Reading through this article on the threatened funding for NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, I had the familiar impulse to drop a couple of bucks to create a foundation to backstop government funding for basic research and outlandish ideas. But there was no donation button, and no way to easily set up something of the sort. This is the sort of infrastructure that a blogging think tank could provide, an organizational umbrella to handle small efforts until they grew into something that could be spun off into its own entity. Do I imagine that you could quickly raise the $40M that it would take to permanently fund an institute to replace NIAC? I'm not that naive. But that doesn't mean that a significant amount of funds couldn't be raised and that those funds could eventually grow to eclipse government funding levels.
What's needed is an organization that could lower the barriers to entry for such charitable endeavors. Enter the Blog Tank, but that idea itself has its own barriers to raising money. I have to rely on donations to get things started myself. Please contribute generously in order that the blogging infrastructure can be enriched for everyone. The donate button is on the sidebar to the left on the main page.
Posted by TMLutas at May 7, 2004 11:05 AM