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.

The official bi-annual London meetup for fans of the popular blog Astral Codex Ten (formerly Slate Star Codex) by American psychiatrist Scott Alexander.

If you’re reading this, you’re invited! Please don’t feel like you “won’t be welcome” just because you’re new to the blog, demographically different from the average reader, or hate ACX and everything it stands for. You’ll be fine!

There will be light refreshments and an ongoing unconference. Please register if you plan to go, because ACX has many fans in London and we need to know how many people are coming. If it is fully booked you won’t be able to enter without a ticket.

To be notified of future meetups you should subscribe to ACX London, and also you might want to check out London Rationalish and Effective Altruism UK.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 1-2
• Josh Dzieza, ‘Prime and Punishment: Dirty Dealing in the $175 Billion Amazon Marketplace’, The Verge, 2018
• Molly Fischer, ‘Sarah Schulman’s Good Conflict’, The Cut, 2020
• Shawna Potter, Making Spaces Safer, AK Press, 2019, Chs. 1, 6

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​The first seminar of the Public Sector Innovation module! We will discuss what innovation in the public sector means and what it looks like, how it might apply to other modules, and discuss which case studies might be most relevant to our work in the future.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​What is Service Design? Who invented it? Does it really exist in the wild?!

​We’ll explore the history of digital design movements, from the emergence of User Centred Design, through the agile revolution, to the service organisation. We will touch on the tools of the trade, and discuss the perils of fetishising design artefacts.

​Reading:

• Good Services
• This is Service Design Doing
• The Service Organisation
• Good services are verbs, bad services are nouns

Edward, Zarinah & Eric are stirring to build community around science in London. This will look like a series of events over the next few months including lectures, hack-nights and more.

​Join us this Tuesday at Newspeak House for our launch event!

• 18.00: Doors open.
• 18.30: Dr Zarinah Agnew will introduce the concept of bringing science to the streets, living experiments, the science hotel and more.
• 19.30: Talk from Dr Chris Dean, Research Fellow in Palaeontology, UCL Earth Sciences.
• 21.00: Mingling, planning futures and whatnot.
• 22.00: Close.

A little about our crew:

• Edward Saperia, Dean of Newspeak House
• Dr Eric Rogers, Historian & curator of the London Night Cafe
• Dr Zarinah Agnew, Neuroscientist and community builder

​Democracy is an extremely saturated word. Different people meant different things. Democracy in ancient Athens was completely different than today yet we use the same word to refer to both these things. Conservatives, leftists, liberals, anarchists, communists; they all talk about democracy yet they usually mean different things. Join us in a deep yet short dive into all the different theories of democracy and how each one compares to the rest.

​This is the second lecture of a 3-session course convened by Shoshin College, an experimental learning co‑operative in London, England. Please read more about us and our philosophy on our website (https://shoshincollege.org/) and our Substack (https://shoshincollege.substack.com/).

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

How do you deal with knowledge management? How do you know things?

What type of data do you need to track, access, search, store, process, output? Papers, citations, bookmarks, books, movies to watch? How does your system support you in your endeavours (or fight you?)?

Is it even worth organising knowledge when information is a search away, or can be reconstructed by AI? What purposes might a knowledge management system serve in this context?’

Where does your knowledge go? In which outputs? Can people excited by your work find you and subscribe to you?

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.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 3-4
• Elinor Ostrom, ‘Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems,’ American Economic Review, 2010
• Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016, Introduction & Ch. 1
• Edward Hallowell, ‘The human moment at work’, Harvard Business Review, 1999

Join us for our 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 are 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, technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. 

Join remotely at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​​​​​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.

This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​The first session of the Future Crafting module, where we will talk about real-world experiments in social innovation.

It’s over 10 years since we started Redecentralize.org to explore and advocate for a more accountable, resilient and decentralised web and net.

In that time we’ve seen big tech platforms enshittify (and got this word for it now), we’ve seen the crypto-currency hype come and go, we’ve seen the political power of platforms become a mainstream worry.

