http://www.paulmiller.org/ Writer, researcher and Demos associate Copyright 2006 Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:09:43 +0000 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.11 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I've upgraded to WordPress from Movable Type and so have changed my RSS feed. Please subscribe to http://www.paulmiller.org/?feed=rss2 Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:09:43 +0000 Ok, so the Pre Budget Report was a bit boring. Generally a steady as she goes kind of speech. But there was a sneaky commitment in there which seems better than most commentators have given Brown credit for. He said that the Government would make all newly built homes carbon neutral by 2016. Now only 0.8 per cent of the houses in the UK are built each year, but my calculation that means that by 2050 this single little announcement will mean that 31 per cent of the UK housing stock will be completely climate neutral. That's not bad when... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/12/browns_green_bi.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/12/browns_green_bi.html Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:09:43 +0000 I really enjoyed Monday night's chat between Steven and Brian. They started off talking about The Ghost Map but the conversation spread its tentacles to include Second Life, neighbourhoods, modern renaissance and slums. Great stuff and Brian got a good chance to talk about Long Now ideas as well. A podcast is coming soon if you missed it or couldn't get a ticket - the event sold out completely which isn't bad for a Monday night. Some links to follow up: Matt Jones (he of EnoQuest) has posted his raw notes, My friend Joe Lee was photographer for the... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/12/johnson_vs_eno.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/12/johnson_vs_eno.html Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:41:39 +0000 I'm doing a short talk in response to Michael Jacobs at an event at the RSA on Wednesday about climate change and the Stern review. Michael is a member of the UK Chancellor's Council of Economic Advisers and a brilliant speaker - will be interesting to hear what he has to say. I think I'm going to talk about optimism and climate change, and how really there's a bit of pessimism in the way we all think about global warming that we need to confront if we're going to do anything about it collectively. Come along if you like. I'm... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/11/after_stern.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/11/after_stern.html Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:10:05 +0000 In my role as London based friend of the Long Now Foundation, I've done a bit of pro-am event organisation. Here are the details: The Ghost Map Steven Johnson in conversation with Brian Eno 18:45, 4 December 2006, The ICA, the Mall, London SW1 In 1854 a cholera epidemic killed 50,000 people in England and Wales and become a battle between man and microbe unlike any other. At the ICA, Steven Johnson - author of Everything Bad is Good for You - will tell the story of Dr John Snow, the physician who pounded the streets of London, methodically noting... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/11/long_now_london.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/11/long_now_london.html Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:20:35 +0000 Madrid's Barajas airport won the RIBA Stirling Prize for architecture yesterday. I accidently visited it on my way to Valencia in the summer because I had to plan my trip to be in front of a telly for the World Cup final and the best way to do it was to change at Madrid. I didn't even know there was a new airport so it was a lovey surprise to step off a plane and into the future. I spent an hour or so just wandering around in awe with a smile on my face. It's stunning.... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/10/madrid_airport.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/10/madrid_airport.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:56:58 +0000 Steven Johnson has a great piece in the New York Times Magazine today about Will Wright's Spore. He writes about 'zooming' as the motif or our times - those moments when you switch scale radically but the patterns remain similar. I first heard him talk about the idea at a talk he did for us at Demos last year. It struck me at the time that not only is it interesting but it's also a really useful way of thinking about research. Unless you can spot patterns on multiple levels it's unlikely that you've really got a handle on what's... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/10/zoom.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/10/zoom.html Sun, 08 Oct 2006 20:10:42 +0000 Neil Mullarkey's latest newsletter has a couple of links to podcasts with The Beermat Entrepreneurs. First as L. Vaughan Spencer: http://www.beermat.biz/short-podcasts/BeermatRadio-Ed13-SHORT.mp3 And then on the value of improvisation in Business: http://www.beermat.biz/short-podcasts/BeermatRadio-Ed14-SHORT.mp3 There was also a brilliant bit (Real Player) on the Today programme that I meant to blog ages ago where Neil came on after Jack Straw's 8.10 interview. It was at the height of the Labour party implosion so Straw was having to watch his words very carefully. The strange thing was that he came back on and listened to his interview and then said why he had... