Newspeak House

The London College of Political Technology

133-135 Bethnal Green Road[email protected]@nwspk

Newspeak House is an independent residential college founded in 2015 to study, nurture and inspire emerging communities of practice across civil society and the public sector in the UK. more...

Study with us

Applications for our year-long flagship course Introduction to Political Technology are now open!

This year, in addition to the six residential places, we are pleased to offer six non-residential places on the course.

Course participants spend a year immersed in a wide range of communities working to change society with technology, everything from civil servants, activists, charities, journalists, to researchers.

The course is designed to support mid-career technologists to develop a holistic understanding of the civic landscape in the UK, in order to found groundbreaking new projects or seek strategic positions in key institutions.

The course has run since 2015 and has graduated 76 fellows. 2024-25 is the second year in which the course will include content led by Newspeak House’s faculty, a group with broad experience in branches of political technology practice and theory including political organising, collective behaviour, open source software, and game design.

The course entails a commitment of approximately 16 hours per week and is designed to fit around a day job.

Tell me more

Events

As part of our research we offer our spaces for civic communities of practice to convene. Since opening in 2015 we have hosted over a thousand events, including lectures, meetups, hackathons, conferences, unconferences, workshops, roundtables, screenings, fundraisers, launches, and exhibitions.

Subscribe to our Event Calendar

If you’d like to host an event in our space, you can hire it outright, or if you’re convening a civic community of practice do get in touch ([email protected]) to see if it could fit into our programme.

What's On

Ration Club
Wednesdays • 7:00pm – 9:00pm • Lounge

Edward Saperia

Each week the college hosts a community dinner called Ration Club. It's open to anyone who'd like to find out more about the college and its work. To find out more or if you'd like to attend, please register.

Register ↗
Tue 19 MAR 2024 • 6:30pm – 9:30pm • Newspeak Hall

​There’s been a lot of discussion about democratic AI recently, from many quarters (some of it more grounded than others). At The Collective Intelligence Project (CIP), we’re big believers in a democratic vision for AI. We’re also big believers in thinking through how we can take concrete steps now to push towards a more democratic AI ecosystem at every level: model training, evaluation, the data supply chain, corporate governance, government investment, and beyond. 

​To bridge the gap between a truly democratic future for Artificial Intelligence and the many steps we need to get there, we’re releasing a living roadmap for ’Democratic AI in 2024’ as a tool to help focus and target this work.

​To dive deeper into this work, we’re running an event in London to bring together members of the ecosystem and discuss the question: “How do build a democratic AI ecosystem?”

​This event will feature a set of lightning talks from AI researchers, policymakers, and developers (7-8pm), followed by drinks (8-9:30pm). We want to create a space to practically discuss what we can all do this year to make more democratic AI happen. We also wanted an excuse to bring our favourite people together in London before CIP moves its base to San Francisco for a while. Please come!

Register ↗
Wed 20 MAR 2024 • 6:00pm – 7:00pm • Newspeak Hall

​Lots of us have been frustrated with social media - for example because a platform we use has changed and is less useful to us, or we’ve gotten addicted to a behaviour which isn’t healthy for us.

​This is the inaugural meeting of a club for sharing practical techniques to bend social media to our will - adapt, filter, alter how we use them. Proactively build the communities we want and need.

​This evening:

​The whole thing should take about an hour, meaning you can go for food afterwards at Ration Club, upstairs at Newspeak House, or go home as you like! There will be soft drinks provided.

Join the Discord for Mindful Media Club even if you can’t come to the meeting!

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Thu 21 MAR 2024 • 6:30pm – 9:30pm • Newspeak Hall

Calling all biosecurity professionals, researchers, policymakers, and enthusiasts to join us for an informal meetup focused on pandemic preparedness and reducing catastrophic biological risks.

​Whether you’re looking to catch up with old acquaintances or meet new faces, to discuss work or topics beyond it, this event will be an opportunity to build relationships, share knowledge, and stay connected and informed within the biosecurity community.

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Fri 22 MAR 2024 • 7:00pm – 8:00pm • Newspeak Hall

​Figma is the all-in-one digital design platform. I’ve used it for making:

​UI designs • Wireframes • Powerpoints • Animations • Flow charts • Book layouts • Websites • Apps • CV’s • Floor plans • Furniture design • Clothing drafts • UX testing • Posters • Photo edits

​In short, it’s an extremely powerful, free, online platform for collaborative design, and I will show you the ins and outs.

Come with an idea of something you’d like to make, and I can show you how. Bring a laptop.


