The Rough Harbor Rule

Space to think aloud

The aim is room to think aloud without turning a working thought into a personal position.

Sometimes confused for the less useful “Chatham House Rule,” the Rough Harbor Rule provides a greater degree of privacy and intellectual freedom.

> The Chatham House Rule: "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed." > The Rough Harbor Rule: "Information gained in a community organized per the Rough Harbor System may only ever be attributed to the named community, not to a particular event or person."

The Rough Harbor Rule allows individuals to benefit from participating in ideologically diverse communities by both being exposed to more ideas, and also by the greater privacy achieved by further obscuring where exactly ideas arise.

Citing you learned something through Rough Harbors is like saying you learned it at a DC happy hour. Except you’ll hear people mention Rough Harbors more.

Holding the boundary

The Navigators of a Harbor and the Members hold the boundary together.