But as important as these activities are, more crucial is the propagation of a distinctive mindset: a commitment to explaining one's values and to giving a hearing to the values of others.
Joel Kaplan, vice president for United States public policy at Facebook, said in an e-mail that the company's efforts in Washington "reflect our commitment to explaining how our service works, the actions we take to protect the more than 900 million people who use our service, the importance of preserving an open Internet and the value of innovation to our economy".
"Our presence and growth in Washington reflect our commitment to explaining how our service works, the actions we take to protect the more than 900 million people who use our service, the importance of preserving an open Internet, and the value of innovation to our economy," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement.
Her Day by Day series on Radio 4 is another part of the BBC's commitment to explaining the build-up to war alongside a wealth of material to explore at the World War One site.
This involves a commitment to explaining and understanding the underlying causes of ill-health and to understanding the commonalities that underlie people's health around the world.
It pledges, "Labour remains committed to a minimum, credible, independent nuclear capability, delivered through a continuous at-sea deterrent," as your round-up of policies recorded (Miliband's programme under the microscope, 14 April) But, despite the upfront commitments to explain how expenditures will be paid for, Labour has no word of how it is going to find the £100bn for Trident replacement.
David Lubinski, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University who has studied talent identification and development, said the researchers' work highlights the importance of accounting for ability, commitment and opportunity to explain individual differences in human performance.
For example, when you're making a change, you have to go back to all of these people you made commitments to and explain that everything you explained before is completely off the table.
Its commitment to meritocracy explains both its dynamism and its harshness towards failure.
3.42pm BST Clegg says the liberal commitment to freedom explains why the party feels so strongly about education.
