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.

​Join us in shaping Wiser Futures!

​What is it?

​This gathering of communities will explore paths to a planetary society defined by long-term thinking, collective wisdom and interconnectedness.

​Purpose

​Co-hosted by Second Renaissance London and Long Now London the aim is to bring people together from a range of aligned London-based communities - as well as folks who are new to the scene but want to learn more and take part.

​Together, we’ll seek out commonalities, grow networks, cross-pollinate ideas, practice together and build the field.

​Structure

​The format is strongly participant-led, with the content shaped by you, the participants.

​You can host a group session of any kind you choose - just bear in mind that the break-out areas are best suited for groups of around 12 or less.

​We encourage particants to add to the timetable in advance using this form. We’ll also have an unconference-style physical board you can add to on the day to propose a session.

​Some examples of what you could host:

• an introduction to your project or community, with Q&A
• a facilitated discussion on a topic of interest
• a presentation on a topic of interest with Q&A
• a structured group practice such as guided meditation or authentic relating

​Whether you have something you want to share, or just want to learn from and connect with others, you’re very welcome!

A monthly London-based meetup for members of the rationalist diaspora. The diaspora includes, but is not limited to, LessWrong, Astral Codex Ten, rationalist tumblrsphere, and parts of the Effective Altruism movement.

You don’t have to identify as a rationalist to attend: basically, if you think we seem like interesting people you’d like to hang out with, welcome! You are invited. You do not need to think you are clever enough, or interesting enough, or similar enough to the rest of us, to attend. You are invited.

Our reading list for this time is:

• Book Review: How Minds Change
• Civilization was built on madness

We’ll start to discuss these around 3. If you have articles you want to suggest for future readings, you can do that at https://redd.it/v3646u.

Part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty, fellows, and fellowship candidates.

​A space to make computer things with other people. Beginners, dabblers, and pros are all welcome. Explore, tinker, and share what you’re learning.

​Whether no-code, low-code, vibe-code, or trad-code — whatever you’re into, bring it along.

​Drawing room: Co-working and peer learning, work on your own projects, pick up ideas from others, or try out one of the many resources and suggestions floating around.

​Classroom: Workshops tbc - let Ed know if you want to run one.

Join ORG to get the latest on our campaigns on the Online Safety Act, Digital IDs and more.

ORG’s Executive Director Jim Killock and our Pre-Crime Programme Manager Sara Chitseko will give updates on ORG’s work. But we’re also interested in hearing what you think.

Everyone is welcome whether you are new to digital rights or a longtime ORG supporter!

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 examine a political technology project with an existing evaluation, working through how it was designed, what evidence it produced, whether that evidence convincingly demonstrated impact, and what lessons can be drawn for future work.

​By dissecting a concrete case, we will draw out lessons on both good practice and common mistakes, and consider how evaluation choices shape the trajectory of projects that seek to create change.

​Andreas Varotsis is a data scientist and AI engineer who works to improve operational delivery and services across government using technology, data, and evidence. He’s spent the previous decade in various roles in central government and front-line delivery, including the Metropolitan Police Service, the data-science team of 10 Downing Street, and the Incubator for AI.

​He works to support a range of cross-government communities, including Evidence House, which works to improve the use of data and IT in government, and the Society of Evidence Based Policing, which champions research to enhance policing practices and reduce crime.

This session will cover the fundamentals of decision-theory as applies to negotiation. We will focus on how to protect yourself against cognitive biases by making a scoresheet and planning ahead.

Part of a five part series on Negotiation & Conflict Management by Professor Joshua Becker, who is a practicing mediator and negotiation coach and teaches negotiation in the MBA at UCL.

Because each session builds on the previous session, and because space is limited, I am asking attendees to commit to attending all 5 sessions.

​This session is open to the public. A maximum of 10 students will be accepted. It is part of the course Introduction to Political Technology at Newspeak House, and so priority will be given to faculty, fellowship candidates, and fellows.

Please see the registration page for more information.

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

​In this session, we’ll introduce a model of network development, followed by a workshop exploring how technology could be used to deepen and scale it.

​Future sessions will comprise a series of network jams to deep dive on and remix the various components, processes and elements of network development.