Sam Ballard is lecturer in game design at Newspeak House, and also the artist in residence. Sam has been designing digital experiences for over a decade, with an emphasis on user orientated design thinking methodologies to solve both creative challenges & system design. He is currently a designer at ZA/UM, the studio behind Disco Elysium.

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Sat 23 MAR 2024 • 7:00pm – 9:00pm • Newspeak Hall

This event takes as its premise the evident failure of our political system. We’ve inherited a medieval democracy, too inefficient and corrupt to organise our complex reality. Bound by bureaucracy, we don’t build anything, or believe anything. We squander our collective potential and look to the gutter, not the stars.

​What will succeed this failed state?

​Moderated by Jon Nash, Fellow at Demos, guest speakers will attempt to answer this question and offer us a glimpse of what comes next.

The full list of speakers will be announced closer to the time.

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Sun 24 MAR 2024 • 10:00am – 10:00pm • Newspeak Hall

​​New AI technologies are already affecting elections worldwide. From deep fakes to automated individual targeting, how might AI shape what is possible in campaigning?

​​What tools might campaigners need ahead of the next election? What potential use cases are there for this technology? How can we guard against its potentially more problematic consequences?

​As progressive technologists, we’ve seen how AI is starting to influence elections across the world, from Imran Khan campaigning from jail in Pakistan to Republican AI generated campaign ads in America, progressives need to get tooled up!

​​From deep fakes to deep learning, we’ll have a massive variety of challenges ready to be solved! Join us at the AI and Campaigning Hack Day, where we’ll explore AI’s potential to transform progressive campaigns!

​Collaborate with experts, enthusiasts, and campaigners to explore what kind of tools and tech we can create using this technology. Whether you’re a technologist interested in AI or a seasoned campaigner, this event offers a unique opportunity to learn and innovate.

​​​All progressive technologists, activists, organisers and campaigners, are welcome!

​​​All you need is to bring yourself and a laptop!

​​​What is Campaign Lab?

​​​Campaign Lab is a community of politically-minded progressive data scientists, researchers and activists who are working together to build new election tools and change the way we analyse and understand political election campaigning.

Register ↗
Mon 25 MAR 2024 • 7:00pm – 10:00pm • Drawing Room

The third session of the Game Design module of the course in Political Technology at Newspeak House.

The events at the session will be:

1) Play / Discuss: Minecraft
2) Lecture: Engagement (slides)
3) Game Jam (inspired by Minecraft)

​​​Recommended reading:

​​​Bring a laptop

Register ↗
Mon 25 MAR 2024 • 7:00pm – 10:00pm • Drawing Room

​Join us for a bi-weekly Campaign Lab Hack Night - a regular session to work on your tech side projects to help the progressive left campaign more effectively. You can either bring your own project or help out on one of our ongoing ones.

​Snacks and drinks provided, all you need is to bring yourself and a laptop!

​All technologists, activists, organisers and campaigners, are welcome. We also welcome any new people who are interested in politics and technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. Everyone welcome!

​You can join us remotely at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​What is Campaign Lab?

​Campaign Lab is a community of politically-minded progressive data scientists, researchers and activists who are working together to build new election tools and change the way we analyse and understand political election campaigning.

​Any questions, thoughts or ideas - do get in touch and say hi! [email protected]

Register ↗
Tue 26 MAR 2024 • 7:00pm – 10:00pm • Newspeak Hall

Join us for a moderated panel event where we explore how existing AI technology is being leveraged for social good while ensuring ethical and safe practices.

​In our discussion with panelists, we’ll explore the ethical considerations, success stories, challenges, and future prospects of AI aimed at making a positive difference in the world.

About Effective Altruism UK: Effective Altruism UK is a network of people who are willing to help one another and collectively work towards a better world. We envision a world where we use evidence and reasoning to do more good with our resources.

Register ↗
Wed 27 MAR 2024 • 9:30am – 5:30pm • Newspeak Hall

Spend a day working alongside other organisations working on UK democratic reform

Since March 2022 we’ve organised democracy co-working days to help bring together individuals and organisations within the UK democracy space - with more than 50 organisations joining us across our previous events, including Democracy Classroom, Civic Power Fund, Fair Vote UK, Nesta, Sortition Foundation, I Have A Voice, Radix Big Tent, Public Interest News Foundation, Unlock Democracy, Zero Hour and so many more!

So if you’re working on a democracy project or organisation, or just keen to meet people that do, come along and join us for a coworking day on the 27th March.

