The Rockridge Institute: A Year's Accomplishments in Review

Read the full version of a new report (PDF) on the impact of the Rockridge Institute, or view excerpts below.

June 2007

Little more than a year ago, the Rockridge Institute was a small organization with a skeletal staff and a new executive director. Since then, Rockridge has undergone a metamorphosis. First, we assembled a temporary summer staff to help research and write the acclaimed Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision, which was published in warp speed by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in October. In the fall of 2006, Rockridge remade itself with the long-range goal of creating an intellectual staff capable of establishing a strong institutional identity not reliant on the considerable reputation of George Lakoff, who remains our lead researcher, writer and senior advisor.

By reaching members of multiple critical populations, Rockridge has had a major impact on public discourse. Our target readership includes the designers and implementers of public policy, programs, campaigns and initiatives; the drafters of legislation and the crafters of compelling messages; reporters and commentators; watchdogs, whistleblowers and activists working locally and regionally on a myriad of fronts and in every sector; and teachers of the next generation who will soon take on those roles.

To reach those readers, we start by publishing articles on our two websites, one of which explicitly invites discussion. Through the websites, we interact with a self-selected audience. At the same time, those articles are routinely sent to a primary distribution list: Huffington Post, Truthout, Common Dreams, AlterNet and BuzzFlash. (California Progressive Report, Institute for Public Accuracy, Common Sense magazine and others are recent and occasional additions to that list.) Publication on these sites makes the articles available to both a targeted and a broad readership, which leads to first page search engine results for the topics we address, which in turn amplifies our contributions to public discourse and influences policy and political strategy.

We regularly observe the repetition and discussion, adaptation and adoption of our ideas in the words and messages of candidates for national office including one of the front-runners for the democratic presidential nomination. We see it in the way people speak about Iraq, the so-called "war on terror," immigration, and a host of other issues. Google searches reveal how prominently we rank as a trusted source on the issues about which we write. Rockridge fellows are regular invitees to speak on the framing of political topics and we have become an established and welcome presence on progressive online news and opinion sites. Just this week, Rockridge Fellow Joe Brewer published an article on Common Dreams on the energy debate, which was ranked immediately beneath articles by Robert Kennedy Jr. and Amy Goodman.

The following is a snapshot of a remarkable year.

1. Case Study
2. Article Publication and Distribution
3. Google Search Rankings
4. Thinking Points
5. Political Impact
6. Public Appearances and Presentations
7. Radio Interviews
8. Conversations with Influential People in Relevant Fields
9. Other (Course Syllabi, Websites, Study Groups)

Read the full report in PDF form.