A Link in the Chain: The Reut Policy Network

Jewish communities around the world represent a massive untapped intellectual potential for Israel. This potential is compounded by many Israelis who wish to make a substantive contribution to our wellbeing and security. The goal of the Reut Policy Network - RPN - is to provide an outlet for all of this energy and to allow the Government of Israel (GOI) to tap into this resource.

The Web 2.0 technologies have opened up new possibilities of connections and interaction. They allow for content and substance to be created through the inputs of many contributors who form virtual communities. Of the prominent examples for web 2.0 platforms are youtube, Myspace, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

The Jewish world has been impacted by these trends as well. A while back Amiram Barkat of Ha'aretz reported on the emergence of a new virtual culture centered around the internet. One such example, JewTube, is trying to create an online Jewish community based around videos of Jewish interest.

Reut believes that these developments can be leveraged to face the challenges of Israel and the Jewish world. The RPN is our vehicle and platform to do so. This effort is in concert with our strategy to become the primary provider of decision-support services to the Government of Israel.

The idea is to mobilize students, researchers and experts to contribute their intellect, insights and research capacity in the service of the most pressing issues on Israel's agenda. Our state-of-the-art technological platform donated by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Foundation should help us make the RPN the leading Internet platform for decision-support of the GOI.

The RPN may resolve a market failure in the public sphere. On the one hand, there is demand for high-quality research by understaffed, under-budgeted and under-resourced government agencies. On the other hand, students and researchers are creating tremendous amounts of new knowledge in the course of their ordinary work. (on average, we estimate that each graduate student in the USA writes sixty four papers per academic year). Many of them would be happy to have a 'client' such as a government agency. So, there is 'demand' and there is 'supply' but no mechanism to 'clear the market' sort-to-speak. We hope that the RPN will be that.

For Israelis decision-makers, the RPN is another decision-support service that Reut provides. They will be able to provide directives research, receive recommendations for essential reading or test their ideas.
And there are collateral benefits, particularly for the contributors. We hope that they will be able to form virtual and global communities around shared interests. In other words, instead of exploring areas of interests in solitude, through the RPN they will be able to reach out to others who are working on similar topics.

If you are interested in joining the RPN, please contact John Davis in Tel-Aviv at john@reut-institute.org or to Jonathan Adiri in NYC at jonathan@reut-institute.org.