Virtual Public Think Tank is a citizen-led platform for working through America’s social and political problems — understanding them, deliberating over them, and building durable solutions that outlast any single administration.
This page is the front door to how VPTT works and what it stands for. Each section below links to a fuller document. Read as much or as little as you like — start anywhere, go as deep as you want.
Some documents below are still being written. Those are marked “in progress” — the project is young, and it’s being built in the open.
Start here
The Case for VPTT
Why this project exists, why the timing matters, and why a standing, citizen-led body is the right answer to problems the political system keeps dropping. If you read one thing, read this.
(in progress)
How It Works
The three connected spaces — a website to read, a forum to deliberate, a wiki to build — and how an issue moves through them, from first question to advocated solution and follow-up.
(in progress)
What VPTT stands for
Founding Values
The ground VPTT is built on: a commitment to human rights, to democratic participation, and to the belief that a broad public — deliberating well — tends toward sound judgment. What’s open to debate here, and what isn’t.
(in progress)
Objective, Not Neutral
What it means to follow the evidence wherever it leads while leaving the conclusions to the people — and how VPTT stays genuinely open rather than steering toward a predetermined answer.
(in progress)
How VPTT is run
How VPTT Is Governed
The structure that keeps the platform trustworthy: standing is earned through participation rather than granted from above, and those who moderate hold authority over conduct and process — never over conclusions. Anyone can start an issue.
(in progress)
Roles and Participation
The different ways to take part — from reading, to joining the deliberation, to building the record, to leading an issue — and how subject-matter experts are brought in to keep the work grounded.
(in progress)
Why it matters
Public Sentiment and the Theory of Change
The conviction underneath the whole project: that an informed, organized public is the deepest lever in a democracy — and that helping shape sentiment through open deliberation is how lasting change actually happens.
(in progress)
Get involved
VPTT is at the beginning, and the thing it needs most right now is people — contributors, subject-matter experts, and anyone who might want to help build or eventually lead an issue they care about.
- Join the forum — the open front door, where the conversation is happening.
- Read and build the record — help shape the wiki.
- Sign up for updates — follow the project as it develops.
If that’s you, this is the ground floor.