I am pleased to report that Wednesday morning's Cyber-Cafe at the Massachusetts State House was quite a success.  It's much easier to lure passers-by to your table with free Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee than by offering them a quick tour of MassINC's new web site.

Once they had slowed down long enough to view the web site, our "customers" were tremendously pleased to learn about all the social and public policy resources that are now freely available at MassINC.Org, CivicSource.Net, and IssueSource.Org.  But first we had to stun them with doughnuts, which is an important lesson in effective community outreach.


The title of this article is a reference to a 1983 song by Thomas Dolby, "She Blinded Me With Science."

Much credit is due to David Martin, MassINC's controller and IT director, who was 100% correct in his projections about the efficacy of the aforementioned brand of doughnuts.  He personally delivered them to the state house, and reported that the public safety officers at the entrance, in defiance of all known stereotypes, declined to sample the doughnuts that he offered them.