Meanwhile decentralisation has snowballed into a whole scene, and some great alternatives have flourished. The fediverse appeared, new protocols such as Matrix and IPFS developed, and CRDTs gave rise to local-first software. Even in established institutions, open source is slowly becoming the new normal, and some legislation we wanted (e.g. on data protection and interoperability) is happening.

Join the Redecentralize team Francis, Ira and Gerben for a drink to catch up, compare notes, look back and wonder where it (and we!) will all go next.

​Democracy is an extremely saturated word. Different people meant different things. Democracy in ancient Athens was completely different than today yet we use the same word to refer to both these things. Conservatives, leftists, liberals, anarchists, communists; they all talk about democracy yet they usually mean different things. Join us in a deep yet short dive into all the different theories of democracy and how each one compares to the rest.

​This is the third and final lecture of a 3-session course convened by Shoshin College, an experimental learning co‑operative in London, England. Please read more about us and our philosophy on our website (https://shoshincollege.org/) and our Substack (https://shoshincollege.substack.com/).

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

A workshop for developing your network development and field building practice.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 3-4
• Elinor Ostrom, ‘Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems,’ American Economic Review, 2010
• Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016, Introduction & Ch. 1
• Edward Hallowell, ‘The human moment at work’, Harvard Business Review, 1999

Open source licensing might seem straightforward from afar. One can choose to allow people to use their software for free or with a fee or with any limitations they want. But, unsurprisingly, the reality is much more complex.

​In this event Theodore Keloglou will talk about all the different licenses that exist in the realm of open source software and how each one differs.

​We’ll mainly talk about MIT, BSD, Apache, GPL (and variations), MPL and the case studies of Elasticsearch and Redis, which have caused quite a bit of drama the last few years.

​Presentation link for the agog attendee:\ https://sirodoht.github.io/open-source-licenses-presentation

​This course invites participants to reimagine the role of technology through the lens of Human-Centered Design. Over three sessions, we will explore how ethical principles, intersectionality, and sustainability can be integrated into how we design and build things. Drawing from frameworks like Design Justice, Plurality, and Human-Centered Design, we will explore how technology can be more inclusive and equitable, for humans and for the planet.

​Session 1: Foundations of Human-Centered Design

• ​What is Human-Centered Design
• ​How it differs from other approaches in design
• ​HCD methods overview
• ​Designing for context

Teacher Profile: ​Alex Papadopoulos is trying to understand what a technologist is so that he can call himself one. Meanwhile, they think about identity, belonging, and human-centered technology, and co-run a queer film festival. By day, Alex is a UX Researcher, working with projects in the public sector and healthcare, and he used to work for the non-profit sector.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​Most political organising happens in group chats. Yet little attention is paid to how to constructively manage them. How do we managed these online spaces productively to produce actual outcomes? What are the practical strategies you can use to manage them? What difference does the platform make? Join this seminar to discover practical strategies for managing group chats effectively and explore what works and what doesn’t.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 3-4
• Elinor Ostrom, ‘Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems,’ American Economic Review, 2010
• Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016, Introduction & Ch. 1
• Edward Hallowell, ‘The human moment at work’, Harvard Business Review, 1999

Join us for our 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 are 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, technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. 

Join remotely at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​​​​​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.

​This course invites participants to reimagine the role of technology through the lens of Human-Centered Design. Over three sessions, we will explore how ethical principles, intersectionality, and sustainability can be integrated into how we design and build things. Drawing from frameworks like Design Justice, Plurality, and Human-Centered Design, we will explore how technology can be more inclusive and equitable, for humans and for the planet.

