About Us

Founders

Ross Smith conceived and co-founded DebateScoop and the Open Source Debate Foundation. He coaches debate and teaches Debate and Advocacy at Wake Forest University, and was a candidate for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education.

Media contact by email smithr at wfu dot edu or phone 336-251-2076

send e-mail to Ross Smith

Tim O'Donnell is co-founder of DebateScoop and the Open Source Debate Foundation. He is the Director of Debate at the University of Mary Washington. As a faculty member in the English, Linguistics, and Speech department, he teaches courses in rhetoric, public address, and argumentation.

send e-mail to Tim O'Donnell

DebateScoop

DebateScoop is a one-stop cyberspace source for electoral political debate coverage in the United States. Scholars in debate and communication studies will bring their insights to bear on political debates in real time for the purpose of improving public understanding of debate. A team of expert debate judges will contribute regular commentary to a Scoop-based weblog to track candidate debates.

Contributors will write substantive commentary before, during, and after house, senate, and gubernatorial debates and will contribute meta-analysis regarding what counts as �good debating� plus commentaries on formats, strategies, negotiations, and post-debate spin.

The Open Source Debate Foundation

The Open Source Debate Foundation�s (OSDF) mission and purpose is to promote debate as a method for producing, organizing and assessing knowledge and as a method for sound decision making. To that end we support projects which: build networks of skilled debaters, support teaching of debate skills, use debate as a method for educating the public, and which in any way enhance the role of debate in society and the public sphere. The more prominent the role of debate, the stronger the progressive force of better argument.

The OSDF is a nonprofit organization that serves as a bridge between students, educators, academics, policy professionals, politicians, the media, and the public at large. DebateScoop is our first major project.