Happy Holidays from On Think Tanks!

By  Enrique Mendizabal
23 December 2011

Happy holidays to all! It has been a busy year here in thinktanklandia. I would like to thank you all for following onthinktanks and supporting my work. I hope you have a good break and look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Following James’ post on sticky stories, let me share onthinktanks’ with you:

  1. Theories of change: an annotated review of documents and views
  2. Evaluation reading list, contacts and resources
  3. Manuals (toolkits, etc.)
  4. Think tank directories and lists
  5. Another year, another ranking of think tanks (and surprise surprise, Brookings is still the best)
  6. Responding to digital disruption of traditional communications: three planks to ODI’s digital strategy
  7. What is the role of the intelligence services? And think tanks?
  8. on the business model and how this affects what think tanks do
  9. Different ways to define and describe think tanks
  10. Programming for complexity: how to get past ‘horses for courses’

The most commented posts, that is, the posts that seem to have had generated the most buzz:

  1. Policy analysis and influence: researchers or communicators?
  2. Another year, another ranking of think tanks (and surprise surprise, Brookings is still the best)
  3. Different ways to define and describe think tanks
  4. Responding to digital disruption of traditional communications: three planks to ODI’s digital strategy
  5. on the definition of think tanks: Towards a more useful discussion
  6. Independence, dependency, autonomy… is it all about the money?
  7. on how to organise and present a think tank’s research
  8. Think tanks in East and Southeast Asia – an Overseas Development Institute study
  9. Can think tanks make a difference? only if they are capable of logical leaps of the mind
  10. Never mind the gap: on how there is no gap between research and policy and on a new theory (Part 1 of 3)

The top 10 shares:

  1. on success from TED by Alain de Botton
  2. Think Tanks: At Work – 2010-2011 Think Tank Initiative Annual Report
  3. I worked at a think tank. I didn’t have time to think
  4. A new think tank model: a focus on productive sectors
  5. Evaluation reading list, contacts and resources
  6. good advice on effective influencing (even if it may have been all made up)
  7. Building the Case for Core Support
  8. Looking for evidence in political debates: the case of GMOs in Zambia
  9. The limits of the scientific method and the need to merge science and innovation
  10. CIGI Event: “Can Think Tanks Make a Difference?” 20th September

I could go on…

Instead, let me thank those you have helped me this year and without whom this effort would not have been possible. In no particular order: Nick Scott, Emma Broadbent, Jeff Knezovich, Paul Birch, Sarah Earl, Fred Carden, Goran Buldioski, Simon Maxwell, Orazio Bellettini, Stephen Yeo, James Georgalakis, Vanesa Weyrauch, Felipe Portocarrero, Cynthia Sanborn, Carolina Robino, Veronique McKinnon, Peter Taylor, Maria Urbina-Fauser, Marie-Claude Martin, Kate Higgins, Lawrence MacDonald, Ajoy Datta, Savior Mwambwa, Bridget Dillon, Sherine Ghoneim, Alan Whitworth, Zaza Curran, Aaron Griffiths, Patricia Lumba, Pamela Kabaso, Caesar Cheelo, Cecilia Luttrell, Catriona Moss, Nuning Akhmadi, Norma Correa, Micaela Pesantes, John Young,  Karthik Nachiappan, Peter da Costa, Rafael Loayza, Asep Suryahadi, Rahmitha, and many others. (Sorry if I forgot to mention you… I’ll certainly remembers soon.)

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