Feel free to drop in at any part of the coworking day, for all of it or just part of it - the more the merrier. We’ll be putting on tea & coffee, snacks and refreshments.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to drop us an email at [email protected]

Democracy Network are a network of people and organisations working on issues of power, democracy and voice throughout the UK. We aim to connect and work with others to build a stronger democracy fit for the 21st century. We do this through connecting people and supporting collaboration, increasing knowledge, skills and resources, and coordinating influencing strategies and action. Join the network here.

Register ↗
Wed 27 MAR 2024 • 7:00pm – 10:00pm • Newspeak Hall

This month we will be holding lightning talks. It will be a great opportunity to learn about a broad range of topics related to Effective Altruism and technology, get to better understand what other members of the group are thinking about and working on, and hopefully be entertained while we’re at it. There will be the usual community updates, drinks, vegan pizza and exquisite company that you’ve come to expect from these events.

​We would encourage anyone who is interested to sign up to give a lightning talk - these should have some connection to Effective Altruism, technology, and ideally both, but other than that you can talk about whatever you’d like (as an example, Jonny’s talk is called what I learned from applying to 100 programming jobs). The sign up form is here: https://forms.gle/PRj5HNUoka4aZ7iCA

​You’re more than welcome to sign up now and decide on a topic later, and we’d encourage you to have a low bar for signing up - if you’re on the fence then feel free to email me at spicerjonny at gmail dot com and I’ll happily talk to you about it.

​As always we’re looking forward to seeing some of you there!

Register ↗
Fri 29 MAR 2024 • 6:30pm – 8:30pm • Drawing Room

Take a break from re-imagining the future and let someone else do the imagining for a while at this book club for philosophical science fiction.

Our first reading will be “Five Ways to Forgiveness” by Ursula K. Leguin, a book of 5 short stories.

Join the WhatsApp group to vote on books/dates for future meetings and generally stay up-to-date: https://chat.whatsapp.com/JnVUxsRGKYr3ItbXndvBJx

Register ↗
Mon 08 APR 2024 • 7:00pm – 10:00pm • Drawing Room

​Join us for a bi-weekly Campaign Lab Hack Night - a regular session to work on your tech side projects to help the progressive left campaign more effectively. You can either bring your own project or help out on one of our ongoing ones.

​Snacks and drinks provided, all you need is to bring yourself and a laptop!

​All technologists, activists, organisers and campaigners, are welcome. We also welcome any new people who are interested in politics and technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. Everyone welcome!

​You can join us remotely at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​What is Campaign Lab?

​Campaign Lab is a community of politically-minded progressive data scientists, researchers and activists who are working together to build new election tools and change the way we analyse and understand political election campaigning.

​Any questions, thoughts or ideas - do get in touch and say hi! [email protected]

Register ↗
Fri 12 APR 2024 • 6:00pm – 9:30pm • Newspeak Hall

​Welcome to the eleventh edition of our London Future of Code meetup!

​​This is a chance for folks who are part of the Future of Coding community (futureofcoding.org) to present their work in progress and talk shop over a few drinks. If you’re new to the space you can learn more on the FoC website, or by listening to the podcast.

We’re meeting at Newspeak House in Shoreditch. There will be beer, non-alcoholic drinks, and pizza provided. Kindly sponsored by nlux. (If you’re a company who would like to sponsor future events, please email me)

​​We’ll have community members give a mix of longer talks , demos, and lightning talks. If you would like to do one of these, fill in this airtable form!

​Demos/talks can be anything from showing off your side project, to philosophical musings on naming conventions, to a speed tour though a piece of computing history that we can all learn from.

Afterward the talks we’ll have ample time to have a few drinks, eat pizza, ask speakers questions, and hangout. If you are working on something and want feedback, bring your laptop! You can either demo in an open slot, or show people during hangout time.

Rough schedule:

Please read and abide by our community Code of Conduct if you plan on attending: github.com/futureofcoding/code-of-conduct

Register ↗
Mon 22 APR 2024 • 7:00pm – 10:00pm • Drawing Room

​Join us for a bi-weekly Campaign Lab Hack Night - a regular session to work on your tech side projects to help the progressive left campaign more effectively. You can either bring your own project or help out on one of our ongoing ones.

​Snacks and drinks provided, all you need is to bring yourself and a laptop!

​All technologists, activists, organisers and campaigners, are welcome. We also welcome any new people who are interested in politics and technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. Everyone welcome!

​You can join us remotely at this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​What is Campaign Lab?

​Campaign Lab is a community of politically-minded progressive data scientists, researchers and activists who are working together to build new election tools and change the way we analyse and understand political election campaigning.

​Any questions, thoughts or ideas - do get in touch and say hi! [email protected]

Register ↗

Event Archive