Digital consultant, writer & speaker on design, business and technology trends
Originally published in The Big Issue. The rise of ‘virtual communities’ has changed the face of politics. But are MPs genuine about online engagement – or is it just more spin? The Times restaurant critic Giles Coren recently experimented with Twitter, the phenomenally successful online social networking tool. He used it to review London’s Criterion […]
Continue ReadingOriginally published on spiked. When I was a student in Falmouth, Cornwall, there was always one pub that would guarantee a fight as part of a night out. The Pirate Inn (now sadly defunct) was notorious; drinking there would regularly mean hiding under a table to avoid flying glassware. A few years later, the Pirate […]
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Originally published on spiked. Digital broadband: are you connected? If you’re not, then you are missing out, according to the UK government’s latest report, Digital Britain (1). But what the government is offering us is a technologically limited ambition tied to a framework of heavy regulation. All this so that it can ram its own vision of […]
Continue ReadingOriginally published on spiked. The magazine Design Week recently asked various designers what they think London mayor Boris Johnson’s design priorities should be. One respondent, David Kester, who is chief executive of the Design Council, summed up the way the British design establishment has jumped on the government’s narrowing political bandwagon. Kester thought the mayor should think […]
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Buy on Amazon. Contributing author. ‘The Future of Community is a much need challenge to the complacent and flabby orthodoxies currently dominating the debate. It asks all the right questions. . . . Suggesting compelling answers, this book will lift the communities debate to another level.’ Julian Baggini, philosopher and author of ‘Welcome to Everytown: […]
Continue ReadingOriginally published on spiked. Last week saw the launch in Washington DC of the World Wide Web Foundation, a new organisation with the aim of maintaining the web as an open and beneficial tool for all. On the face of it, its aims should be deserving of our support. But the Foundation should steer clear […]
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Originally published on Culture Wars (now defunct). Clay Shirky, adjunct professor at NYU, in his new book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, argues that all this represents the awakening of democracy. People are more able to influence others by overlooking cumbersome official channels that are unrepresentative and out-moded, which worries the […]
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Originally published on spiked. Philippe Starck is possibly the world’s most famous designer. He has put a sense of style and fun into many people’s lives, furnishing their homes, offices and public spaces with his trademark French flair. He has made millions by doing everything from designing lemon squeezers to styling airport lounges. But Starck […]
Continue ReadingOriginally published on spiked. The internet is made up of hardcore pornography, videos of fighting, bullying, rape and websites that glorify extreme diets, selfharm, and suicide. Or at least that’s the impression you could easily be left with after reading an alarm-ridden report just published by a UK parliamentary committee. And that means further support […]
Continue ReadingOriginally published on spiked. Over the past month, the UK’s internet service providers (ISPs) have sent letters to more than a thousand people each week who have downloaded or shared copyrighted music via the internet. It is part of a campaign to ‘get tough’ on illegal file-sharing. The letter-writing campaign is a response to the […]
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