The DU Think Tank

[ck4829]

I believe it is time that we move ahead with what many DU'ers believe we should do, and that is create a Think Tank.

Any ideas on how we should do this?

[Renew Deal]

1. I also think we should do this.

We need a place to share information with quarterly weekend meetings. There should be different focus groups including some structure to raise money.

[ck4829]

3. I am skilled with Yahoo Groups

Perhaps we should make a couple of Groups to do just that

[sherilocks]

8. Does Yahoo still have members only groups?

This would limit the number of trolls.

[yellowdogintexas]

9. Yahoo definitely does have members only groups, to which

one has to be invited. My Sunday School class has one, which we made private to keep out people who might land there thinking we were a group about a popular 1970's British Comedy

(our class is called The Good Neighbors)

So yes, you can make it invitation only, start it up with the loyal base, so to speak, then each of the original members would be able to extend invitations to any non troll persons they wished to include.

[sherilocks]

10. Then that seems to be the way to go

unless Skinner can set us up with something similar here. How would you propose going ahead?

[Sporadicus]

2. I Think It Would Tank

unless participants were able to set aside ego and ideological points to which they've become espoused.

[ck4829]

4. That would be a problem

We can't just create one group, first we will have to create a number of small but connected groups that reflect the various ideas of different people on the Left.

[JDPriestly]

5. Great idea

We should focus on presenting the nation with attractive solutions not just ABB criticisms. Since the election, a lot of DUers are just posting worthless, boring stuff like endless ad hominem attacks, etc. I'd like to read more contributions about policy issues and hear more about peoples' ideas on where we should go as a country.

It would be great to be able to skip the repetitive threads that rehash the election statistics but never seem to offer any concrete solutions for improving the election system beyond getting a paper trail.

Sorry, I'm not computer savvy enough to know how to do it.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. I would recommend...

Finding a Think Tank organizational professional who might be intrigued by the idea, to help form and structure this thing into a productive framework.

It's not a bad idea, but you don't want to build chaos.

[El Fuego]

7. You have to make sure it can't be infiltrated by Repugs

So an anonymous discussion board format might not work.

[bpilgrim]

11. we already are a 'think tank'

just post your ideas and papers in the appropriate forums

peace

[JDPriestly]

12. Think tanks

don't just think. They disseminate reports and comments to the press at large through press releases, sponsoring op-ed writers, etc. One of the worst right-wing op-ed writers funded by think tanks is Max Boot. There are lots of other really bad ones. Obviously, we don't have the funding, but I think it would be important to use the "think tank" model to get our thoughts on Democratic values and policies out to the world beyond DU.