Just sent a link by my mum to Ode Magazine and browsing around found the current issue includes a list of 25 optimists. They call them intelligent optimists, I would say they were practical optimists, but nevertheless they’re the kind of people who I think will pull us out of our current problems. The intro to the list is here.
Battlefront – meet Zuhal
For the last couple of months I’ve been mentoring Zuhal, a 17-year old Iraqi living in Baghdad as part of Channel 4′s Battlefront. Zuhal’s aim is to set up the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq and eventually bring them on tour to Europe and the US. She’s a phenomenal pianist and just an outright amazing person and it’s been a real pleasure working with my [...]
Strange but wonderful
Great quote from Anna in her summing up of Social Innovation Camp. Something strange happened: 80 individuals gave up their weekend to come and spend two days working with a bunch of people they’d most likely never met before for no real financial gain simply to take part in an unusual hybrid of collaboration and competition, working on things that were often way beyond their [...]
“Representative democracy was based on the idea that people are thick”
I went along to see Us Now on Wednesday and I like it a lot – and not just because it’s got me in it! The funny thing about being on camera is that you sometimes come out with things you didn’t know you were going to say. In Us Now I surprised myself when I said, “Representative democracy was based on the idea that [...]
Tesco Electric
Saw one of these on my way to work this morning. Encouraging.
Bye Bye Oliver Postgate
Very sad to hear that Oliver Postgate died this morning. His wonderfully warm yet surreal programmes were very much part of my childhood.
Social Innovation Camp – The Revenge
Social Innovation Camp 2 was a roaring success. The winners were (drumroll please), Good Gym and in second place Useful Visitors – both fantastic projects. It was very close though. Any of the projects could have won – there was just an incredible level of talent and hard work over the weekend. The whole thing was masterminded by the brilliant Anna Maybank and Katherine Hui. [...]
Us Now
I haven’t seen it yet (first screening is tomorrow) but there are a few bits of me in a new documentary about government, democracy and technology called Us Now. Here’s the trailer.