A few days ago I went to the first Puma Creative Impact Award, organised by the remarkable BritDoc foundation, which is dedicated to promoting documentaries. I've been to a few of Britdoc's informal evenings, showing newly made documentaries, but this was a grander affair, reflecting the amazing renaissance of documentaries in recent years, from obscure late night slots on BBC2 to multiplexes.
Margaret Mead, the celebrated cultural anthropologist once said that "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever did". It's a quote that has probably caused a lot of heated arguments in pubs. But in the internet age, I wondered whether global connectivity has now finally put this assertion to bed, and in particular, the potential of crowd-funding to change the world with the help of hundreds or thousands of supporters.
I believe we have not yet understood the potential for sharing and so I'm really pleased to be able to contribute to this thread and help hold some of the collaborative consumption strings together. It is a showcase and stimulator for what's happening and, just as importantly, a signpost for where we could go from here.
Last week, investors, technologists and policy makers converged on NESTA to discuss the future of Industrial Biotechnology in the UK. Industrial Biotechnology deals with all those applications of microorganisms outside healthcare. It creates the opportunity to use alternatives to oil, to reuse waste, and to transform materials with low energy use. Oils secreted by microalgae can be harvested and used as biofuels, while sugar from beet and cane can be transformed
I've just been on a brief fact-finding mission to Estonia - a country that counts a hunger to learn among its many virtues. Estonia has often been at the forefront of e-government, and at one point (almost) cut and pasted laws from other countries which it liked. A session with senior officials in the Estonian equivalent to the Cabinet Office also brought home how much we can learn from nimbler countries.
This week I'd like to share a couple of data graphics that have caught my eye over the past few weeks.
We have talked about the need for more and better use of evidence, but this does not always mean commissioning costly academic research. Instead we can find new ways of utilising the information already available and empowering wider society to make use of it. This means that as well as innovating with new programmes and policies, we also need to innovate with the tools we use to evaluate them.
As one of the ten Age Unlimited projects, our mission is to help employers support carers through our Employers for Carers service. Thanks to support from NESTA, we're building on this offering by helping older carers extend their working lives and combine their caring and work commitments healthily and productively.
Last Friday saw the close of the first round of applications for the Innovation in Giving Fund - a £10m fund established by the Office for Civil Society and NESTA - to invest in new ideas with the potential to bring about a significant uplift in giving and exchange of time, assets, skills, resources and money to achieve social goals.
Steve Jobs was unique for combining high aspirations and a love of beautiful design with an acute business brain. It's marvellous, and surprisingly rare, to see an innovator honoured and mourned. But like any truly great changemaker Steve was contradictory.
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