Uneasy Rhetoric

The Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute is experimenting with a blog. I think this is a very good thing. Think tank-like organizations often have a reputation for being “standoffish,” as though they were stuck in their ivory towers making pronouncements on what is best for people. This might work for Rand or Brookings, but the more local think-tanks with ties to activists need to be a bit more down-to-earth. Blogs allow for a much less filtered form of communication and provide a vehicle for the “good stuff” that just couldn’t quite make it into the real columns; it’s one of the reasons newspaper columnists have blogs in addition to their regular columns. Blogs also allow for more interaction between the organization and its constituents (and detractors) as well as among the consumers of the think-tank’s work.

At some point soon I should try to put together a more comprehensive argument for why I think think tanks should consider blogging. For now, it’s my bedtime.