Rootstalk: online grassroots think tank

[BNW]

Over the past two months, I've been working with a couple of people on an innovative project that may interest folks at DU: creating a website for an online grassroots think tank community.

The website is now online. What it needs now is contributing (with ideas, not money) members.

The website makes use of wiki pages for collaborative product-oriented think tank projects, forums for project-based, topic-oriented discussion and debate and for general community discussion, and on-site homepages, weblogs, and personal folders for personal expression and issues not addressed in the think tank projects. (What are "wiki pages"? Go to this page at our website to find out: http://www.rootstalk.org/wiki/WikiBasics )

The website is http://www.rootstalk.org but a best place to take an overview is http://www.rootstalk.org/wiki/OverviewOfRootstalkWebsite

Here is our "Mission Statement:"

Rootstalk is an online think tank that enables advocates of liberal, progressive, and populist approaches:

to collectively author shared principles, ideals, and goals

to collaborate in proposing ways to achieve those goals

to clarify differences in perspective that arise

to develop a critical understanding of conservative views, policies, and political strategies

In contrast to an online forum, Rootstalk is product-oriented: for each think tank project, individual members contribute to and edit a collectively-authored statement, on an ongoing basis, on a shared wiki page.

In contrast to a traditional think tank, Rootstalk has an online grassroots basis, encourages participation from a relatively broad range of perspectives, and seeks to create consensus democratically through collaboration and collective authorship.

The aim of Rootstalk is to build consensus and collaboration around core values and ideals and to produce policy statements that connect principles, goals, and ways to achieve them.

If you're interested, please join, contribute, and spread word to others who might be interested.

[starroute]

1. I've bookmarked it

And I'm nominating this thread for Greatest. If the site is all you say it is, we really need something like that.

[BNW]

3. Thanks for the enthusiasm

The site is everything I said it is, but like I said, what it needs is active members to add content to the think tank projects and help make Rootstalk a lively and productive website. We are building a membership base from scratch, so if have any ideas about getting active members, please share.

[Skidmore]

2. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.......................YES!

I've passed this onto a couple of networks of people I know who are very active.

YES!!!!

Just what we need.

[BNW]

6. Okay, I need to add something

We have some folks joining at Rootstalk (thanks DUers!), but only a very small number of folks are contributing ideas to the think tank projects.

Many people get to the site and feel very timid about contributing ideas. This is partly because they aren't familiar with wikis, but it is also because people feel their ideas aren't well-formed enough to add to the think tank projects. If you're interested in this project, please do not be timid! Be bold! I cannot stress that enough.

The whole idea is that what you add to wiki pages can be updated and edited in the future, by yourself and with the help of others. So don't be afraid to get the ball rolling. Add something. Add anything! Every version of each wiki page is archived in the page history. You can't do anything that can't undone or improved. Don't be timid.

Getting this grassroots think tank off the ground is entirely up to us, and all it takes is contributing our ideas. So, if you're interested, please contribute. Add content boldly. Edit boldly. Get the ball rolling!

Also, if there is anything we can do to help people use the wikis, let me know. It's really simple. It's almost exactly the same as posting messages. Check the help pages, but if there's anything you think we can do to make things easier, please share.

[BNW]

4. What motivated this project?

For me, the desire for an online grassroots think tank was motivated by a number of observations:

• that conservative think tanks have played an important role in redefining the political playing field over the past forty years;
  
  
• that progressive and liberal think tanks are greatly outnumbered by conservative think tanks;
  
  
• that progressive and liberal grassroots efforts have grown and demonstrated incredible potential over the past several years, largely through innovative uses of the internet;
  
  
• that core progressive and liberal values need to be reflected upon, clarified, and articulated in ways that speak to the grassroots, and that the best way to develop and express those values is to have them articulated by the grassroots;
  
  
• and, last but not least, that many excellent observations and ideas about values, goals, and policies get "lost" in the flow of online forums.
  

If you share these concerns and want to do something to address them, you should http://www.rootstalk.org">check out the website, join, and add ideas to the think tank projects.

[LifeVest]

5. This looks Great!

Finally a place where we can develop ideas and not just rehash the same old things over and over. Nice structure to the site too.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi LifeVest!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NVMojo]

7. is the is the closest thing we have to "opposition research" ...

a key tool to the RNC for a few decades, ala Rove.

[BNW]

8. I'm not sure what you mean by "opposition research"

Do you mean "get to know thy enemy" in reference to our goal of "developing a critical understanding of conservativism"? If so, that's part of what we want to do, not simply to understand the tactics of politicians but to understand how voters who vote for conservative think about things.

Also, if you want to "get to know the enemy," the "Rockridge Institute," affiliated with George Lakoff, is a the best place to start. Their work provides a lot of the initial material we have in our section on developing a critical understanding of conservativism.