Contribute

This site is about equipping people with knowledge. Too often we assume that we all know what we’re each talking about and too often it’s not true. It’ll really help if people who’re interested in this site ask me the questions that they feel they would benefit from knowing the answer to which would help me shape the content. Don’t be shy – no daft questions and all that. And I’ll try and provide answers in what I’m putting up on here the best I can…

Perhaps you have a specific thought on what what be useful for you or others that I could try and source or put together for the site – an explainer you’d particularly like to see, a subject you’d like an analysis of or a topic you’d like to hear a conversation about. Just send it in and I’ll see what I can do…

I don’t have time to do a proper moderation on comments so I just don’t have them activated on the site – but it doesn’t mean I don’t want feedback. As well as questions and suggestions you can send me a ‘letter’ and if there’s enough interest in sending these I’ll do a ‘letters section’. Just send me short emails (no more than about 500 words) with reactions to things on the site or short arguments you want to make. Keep it constructive and keep the tone as positive as you possibly can given the state of things in Scotland.

You might work in the public or private sector in Scotland or in one of it’s institution and therefore have good knowledge about a subject – so let people know what is going on in your field. Or you might have policy expertise or practical experience which means you can dissect new public policy or initiatives and explain their merits (or otherwise) to others. If so, write me an analysis piece. Analyses aim to be shorter and sharper (up to 1,000 words) and written for an interested but non-expert audience who want to understand why something is happening, to tell them what is going on or to help them make a judgement about whether they should feel positive about new initiatives. Generally I’d rather include a byline and biography (just a sentence or two) but I understand that it can be difficult for whistleblowers or where people are prevented from writing publicly for other reasons. If you explain why and let me know about you I’ll definitely consider publishing anonymously.

There are never too many good ideas – so if you’ve got one, send me it. It could be policy, strategy or some kind of interesting initiative. Write it up with the minimum commentary and in the fewest possible words and avoid jargon – so people can understand what you’re getting at. I’ll put good ones in the idea’s section.

The world is full of opinions and there are so many places to publish them (and I’ve only got a limited time to curate this site), but there is never enough interesting, innovative, relevant and thoughtful opinion writing. So if you’ve got something to say, send me it. Try and think of things that you wouldn’t expect to see ten times over in other places (new angles on a subject or a view of a subject rarely covered) and always try to be concise and make it a pleasure to read. But don’t let me put you off – I’ve always been keen to encourage new writers. If you want to can send me an idea for an opinion piece and see what I think.

If you happen to be a filmmaker or fancy taking a shot at doing podcasts along the lines of what is on this site you could always send me something to have a look at. Editing video and audio content is time-intensive to to be blunt please only send things that are of a high quality or where the content is really strong. But if it’s good I’d love to give it an airing.

Finding good things to read isn’t as easy as it should be – so if there is good writing in other places that you think visitors to this site would benefit from reading, send me a link and I might be able to check it out and put it in the Elsewhere section. I’m also happy to plug events or initiatives if you send me the details.