Use this version. Email this to a friend. For the National Security Study Group, the Internet provides an opportunity to conduct a truly nationwide study by allowing the public to discuss the topic while the study is being done. Unlike previous national security studies, the NSSG is looking not only at defense-related issues but also technology, cultural, environmental and economic factors. The forums are designed to enable the public to speak directly to the study's researchers and for the researchers to reach out to the public.
Visitors can browse through the messages, post a new message or respond to a message.
And the messages can be anonymous or include a name of the poster's choosing. It can be hard to keep people involved in a forum after their initial curiosity has been fulfilled, so the group is considering putting up status reports to show people how their contributions are being used, as well as adding a moderated live chat room. The group also wants to get its senior advisers more directly involved in the forums, Nemceff said. Each forum has a researcher assigned to it, and they post comments and responses and also forward comments to other researchers and study group members. Even though the site has been up for just more than a month, already many of the postings have brought new ideas and insight to the study, and that is part of the point, Nemceff said.