I usually behave myself in this space, don’t I?
I mean, I don’t do a great deal of shameless promotion of the John Locke Foundation. Really. I occasionally reference an article or study by one of my JLF colleagues. A couple of times, and only a couple, I’ve written about the organization itself – its history, its principles, its programs.
Now, having written a great deal over the past few months about serious matters such as the 2002 elections, tax policy, the economy, Social Security – and, of course, the political proclivities of comic book superheroes – I think it’s time for something completely different, as He Who Is Now Nearly Headless Nick would say.
Here’s the pitch. I’d like to encourage of our regular Carolina Journal Online readers (and as many of the thousands of visitors who have come to the site to read about whySuperman is a New Deal liberal) to consider checking out our newly redesigned John Locke Foundation web site, at www.JohnLocke.org. It may seem odd that our organization’s namesake web site would have taken this long to arrive in a form worth promoting. But frankly, it has taken us a while to figure out just what exactly a state think tank like the John Locke Foundation ought to do with this new-fangled “Internet” thang.
We got on the web at about the same time that lots of other folks did, in the mid-1990s. We did the site in-house, slapped a few things up that we could convert easily into HTML, and hoped readers would find us. Not many did, and I didn’t blame them. A couple of years ago, we decided to take our flagship publication Carolina Journal onto the web as a separate site, a very different kind of site that would be updated daily and focus on news links and short opinion pieces rather than lengthy research papers and think-tank prose. One newspaper said that the new site, www.CarolinaJournal.com, was “Matt Drudge with Class.” A bit catty, but it did capture the essence of what we were trying to do. And over time, I think we have developed a serviceable mix of news stories, quick takes, columns, and standing links that many North Carolina politicians, journalists, business executives, political activists, and others seem to value.
Following up on this success, we were moved by last year’s events to create another daily web site, www.NorthCarolinaAtWar.com, that would provide readers with the best news, analysis, and commentary we could find on aftermath of 9/11 and the War against Islamofascist Terror. We particular looked for (and sometimes wrote) pieces that address the impact of world events on North Carolina and the deployment and performance of North Carolina-based military units from Ft. Bragg, Camp Lejeune, Pope and Seymour Johnson air bases, and National Guard units.
The rest of JLF’s Internet presence, however, remained ill-defined and under-utilized. We decided to change that a couple of months ago. The new www.JohnLocke.org, which was designed by the Durham-based DesignHammer Media Group, is now an attractive and fully searchable archive of John Locke Foundation reports, studies, press releases, articles, and other publications. It contains what we hope is a useful primer on the organization, including its history, personnel, programs, and mission. It lists upcoming JLF events. And more will come soon.
On the JLF home page, there will always be two or three spotlighted issues that are making news or attracting legislative attention. For each issue, the site will provide summaries and links to various JLF resources. We’ll be changing these every few days to keep up with what’s hot. Right now, we are spotlighting economic development and the state’s latest forray into business subsidies, plus the ongoing state budget crisis. In the future, expect to see postings on education, health care, transportation, taxes, local government, universities, and many other issues.
Next on the Internet front, we’ll be redesigning this Carolina Journal Online site (if you have any suggestions, holler) and introducing new home pages for our specialized outreach programs: the North Carolina Education Alliance, the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, and the Center for Local Innovation. Our goal is to make the best of new technologies to inform, to opine, to discuss, and, yes, sometimes to provoke spirited debate on the big issues facing North Carolina. We hope to earn your participation in these endeavors.
Next week, Daily Journal will return to regular programming. Promise.