18 september 2010, building something here

In my mind, this is a space away from work, but as I've just spent an hour of my early morning on it, and been so immersed I haven't escaped here for a fortnight, it doesn't seem inappropriate. It's also because I'm lucky enough to actually enjoy a large part of my another day, another dollar toil. Including blue-sky thinking about building a research centre. We're not starting from scratch of course, as around the patch there are lots of people working on research, analysis, strategy, evaluation "and so forth" (as I might say in a paper) - but how, in a world where pillars are daily being knocked down to build a new temple to intelligence rather than do a samson ? We are trying to create a model that blends financial sustainability, high-quality output, dutifully servicing clients and paymasters and, most importantly of all, generating innovation and originality and protecting a space for radical, evidence-base thinking in a real-world rather than academic setting, that is fully informed of the best of what's out there but does something new and something real with it: a petri dish for those next big ideas that are going to rock our world. I'm enthusiastic !