Brad Rourke

Brad Rourke’s Blog

  • Our Nation’s Uncomfortable History With Race

    As many of my readers know, I write “issue guides” — discussions of difficult public issues designed to elicit small group dialogue. In my work on such guides, sometimes I develop fragments that are useful but just don’t fit into the ultimate publication. I came across an old passage I wrote that outlines our nation’s…

  • Taking Private Conversations Public

    Last week, Lisa Hickey wrote a piece in which she mused on some of the societal effects of social media. She makes a number of good points, but one in particular stood out for me — the relationship between online and in-person conversations when it comes to trust. Think about all the times you’ve had…

  • What Will We Say About Now?

    My friend Peter Levine, in an article that examines ways to look at the question of “whether President Obama is trying to do too much too fast,” mentions an analogy Bill Galston makes to Jimmy Carter’s early days in office. In Peter’s view, those days are not at all comparable to where we are now.…

  • Agents, Come Out Of The Shadows

    Seth Godin wrote recently about the plight of agents. Literary agents, travel agents, stock brokers, real estate agents — all either extinct or becoming so. Why? Anonymity: The problem with being a helpful, efficient but largely anonymous middleman is pretty obvious. Someone can come along who is cheaper, faster and more efficient. And that someone…

  • Seven Steps To Happy Volunteers

    My friend Cindy (who also collaborates with me on Rockville Central), is a formidable community volunteer, both in her work and in her personal life. She’s been on both sides of the volunteer aisle — being a volunteer, and leading other volunteers. Together, we formed the leadership team at the helm of a local Cub…

  • Astroturf On Twitter

    In organizing circles, “astroturf” refers to the practice of creating the simulation of a grassroots groundswell through robo calls, highly choreographed postcard campaigns, etc. People on Capitol Hill can tell it’s happening when they suddenly get pounds of mail that’s identical. My friend Jed Miller raises some interesting (related) questions about using Twitter as a…

  • Building A Talk Using Social Media

    In late January, the New York Time’s David Pogue gained a bit of Twitter infamy with a stunt. He didn’t mean anything by it. He was making a presentation and as a way to demonstrate the “power of Twitter,” he asked for a cure for hiccups with Twitter running on his screen. He got lots…