​Session 2: Intersectionality and Ethical Design

• ​Soft introduction to Intersectionality & Introduction to Intersectionality in Design
• ​What do we mean by “Ethical Design”?
• ​Bias and Power Dynamics in Technology
• ​Designing for Privacy and Consent

Teacher Profile: ​Alex Papadopoulos is trying to understand what a technologist is so that he can call himself one. Meanwhile, they think about identity, belonging, and human-centered technology, and co-run a queer film festival. By day, Alex is a UX Researcher, working with projects in the public sector and healthcare, and he used to work for the non-profit sector.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 5-6
• Felicity Edwards and Michael Gibeau, ‘Engaging people in meaningful problem solving,’ Conservation Biology, 2013
• Patricia Shaw, Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change, Routledge, 2002, Series Preface & Ch. 1
• Charles Lindblom, ‘The science of “muddling through”,’ Public Administration Review, 1959

​This course invites participants to reimagine the role of technology through the lens of Human-Centered Design. Over three sessions, we will explore how ethical principles, intersectionality, and sustainability can be integrated into how we design and build things. Drawing from frameworks like Design Justice, Plurality, and Human-Centered Design, we will explore how technology can be more inclusive and equitable, for humans and for the planet.

​Session 3: Design Justice & Pluralism

• ​Principles of Design Justice
• ​Pluralism in Design

Teacher Profile: ​Alex Papadopoulos is trying to understand what a technologist is so that he can call himself one. Meanwhile, they think about identity, belonging, and human-centered technology, and co-run a queer film festival. By day, Alex is a UX Researcher, working with projects in the public sector and healthcare, and he used to work for the non-profit sector.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

How do you know things? What do you track, access, search, store, process, output? How does your system support you in your endeavours (or fight you?)? Where does your knowledge go? In which outputs? Can people find you and subscribe to you? Is it even worth organising knowledge when information is a search away, or can be reconstructed by AI? What purposes might a knowledge management system serve in this context?

In this session, we will review results from the first session, and see how they relate to your research.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 5-6
• Felicity Edwards and Michael Gibeau, ‘Engaging people in meaningful problem solving,’ Conservation Biology, 2013
• Patricia Shaw, Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change, Routledge, 2002, Series Preface & Ch. 1
• Charles Lindblom, ‘The science of “muddling through”,’ Public Administration Review, 1959

Join us for our 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 are 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, technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. 

Join remotely at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​​​​​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.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

A workshop for developing your network development and field building practice.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 5-6
• Felicity Edwards and Michael Gibeau, ‘Engaging people in meaningful problem solving,’ Conservation Biology, 2013
• Patricia Shaw, Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change, Routledge, 2002, Series Preface & Ch. 1
• Charles Lindblom, ‘The science of “muddling through”,’ Public Administration Review, 1959

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​What does it mean to “work in the open”? What are digital and knowledge commons? How does co-production collide with personal preferences and design affordances?

​In this session we’ll attempt to kickstart knowledge co-production within the cohort and beyond.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​Join us for an interactive session where we’ll explore and map the UK’s political landscape. This workshop will cover key actors, data sources, mechanisms, and points of influence within the UK political system. Participants will also gain insights into available data sources that shape political dynamics.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

Exploring how institutions work, some difficulties that arise in them, how they change, and how we each can try to participate constructively in them.

Readings:

• Paul Cairney, Tanya Heikkila, and Matthew Wood, Making Policy in a Complex World, Cambridge University Press, 2019, Chs. 3-4
• Elinor Ostrom, ‘Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems,’ American Economic Review, 2010
• Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016, Introduction & Ch. 1
• Edward Hallowell, ‘The human moment at work’, Harvard Business Review, 1999

Join us for our 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 are 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, technology and evidence based campaign innovation on the left. 

Join remotely at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82959644687?pwd=cG9BdEFha3dmNzVjcFd2RUFTWGVNZz09

​​​​​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.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​In this session we will discuss results from the previous session, including challenges of interacting with others’ systems and benefits of networked knowledge discovery.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

In this hack night, we’ll explore the inner workings of an MP’s office, focusing on how its processes operate and identifying opportunities where technology can streamline and improve efficiency. This session will provide practical insights into the daily functions of an MP’s office, with a forward-looking view on innovation.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.

​In this session, we’ll dive into the world of political technology, exploring what makes certain tools effective. We’ll examine three key campaign technologies, discussing their successes and weaknesses and the reasons behind them. We’ll also cover how to identify opportunities for innovation within campaign processes. This is a great opportunity to understand what works in political tech and how innovation shapes the future of campaigning.