Think nets
Dominique Babini | July 12, 2010
Very interesting ideas from Enrique Mendizabal and Stephen Yeo with the "think net" concept which helps us "thinking" these new virtual environments as more participative for diverse audiences to contribute with ideas about how to improve community, national and international issues which require voices from research and from many other social actors. In our case, a Latin American and Spanish Caribbean social science network (CLACSO-Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales), 65% of our 270 institutional members are university centers with mainly peer-review journals and peer-review events for dissemination of research results. But for the other 35% of our members (research ngo´s, social movements research area, government research units, trade union research departments) their publication and opinion outputs usually do not meet the quality standards required by peer-review systems, and find it many times difficult to participate with their publications in "academic" debates. This is a challenge we face in traditional formats and now in virtual environments, where Enrique and Stephen have sound proposals:
"To be more responsive and strategic, the think net would need to have a cohesive membership (well defined and well connected), a clear and shared mission (that all members are interested in and able to work towards) and the right resources and resource mobilization capacity (to allocate funds or mobilize expertise for long-, medium- and short-term initiatives). With only a loose network of experts, a think net may find it difficult to maintain the momentum that is often required to influence long-term policy processes. If it did not have a clear mission and policy focus, it may find it difficult to develop a comprehensive and convincing profile and would probably look more like a small ‘body shop’ consultancy responding to calls for proposals." (http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/en/Magazine/articles/The-virtues-of-virtuality)
Thank you Enrique and Stephen for sharing your ideas with us,
Dominique Babini, Information Area, CLACSO (www.clacso.edu.ar)
"To be more responsive and strategic, the think net would need to have a cohesive membership (well defined and well connected), a clear and shared mission (that all members are interested in and able to work towards) and the right resources and resource mobilization capacity (to allocate funds or mobilize expertise for long-, medium- and short-term initiatives). With only a loose network of experts, a think net may find it difficult to maintain the momentum that is often required to influence long-term policy processes. If it did not have a clear mission and policy focus, it may find it difficult to develop a comprehensive and convincing profile and would probably look more like a small ‘body shop’ consultancy responding to calls for proposals." (http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/en/Magazine/articles/The-virtues-of-virtuality)
Thank you Enrique and Stephen for sharing your ideas with us,
Dominique Babini, Information Area, CLACSO (www.clacso.edu.ar)
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