Jack Stilgoe
Senior Researcher
Jack Stilgoe works on science and technology projects and specialises in issues of science, society and public engagement.
- A workshop on Free and Open Source Software The free and open source software debate has for the last decade or so seen a fascinating place to observe the politics of technology. It has been a forum for experimentation and empowerment, and has opened up some long held assumptions about ownership, research and the role of users. We're just begun a project on science and civil society, in partnership with a number of organisations across Europe. One of them is the Free Software Foundation Europe. Next month, they're coming over to London... continue reading on 4th October 2007 in Technology and Civil Society (STACS) ,Science
- Please Dave, I want some more science... The Tories have just let another policy review report slide forth. They're notoriously difficult to find, so here's a link. This one is on Science. And their radical recommendation is that we should have more of it. All very white heat of technology.No new budgets, of course. Just shuffling around of money. But, considering that the upward Brownian motion of Labour's science budget has followed years of Tory cuts, this isn't so surprising.Beneath the headline, if anyone gets that far,... continue reading on 20th September 2007
- Resisting the open access flood There’s an interesting conversation taking place in blogworld that gets to the heart of the public value of science. Our citizen scientists are rightly worried about an industry front that just been set up by “the pit bull of PR.” The arguments for making research open access are irresistible. PRISM’s aim is to counter them with an easy-to-understand but utterly disingenuous line that open access means state control of science. First, this is untrue. Second, it assumes... continue reading on 13th September 2007
- "It's not that I want to walk and talk... I want to sing and dance" Bit of a plugblog, this one. People may have noticed in one of the Guardian's alternative obituaries, the wonderful story of Mike Hopson. He was an one of the resident 'apprentices' of the Orpheus Centre, which specialises in inclusive performing arts. It's a place that becomes a part of the lives of everyone who passes through. (I'm one of its trustees, hence the plug apologies). In the same paper, there's an ad for two key posts at the Centre. Maybe there's a demos blog reader who knows a... continue reading on 4th September 2007
- Making sense of hybrids Tomorrow is a big day for science governance anoraks. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority are deciding (in public) whether to allow research on hybrid embryos. The novelty is that their decision comes after months of deliberation - some public, some private, in newspapers and in staged engagement experiments - among experts, policymakers and the public. For the last couple of years, we at Demos have been speaking to all sorts of organisations, including the HFEA, about how they... continue reading on 4th September 2007
- Friday Rant - Train Tyres: A Tory Technofix John Redwood's review is published today. Except that it isn't. It's 'published' in the sense that some of it is being talked about. But it doesn't seem to exist as an actual published thing. The web site where it should be hasn't been updated since June. The glass of Tory transparency is still, it seems, frosted like the window of a Surbiton lav. Anyway, their attempt to control the agenda has been flummoxed somewhat by today's lovely discussion of John Redwood's technofix footnote. You'll... continue reading on 17th August 2007 Comments (1)
- Nano a Mano I have been dilatory in blogging the Nanodialogues pamphlet, which we launched on Tuesday to a packed crowd. I've just returned from Utrecht, where I was speaking to a meeting of the Technology Assessment arm of NanoNed, the interdisciplinary network that runs the Dutch approach to nanotechnology. I told them that we had nothing of the sort in the UK, following the government's lack of support for nano social science. They responded that the UK grass looked greener: the UK is still seen... continue reading on 4th July 2007 in The Nanodialogues
- Machinations of Government Until yesterday, this was the DTI. The sign has now been unscrewed. Inside, there are makeshift logos for the new departments of business, enterprise and regulation reform (can't find this online yet) and innovation, universities and skills. From today, select staff will scatter to the four winds in their priuses, to be replaced with civil servants from education. Science will stay in the building. But it will be tied to innovation and education rather than business. DIUS, which yesterday had... continue reading on 29th June 2007
- Nanodialogues Podcast We have resuscitated the podcasts. There are now three different types. More about that on the podcast page. In the meantime Jack Stilgoe cranked out another pamphlet this week about the relationship between science and people. Here he is lucidly talking through his public engagement experiments that bought groups of people together with scientists to discuss the implications of nanotechnology. The report argues that public engagement in science means that scientists need to answer difficult... continue reading on 29th June 2007 in Demos Podcasts
- NHSchoices, NHSvoices Rumour has is that, at the end of the month, part of Blair's e-legacy will be unveiled. "NHSchoices" (www.nhschoices.nhs.uk), currently in clunky phantom mode, will combine NHSdirect's battle against cyberchondria with information about hospitals to help Us make Better Choices. Except that its purpose isn't to empower us. There are worries about the quality of the information that the site is based on. But these are secondary, given that the real purpose of the web site is to... continue reading on 14th June 2007 Comments (3)