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/10/be_succeedy.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/10/be_succeedy.html Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:31:44 +0000 I'm a big Apple fan. I have an iPod and my last two laptops have been Apples. They've all served me very well and I like being part of the "mac fraternity'. But there are two things that worry me: firstly their growing insistence on DRM on music and video and secondly the environmental impact of their technology. They did pretty badly in a comparison of different manufacturers. Now Greenpeace have created a constructive campaign to get Apple to change. I'll be buying a new machine early next year. I'd like it to be an Apple but will make my... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/i_want_a_green.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/i_want_a_green.html Fri, 29 Sep 2006 10:40:17 +0000 Compass is a name that is cropping up more and more in the newspapers and on TV news. It's a pressure group set up by Neal Lawson to try and influence the Labour party's policy direction after Tony Blair leaves the helm. I've been involved a little bit and was a member of their Good Society working group, which has published its report as a short book today. It's an interesting read and will certainly get people thinking. Hetan and Jonathan who co-ordinated the process and wrote the final report have a piece in the Guardian today. Neal's blog on... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/the_good_societ.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/the_good_societ.html Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:31:04 +0000 There's no escaping the similarities between the lonelygirl15 saga and the plot of William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition. From the Washington Post: "The plot [of Pattern Recognition] centers on mysterious bits of video posted anonymously on the Internet. The shadowy black-and-white videos, called "the footage," appear to feature a pair of lovers and hint deliciously at a larger, magnetically compelling story. The footage inspires a cultish following on the Web, including chat rooms, parodies and investigations -- just like those created around lonelygirl15 -- and the novel's hero is dispatched by an advertising wizard to track down the filmmakers so... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/gibsonesque.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/gibsonesque.html Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:04:21 +0000 The Wall Street Journal has an interesting debate between Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Dale Hoiberg of Britannica. I'm beginning to think that it's gone beyond the point of Wikipedia using their difference from Britannica as a way of raising the profile of the project and that now Britannica must think they will sell more by keeping the debate alive. [via the excellent if:book]... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/wikipedia_v_bri.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/wikipedia_v_bri.html Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:27:01 +0000 It's Open House London this weekend and BedZED is part of the show. Must tidy up the garden before then and remember not to wander round in my underpants.... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/open_house_week.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/open_house_week.html Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:52:20 +0000 The Department is the finest thing on radio for quite some time. Every show in this series has been brilliant but this week's installment about what to do with science and technology was a particular gem. "You can be pretty sure that a few seconds before the world ends, a scientist somewhere will have uttered the word 'oops'." is one lovely line. You can tell these things are catching on when the real Radio 4 presenters join in - this time it's Cornelius Lysaght from Today. I swear working with Demos sometimes had similarities to team 32.... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/would_you_trust.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/09/would_you_trust.html Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:57:56 +0000 Now I'm not normally one to name drop (ok, I am), but I went to watch a movie with John Prescott last night. I certainly didn't mean to, but while I was waiting outside the cinema for my friend Charlie to arrive, a dark green Jaguar pulled up, and a big guy wearing an earpiece jumped out to open the back door for his passenger. After a quick double-take I realised the guy getting out was the deputy prime minister. At first I thought he must be going somewhere else, but no, he strode into the foyer, bought himself a... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/08/only_in_london.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/08/only_in_london.html Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:24:55 +0000 I'm always terrible at remembering birthdays, but Happy Birthday for yesterday World Wide Web. At 15 I guess you'd better start thinking about what you really want to do with yourself.... http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/08/better_late_tha.html http://www.paulmiller.org/archives/2006/08/better_late_tha.html Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:10:35 +0000