History

The site was launched after a 2007 survey suggesting it would be an official government-run service. (Correction - Open Forum was always intended as an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit project. It is an initiative of Global access Partners http://www.globalaccesspartners.org/) It subsequently launched as an online think-tank (with some support from the Australian Government, and operated by Global Access Partners. It has managed, nonetheless, to attract writing from high-profile public figures, including Federal Parliamentarians such as Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott

Anthony John "Tony" Abbott is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election...

  and Tanya Plibersek

Tanya Plibersek

Tanya Joan Plibersek, MP , is an Australian politician with the Australian Labor Party, and Federal Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister for Human Services. She has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since October 1998, representing the seat of Sydney, New South Wales...

.

The site was the official public online forum for the Australian 2020 Summit

Australia 2020 Summit

The Australia 2020 Summit was a convention, referred to in Australian media as a summit, which was held on 19-20 April 2008 in Canberra, Australia, aiming to "help shape a long term strategy for the nation's future"...

  "inviting Australian’s from all walks of life to get involved and post their ideas" ; although it was not the avenue for official submissions to the Summit.

Website

Open Forum solicits articles and opinions from Australian policy-makers, business leaders and the general public alike.
The site claims:

It provides a platform for focused dialogue on social, political, economic, ecological and cultural issues and challenges.
The Forum is registration-based and enables participants to make connections, share their opinions and concerns, test their ideas, raise and discuss specific topics, suggest solutions and ultimately contribute to policy development and economic outcomes for government and business, as well as the democratic process in general.

Anyone can join Openforum.com.au for free. Contributions are free and unpaid. They are not immediately published. Some posts and links have been removed from posts in the past where deemed inappropriate by the Blogger-in-Chief. The current Blogger-in-Chief of Open Forum is Sally Rose. Previous Bloggers-in-chief have been Jeanne-Vida Douglas and Tamara Plakalo.