titled “What is a Think Tank”
