Writing

2006

Better Humans? - A Demos collection of essays by leading scientists and commentators to explore the implications of human enhancement technologies and asks how citizens and policy-makers should respond (co-edited with James Wilsdon).

The Man Who Wants to Live Forever - A profile of Cambridge biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey published by openDemocracy and taken from the Better Humans? collection (co-authored with James Wilsdon).

2005

Independent Living - A Demos report calling for a radical overhaul of support for disabled people. Reform should be built on the principle that those best placed to identify the needs of disabled people and how to meet those needs are disabled people themselves.

2004

The Pro-Am Revolution - A Demos pamphlet, written with Charles Leadbeater about the rise of a new breed of amateur who take their pursuits to professional standards.

Disorganisation - A Demos pamphlet, written with Paul Skidmore about why future organisations will need to 'loosen up' providing work that is more in line with employees' values if they want to hold onto their most talented people.

Always Connect - An article written for the Guardian's Spark supplement about applications of the open source model beyond computer software.

Party Poopers - cover story of the FT Magazine, written with Tom Bentley on the implications of the decline of mainstream political parties in western democracies.

Disablism - A Demos pamphlet, written with Sophia Parker and Sarah Gillinson about new methods for tackling discrimination against disabled people.

Network Logic - A Demos collection, edited with Helen McCarthy and Paul Skidmore, on the importance of networks to modern life and governance. Contributors include Fritjof Capra, Manuel Castells, Diane Coyle, Geoff Mulgan, Karen Stephenson and Howard Rheingold.

The Rise of Network Campaigning - An essay written for the above collection on the use of networks by civil society campaigners. It's mainly based on my experience of the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel the unpayable debts of the world's poorest nations.

2003

Communication in the 21st Century - a talk I gave at the RSA in London alongside Will Davies (then of the Work Foundation).

The Long Game - A Demos pamphlet on the future of regulation which I co-authored with Paul Skidmore and Jake Chapman. It argues that the current way of regulating companies is leading to greater complexity and unintended consequences and goes on to propose 'regulating self-regulation' as a possible way ahead.

London Calling - A Demos pamphlet co-authored with Helen McCarthy on the challenges and opportunities that the next generation of mobile phones might lead to for public services and businesses in London.

2002

Open Policy - A pamphlet I wrote while at Forum for the Future, which argues that in the face of increasing interconnectedness, companies and governments shouldn't hide their policy making processes away but should open them up, allowing outsiders to contribute using a model similar to that used by open source software developers.

Big, big plans for very small things - An article for Green Futures magazine on the importance of putting social and environmental concerns at the heart of nanotechnology research and development.

In Defence of Apathy (or the dawn of the active society) - An essay of mine which won IPPR's James Cornford essay prize. Argues that as the world's problems become more obvious and technology allows more peer-to-peer communication and collaboration, we'll see more and more 'activism' and less and less 'passive-ism'.