Share Your Story
Disruptive Thinkers, a tribute to the organization’s original name, is a media platform curated by the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum. It seeks to inspire, connect, and empower people in the national security community in order to promote a culture of innovation. There are lots of ways to contribute.
The DEF community is about connecting people.
Not only is that part of our motto (inspire, connect, empower), but it is foundational to what makes culture, and culture change is our mission.
Some people love writing and want to share their ideas, so we created an easy way to publish with low barriers to entry to help spread those wonderful thoughts and musings. But what about people who aren’t writers?
We have a theory about them. We think that simple, fun profiles on members of the community, both short-form and longer interviews, can also connect (and inspire) people.
After experimenting with a few different approaches (which you can read about here), we’ve decided to open the aperture a bit and ask for your help in identifying members of the DEF community whose stories and perspectives will help with our mission.
We recognize that this may raise a host of issues, but instead of backing away for fear of offending anyone, we’re wading in, trusting that you will have our back and help shape how others see the virtuous insurgency.
✅ Who Gets Featured?
- We’re looking for people that help tackle challenges and change culture across the national security enterprise — this means not just those in the military or intelligence organizations, but many related fields.
- Because this is a DEF blog, we expect everyone who submits or is featured be part of the community; if you found this post and are interested, but not yet part of the virtuous insurgency, it’s free and easy to join.
- We’ve found that graphics are important (pictures, GIFs, videos). Aside from making the content more interesting, it is easier to read when chunks of text are broken-up. We collaborate on ideas with featured members, but having photos from your experiences and a decent headshot help a lot.
- There are two different kinds of profiles: short-form and long-form. Short-form profiles are initiated by filling out a simple form, Q&A-style. Long-form profiles require an interview and typically take more time.
- We want to feature amazing people, but not everyone will be featured, nor right away. Mirroring the diversity of those we share with our vision of a diverse national security community also plays a big role in this series. (If you feel that you are somehow being discriminated against, let us know.)
🚫 Who Doesn’t Get Featured?
This outlet is by and for the DEF community. That means a few things, which we’ve simplified into “no-go territory”:
- We will not publish about anyone whose activities are inconsistent with our mission (promote a culture of innovation in the U.S. national security community) or values (action-oriented, agile, decentralized, inclusive, people-focused). This includes any post-hoc violations.
- We will not publish about anyone in a way that promotes a specific commercial product or service (our goal is to spread ideas, not ads), is part of a PR campaign, or that degrades or attacks anyone (we just won’t promote that kind of behavior).
Got someone in mind who doesn’t violate those simple conditions? Great!
Other Things to Know 🤙
Articles are also shared with DEF followers on social media and other communication channels, including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and The Dispatch, our email newsletter.
We typically include a short biography about the person being featured at the bottom of a post to help people get to know them further and connect on social media. Once a piece is getting ready to publish, we’ll be looking for that.
We can include any necessary bylines, and will also append a brief explainer at the very end (like the one at the bottom of this post) that talks about what DEF is and how people can get involved.
How Do I Get Started? 🚀
We want to hear from you! There are more wonderful people out in the DEF community than any one person could reasonably expect to know, so we are counting on you to help bring bright examples of virtuous insurgents forward.
Let us know your ideas, questions, or concerns in the comments, or email us at hello@def.org.
Think you are a good match, or maybe have someone else in mind to nominate? Give us a shout on the form below to get the ball rolling.
Thanks for connecting! 😃
The Defense Entrepreneurs Forum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that inspires, connects and empowers people by convening events, forging partnerships and delivering tangible solutions. Our mission is to promote a culture of innovation in the U.S. national security community.
If you are a civil servant, military member, academic, entrepreneur, policymaker, or technologist (or just find the idea of helping solve tough problems enticing), we’d love to have you join the DEF Community!
