NESTA Provocations are independent essays by thinkers that showcase thought-provoking work on innovation. In our latest Provocation, State of Uncertainty: Innovation policy through experimentation, Jason Potts, Alan Freeman and I, writing in our personal capacities, call on the government to adopt a radically new approach to supporting innovation.
This time last year we explained why the DCMS's creative industry classifications have to be updated and placed on a more rigorous footing. We start 2013 with a new research report that does just that.
The smart phones in our pockets, the tablets on our laps and the laptops on our desks, the software inside them, the web that connects them, and the online platforms built atop all of these, have transformed how we discover and consume creative content and services, and empowered many of us to express our creativity in ways that would have been unthinkable even only a few years ago.
Statistics on the UK's creative industries released by DCMS in December have provoked negative reactions. The creative industries account for only 2.9% of Gross Value Added (GVA), far lower than previous estimates have suggested, following the removal of two 'standard industrial codes' from the definition of the Software sector and a 'scaling adjustment' that the DCMS used to apply to the estimate of whole economy GVA.
We've heard that as much as 90% of the data that exists today has been produced in the last two years. The Internet has a lot to do with that. Innovative businesses are exploiting this new resource to improve their operational efficiency, productivity and consumer satisfaction.
It was inevitable that Michael Gove's BETT speech earlier this week would steal the thunder of The Royal Society's report on computing in schools which was launched today.
Michael Gove's speech at BETT this morning is a big win for Next Gen's campaign for computer science in schools in several ways.
This time last year, we were putting the finishing touches to the Next Gen report, the main output from the Review of Skills for the Video Games and Visual Effects industry led by Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope. The Review's objectives were ambitious, no less than to show how the UK could become the best global source of talent for these two fast-growing, high-tech creative industries.
Next Gen, the independent review of the skills needs of the video games and VFX industries led by Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope, and produced with NESTA, made a total of 20 recommendations for government, industry and educators.
Two weeks ago we ran a stand at the Big Bang Fair, the largest annual science, technology and engineering exhibition for young people in the UK. With around 50,000 7-19-year-olds spread across four days the result was an explosion of activity and a tired but happy Make Things Do Stuff crew.
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