Libertarian think tanks have done untold damage.
Could a progressive think tank get any traction or would it just be ignored?
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Cenk should start a small TYT chapter in Florida. There are an insane amount of disenfranchised progressives in South Florida. Plus, Cenkās personality would be a winner, if people in Florida were more exposed to him and TYT as a whole. I have extreme Maga family members down here and even they cannot deny the authenticity of Cenk and TYTās message. Whether TYT can have a small media chapter in Florida or have on-the-ground work with the likes of Maxwell Frost or Nina Turner, I think TYT needs to branch out before creating another progressive think tankā¦
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I think this thread is somewhat ironic because in a way Project Hope is a progressive think tank.
I would even argue that Project Hope is more sophisticated than many libertarian and conservative āthinkā tanks.
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Knocks on glass
So your saying I canāt swim over to that computer?
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From my experience, one crucial feature of think-tanks is systematically organized knowledge, just like the ICIJ does with its offshore leaks database. Is there anyone who would like to discuss this issue in the context of this project?
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If Iām not mistaken, I think thereās a lack of progressive think tanks because of funds, most (if not all) libertarian and conservative think tanks are funded by corporate donors, and even democratic think tanks are funded by the establishment. I agree that this āOperation Hopeā is the progressive think tank we need. Hopefully, other progressives who donāt watch TYT can move past their camps and contribute ideas without the toxicity of the infighting, but of course, thatās a matter of Hope.
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I have many many ideas in this area. I think this could be really powerful and a must have for proper triage.
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Great! So, how could we best organize to start this up? I think what would be necessary for a āprogressive knowledge databaseā are mainly three things (order reflects priority):
- people, 2. content, 3. technology
If addressed correctly, this could become a useful and evolving tool to find working solutions, debunk bullshit and support quick onboarding for progressive missionsā¦
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While I agree with your direction I think there is something we need first. We need a covenant for all that use it to conform to.
If we create this unfettered it will likely be used against us. This maybe an acceptable risk at some point. I think growth will be stifled if this idea of ethos isnāt codified somehow.
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Thatās what I was thinking but more think tanks is an opportunity for more engagement.
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Zactly 
A think tank is a human data processing system and the implementation of any system requires a dedicated project so that the underlying structure of the data to be captured can be identifiable, classifiable and unclassifiable for example because the data being gathered can be reassessed multiple times in combination with other supporting data linked by classification.
Itās either gonna be a kickass think tank or itās gonna be chit chat and thatās nice but it doesnāt serve our purpose and detracts from our focus
Identify targets
Identify weaknesses
Identify strengths
Identify common ground
Identify allies
Compile data and based on interconnection, focus on the targets by āmost reachā or āmost isolatedā and develop and implement a contact protocol, focusing on the common ground we all shareš¤
ā¦i ran national projects but unfortunately CFS/ME and fibromyalgia are a tad limiting factor 
Im good for questions and bounce back thoā:wink:
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We might not have an abundance of cash, however we always have enough.
What we do have in abundance is experience and contacts
Always remember this fact of life, everyone does everything they do, out of love, never hate!!
When you understand this, youāre unlocking mindsš
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The use of tags for data identification should be developed
Somthing easy and visually informative so limit acronyms 
It could be a pull down self identified data input, verified with accreditation where applicable.
Okay, interesting thoughts above. To make it a bit more concrete: is anyone familiar with knowledge graph databases like Neo4j that is used by ICIJ for the offshore leaks database? I think a semantic approach is what should be used here, since the knowledge we strive for can only be expressed by complex interconnections as used in such graph databases.
North Carolina, too. Very gerrymandered but DARK purple.
I just want to add to my thoughts here. The power of think tanks isnāt really so much the ideas they produce. You are right, that we will generate a lot of ideas here with Operation Hope.
What think tanks do is run studies and publish papers and then get called onto mainstream news programs to talk about their āfindingsā.
It isnāt really research. It is marketing.
The real issue is whether mainstream news would just ignore such publications or not. They very well might, but I thought that it was an idea worth floating.
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I donāt but I have access to a group of engineers several are data scientist, UI/UX. I think one difficulty is I am not sure what mix of them would work for free or want bounty as payment. I would say this maybe an issue that some skilled volunteers would ideally work with some paid bounties, purses, or prizes.
Another issue is that it would be useful to have a TYT representative chime if we are building something that conflicts with current TYT infrastructure.
I agree with the necessity for involvement of a TYT representative at some point. But before diving too deeply into the technical entanglements, we could maybe roughly specify requirements and sketch some use-cases of a knowledge management system. Being an experienced software engineer and data scientist myself I would support such an effort for a couple of hours a week for free if it is done in a cooperative, professional and productive way. Unfortunately, I have plenty of experience with volunteer-based projects lacking these principles that just went nowhere. But if this discussion board does bring together a couple of like-minded people for such an exciting project, I am all in!
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If possible I would love to know some of these stories. If you have some time and would like to talk about these risks I would love to listen. I have spent a long time discussing, and thinking about these things. I have an eye for risk, and logistics. So I naturally see some things, but I know I am blind to applied knowledge with many of these projects that interest me.
I will say the GUI/HUD/Dashboard concept I had was nested in Minecraft. I have done some models in creative mode. I have a pretty well received cluster nesting method. There is an open source Minecraft clone that seems promising.
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Well, a recurring pattern with non-profit projects is the lack of enduring commitment and focussing on the objectives. People get distracted by too many other projects they get involved in and lose focus. I started a sustainability project a couple of years ago with maybe half a dozen of people of which one after another jumped ship. So I ended up developing the software and continuously gathering the content by my own, which is fine, but of course also slows things down. Since this was not the first experience of that kind, my āstartup-enthusiasmā has worn off a bit, which is not to say it canāt be recovered, but I try to put my āvoluteer-energyā only into initiatives that appear purposeful and substantive. Of course this is difficult to assess in advanceā¦
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