​James Moulding is network development lead at the Democracy Network, the largest association of organisation in the UK working on power, democracy, and voice.

​Previously he mentored campaigns with political fundraising startup Crowdpac, was a national coordinator for Extinction Rebellion UK, and is co-founder of Games for the Many, Campaign Lab, and Common Knowledge.

Join us for a showcase and hackday, where we will present the tools we have developed to date, give a workshop on how to build on WhatsApp, and spend the afternoon hacking together on new ideas.

Chat Hackers is a group of technologists dedicated to developing tools that support organisers on WhatsApp, Signal, and other chat apps. We come together to work on solutions that address the coordination challenges of campaigns and community groups. Chat Hackers was established through a partnership between John Evans (spacetu.be), Campaign Lab and Newspeak House.

This session is open to the public, however spaces are limited. Registration includes a suggested contribution towards Jethro’s time. Free for fellowship candidates.

A workshop to get beginners coding with AI tools in an afternoon.

​By the end, you’ll be able to:

• Host your own website
• Manage your own database and AI assistant
• Analyse data and produce beautiful charts

​AI is a tool - this workshop is about learning to get the most out of it. That means using it to solve more problems than it creates.

​The workshop is led by Newspeak House Fellow Jethro Reeve. He started using AI to code in October 2023, building tools for campaignlab.uk. He’s now a full-time software developer at coefficient.ai.

​​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course, but is open to the public.

​What is wargaming? You might have attended our session in September where we used a game to explore a complex political and technocratic system and tried to build some houses. Now you’ve got a feel for it (or missed it, but want to jump in) we’re going to make a start of the theory.

​This classroom session will introduce you to the basic concepts on Wargaming, and start you on your journey of using game techniques to understand complex systems.

​There is prework for this session - Please come with an idea of a system you would like to using gaming techniques to explore. This could be a political, humanitarian, conflict or technological system. Ideally you should be able to articulate who the key actors are in your chosen system.

​Alex Vince, Newspeak House faculty member for Wargaming, is a serving Civil Servant who has been utilising wargaming techniques over the last decade.

​Reading

• The Ministry of Defence Wargaming Handbook
• The Ministry of Defence Red Teaming Handbook
• The “Good Operation” guide for operational policy

​​​​​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.

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. You can also participate remotely via zoom link.

​​​​​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.

​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 discuss results and assignments from the first session, and how they relate to your research direction.

​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

​Sinead Doyle is a Digital Strategist and Service Designer. As an Associate Director at Transform, she helps clients set a vision for their digital products and services. She guides multidisciplinary teams through the service design process, to produce better, simpler customer experiences. Over fifteen years in digital, she has worked across strategy, creative, and media, at agencies and consultancies, on projects spanning public and private sectors.

​Sinead was Lead Service Designer on the Covid Vaccination Programme with NHS England in 2020. She co-led the MoD’s Defence Innovation Unit training programme, upskilling a large cohort of senior staff. In the run up to Brexit she made a crowd-sourced map of EU funded projects in the UK (Look Around EU). She is currentlyAccount Director on the design workstream of HMCTS Reform programme, digitising citizen-facing court processes within the Ministry of Justice. She is also working on an approach to sustainable design for adoption across a 50-strong design practice.

Europe’s Political Tech Summit will take place in Berlin on 23-24 January 2025. The Summit will focus on digital innovations that directly address the needs of political organisations like parties, associations, unions and nonprofits. The Political Tech community is warmly invited to participate. Political Tech startups and companies will be able to present themselves to an audience of 300 political professionals across borders and political families. Our mission is to create a dual marketplace for products and ideas that connects political tech providers with decision-makers.

On 19 November, Co-Founder and CEO Josef Lentsch will present the Summit at Newspeak House, in partnership with The London College of Political Technology. Josef will give a high-level update on the Political Tech scene in Europe, and gather input on the event and its programme.

This session will provide a toolkit for creating value in a negotiation, i.e. “expanding the pie.” In this session, we will elaborate on negotiation as a collaborative decision making process, rather than a competition.

Part of a five part series on Negotiation & Conflict Management by Professor Joshua Becker, who is a practicing mediator and negotiation coach and teaches negotiation in the MBA at UCL.

