John Craig
Associate
John is Director of The Innovation Exchange, which works to grow innovation from the third sector
- Dream on goes on There has been more coverage for Dream On, our project with Charlie Leadbeater on the politics of sleep, various Demos researchers point out. The Telegraph, and Liam Fox, have joined the campaign for postprandial naps, and even the queen seems to be listening. Meanwhile, great reportage from Japan showing exhausted businessman sleeping in all kinds of public places. Not normally a fan of these kinds of photo collections, but this feel like valuable reportage (or a good fake) [via metafilter]. continue reading on 10th November 2004
- Mapping chaos As the world of public policy gets only more complex, organisations increasingly ask Demos to engage in 'mapping' - helping them to understand the systems of which they are a part. It's a tough job. However, this article about the respective histories of the London and New York tube maps suggest that mapping systems that are truly complex is in some ways easier. Peripheral to our concerns, perhaps, but interesting. [via Invisible Rabbit]. continue reading on 4th November 2004 Comments (2)
- Watch & learn, but not from me Yesterday was the launch of our report, Switched On, about the prospects of the new Teachers' TV channel. Much of the report focuses on teacher learning and the role that technology can play, but we used it to start a conversation between educationalists and those in the media about the kinds of programme formats that would work best. There's been great coverage about this both in the Guardian and on the BBC website. The launch event yesterday went well, so I'm told. I wasn't there, having... continue reading on 4th November 2004
- A two-tailed beast This great article by Chris Anderson called The Long Tail has received much comment. It's point is that online providers like Amazon can reach much further down the popularity chart, catering to broader tastes. Of course, the internet is also good for getting things first - pre-ordering or scooping an early relase on Ebay. This Morgan Stanley report by Mary Meeker, out this week, argues that this might be a general feature of the internet - that it is very often of most value to 'laggards'... continue reading on 28th October 2004
- The real winners While we're on the subject of Olympics, I've been puzzling over this league table for months, on and off. It shows a medal table from this summer's Olympics in which each country's score is divided by their population. It certainly helps to put our recent jubilation into perspective, but is there anything more that we can say about the top fifteen countries other than that they really love sport? Would be interested in any thoughts. continue reading on 26th October 2004
- Personal computing The internet seems to be getting increasingly personal. There's some controversy this week about the Google Desktop search engine blurring the boundary between personal hard drives and public hyperspace. I don't care about that because it helps me find stuff really quickly, and I heartily recommend it. Also in the news, a wireless pill that monitors vital signs, used by the US army and Canadian triathletes (which at least says something about relative national priorities). Finally, as I... continue reading on 18th October 2004
- Settlement sexes up Lenin lectured there, Marconi sent his radio signal from there and me and Beveridge used to live there. What's more, in early November, Toynbee Hall has two great speakers; David Miliband (8th November) and Greg Dyke (11th November). Click for details or email me. continue reading on 18th October 2004
- Be prepared Here are 16 essays from the Washington Monthly on 'What if Bush wins?'. Interesting stuff [via MetaFilter] continue reading on 22nd September 2004
- After Orwell There was controversy recently when David Blunkett announced the latest pilot into tracking offenders. However, it seems that this debate is likely to shift rapidly. While a school in the UK has temporarily abondoned the use of iris recognition for pupils entitled to discounted meals (to avoid them having to ask), one in the US uses RFID tags so that class registers are obsolute and students can be tracked for the entire school day. In commercial settings, use of RFID tags is already being... continue reading on 21st September 2004
- New futures for NCSL There's an upbeat Guardian article today about the future of the National College for School Leadership. It follows the launch of the Futuresight tool, which contains six scenarios on the future of schooling. Demos made a big contribution to writing and producing the scenarios, and has since road-tested them with a range educationalists, including headteachers, policy-makers and students. continue reading on 21st September 2004 Comments (1)