The trees are up, the mince pies out, and the garlands hung. As the days get shorter and colder, we at Nesta have begun to look forward to the new year and reflect on our progress, challenges and achievements over 2012.
Coming into the office on the weekend is usually avoided, but sometimes the reason is too worthwhile to pass up. Last weekend Code Club and Raspberry Pi took over Nesta's lab-like first floor to run an experiment of its own: its first ever 24hr hack day.
I few weeks ago, we published the provocation paper 'Innovation in Policy' in collaboration with MindLab, an innovation agency working within the Danish Government. This paper intended to stimulate debate and dialogue about the challenges involved in developing a culture of innovation within government, and how decision-making can better deal with uncertainty and complexity in social policy.
Are you thinking of going to the cinema tonight to see that new independent film you’ve heard about?
And so it arrives, the end of the year. Traditionally a time of pausing for reflection, wool gathering the events of the previous twelve months and trying to piece together a picture of what’s been achieved…
At Nesta we want to take the 'open data' campaign a step further. We are now calling for the creation of a 'Red Book for Evidence'. This would reveal the evidence that's behind policy decisions across social care, education, health, and beyond.
On Monday, I attended the Education Endowment Foundation's Evidence in Action Seminar, which was full of good people, proposing good ideas, for closer aligning what goes on in the classroom with what we know about learning. However, I was struck that there was no talk of how technology can support this aspiration. As I often do, I thought I would collect my thoughts in a blog post.
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.
What is the best way to solve the crisis facing the UK economy and encourage growth?
Last week I was lucky to be invited to join a conference on skills development for the voluntary sector (Our People. Our Skills. Our Future.) at the CBI Centre here in London.
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