Because each session builds on the previous session, and because space is limited, I am asking attendees to commit to attending all 5 sessions.

​This session is open to the public. A maximum of 10 students will be accepted. It is part of the course Introduction to Political Technology at Newspeak House, and so priority will be given to faculty, fellowship candidates, and fellows.

Please see the registration page for more information.

​Bring your instrument, your voice, or just come to listen and vibe with us. If you haven’t had much chance to play in a while this jam is for you - dust off your instrument and rediscover the joy of making music together in a friendly, no-pressure environment.

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House. It is primarily for faculty and fellowship candidates to start with, but if you don’t meet those criteria and are particularly interested do get in touch!

An exploration of all the different skills involved in delivering a tech project, how that can be split among a team, and how to make sure they are all kept in mind.

• What are the key outcomes you’re looking for?
• What hats are needed to achieve them?
• How do you fit it all together?

Reading: https://squirrelsquadron.com/events/2025/05-29-product-managers

​Come along to the 11th Integral Altruism London meetup!

​For this meetup, Carmen Sumadiwiria (who helped pass the recent assisted dying bill), will give a workshop on political influence! She’ll cover things like:

• What lobbying/advocacy looks like these days and ‘what works’,
• Why what currently works is trash,
• Models of democracy and governance that aren’t driven by shit incentives

​And other stuff too.

​Doors open from 4:30pm. Workshop starts at 5, please arrive before then! At around 7 there’ll be time for hanging out & potluck.

​​If you’d like to stick around for the potluck, please bring some food to contribute (doesn’t have to be fancy - just grabbing something from Tesco is fine too!). If possible please keep it vegan 🙏

Part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty, fellows, and fellowship candidates.

​A space to make computer things with other people. Beginners, dabblers, and pros are all welcome. Explore, tinker, and share what you’re learning.

​Whether no-code, low-code, vibe-code, or trad-code — whatever you’re into, bring it along.

​Drawing room: Co-working and peer learning, work on your own projects, pick up ideas from others, or try out one of the many resources and suggestions floating around.

​Classroom: Workshops tbc - let Ed know if you want to run one.

Panel discussion on current developments in AI governance, emerging directions, and career pathways in the field. Join us for an evening exploring how frontier AI systems are being governed, regulated, and shaped by the policy decisions happening right now, and what this means for future careers in AI governance.

​Our expert panelists will share perspectives on both the high-level policy debates and the practical realities of translating policies into workable governance frameworks for emerging AI technologies. The discussion will cover recent developments, the UK’s positioning in this rapidly evolving landscape, and offer practical insights for those considering careers in this space.

​This event is designed for anyone curious about the intersection of cutting-edge AI technology and policy, whether you’re a student interested in AI governance, considering a career pivot, or simply want to understand how decisions are being made about the AI systems shaping our world. No prior expertise required, just genuine curiosity about the questions that matter.

​Event Programme:

​18:30: Arrival, Networking & Refreshments
​19:15: Opening Remarks
​19:30: Panel Discussion
​20:30: Audience Q&A
​21:00: Informal Networking
22:00: Close

​Refreshments will be provided. We’ll have plenty of time for questions and conversations, so come prepared to engage with both the panelists and your fellow attendees.

Xeno Futurism: Technologies of Domination marks the launch of Issue 2 of Xeno Futurism, a critical theory journal exploring the intersections of philosophy, media, and technology.

​The second issue presents a bold collection of theory-fiction, critical essays, poetry, and visual works that unravel the tangled realities of contemporary technics, artificial intelligence, and the psychosocial architectures of domination.

​The evening will open with a 30-minute talk by the Xeno Futurism editorial team, introducing the new issue and the editorial vision that threads through its pages from machine thought and algorithmic control to questions of consciousness and resistance in digital culture.

​Our keynote speaker, Alfie Bown (King’s College London, Digital Media Culture and Technology), will deliver a talk examining the technological implications of the digital on politics, culture, and the individual through a psychoanalytic lens. His keynote will also introduce ideas from his forthcoming work, Psychotic Capitalism.

​Following the keynote, a panel of contributors from Issue 2 will expand on the issue’s themes through a series of short talks and discussion:

• Ivar Frisch — Accelerating Machine Vision into Darkness
• Willem Deisinger — Psychopolitics, Amulets, and Psychohacking
• Blue Lam — Daoist Philosophy and Cosmotechnics as Gateway to Reconciling our Relationship to the Cyberspace

​Bringing together thinkers from philosophy, cultural theory, and media studies, Technologies of Domination invites critical engagement with how technology mediates perception, subjectivity, and power in an age of accelerated technology.

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

​In this session, 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.

​Hannah O’Rourke is the director of Campaign Lab, ​​​​​a network of data scientists, researchers and activists working together to build new tools for campaigning and change the way political election campaigning is analysed and understood. With over a decade of experience in British politics, Hannah has worked closely with generations of politicians and advised numerous political campaigns across the country, from short local actions to large national strategies.

​Novels form the cornerstone of the UK’s creative industries - one of the finest jewels in the UK’s cultural and economic life. They provide the basis for innumerable films, television series, musical scores, theatre productions and much more. However, the rise of generative AI has cast unprecedented shifts and uncertainty onto the literary creatives, publishers and agents behind the novels so central to the UK’s identity, education, culture, entertainment, and wellbeing.

​Dr Clementine Collett, a fellow at Cambridge University, has recently completed a research project on the impact of generative AI on the novel, working with hundreds of novelists, publishers, and literary agents across the country for the last year to investigate the impact of AI on their work. In late November, she’ll be releasing a report titled ‘The Impact of Generative AI on the Novel’. The report presents findings on how novelists and publishers are using AI, how they are being impacted socially and economically, and how the novel form itself is changing. The report also provides policy recommendations around copyright, licensing and transparency, forming a vital and urgent call for the UK to celebrate and sustain the creative industries.

​Join us at this launch reception to hear Clemi and others from government, trade unions and academia outline some of her findings, think about policy impacts, and enjoy a drink or two!

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

​Dr Six Silberman leads us in exploring the complex interplay between institutions and organisations; humans; and technologies.

The subject of this fourth seminar is TBC!

​​​​​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.

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. You can also participate remotely via zoom link.

​​​​​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.

The British public is overwhelmingly in favour of taking water into public ownership. But what should public ownership mean in the 21st century? What are the different ways that water could be owned and run in the common interest?

This event, co-hosted by Compass, Abundance, Common Wealth and We Own It, will bring together the leaders of the water movement in the UK - including trade union staff and reps, members of local, regional, and national government, grassroots organisers, national campaigners, and researchers from parties and public bodies.

Hearing from leaders of water companies and movements from across Europe, we will imagine and discuss what an alternative, publicly accountable model for England’s water could look like.

Our speakers include:

• Benjamin Gestin, Directeur Géneral of Eau De Paris
• Terrassa Water Observatory (OAT), the citizen participatory body fostering democratic governance of the water supply in Terrassa, Spain (TBC)
• The Thessaloniki Kinissi 136, a campaign group organising for the social management and ownership of water in Thessaloniki, Greece (TBC)
• A short contribution from the conveners of the event: Compass, Abundance, Common Wealth and We Own It

This session will include the core communciation skills associated with conflict management. These skills are frequently known as “non-violent communciation” and I teach a particularly strict practice following on Community Mediation Maryland. This session will focus on how you can use these skills in your own conversations.

Part of a five part series on Negotiation & Conflict Management by Professor Joshua Becker, who is a practicing mediator and negotiation coach and teaches negotiation in the MBA at UCL.

Because each session builds on the previous session, and because space is limited, I am asking attendees to commit to attending all 5 sessions.

​This session is open to the public. A maximum of 10 students will be accepted. It is part of the course Introduction to Political Technology at Newspeak House, and so priority will be given to faculty, fellowship candidates, and fellows.

Please see the registration page for more information.

​To mark our first decade, Newspeak House presents a series of talks and workshops from fellows and faculty across a full weekend conference. Keep up with the latest developments in the field, meet faces new and old, relax on our terrace, enjoy an all day buffet, and socialise late into the evening. Full programme TBA.

17:00-23:00 Friday 5 December
10:00-23:00 Saturday 6 December
10:00-22:00 Sunday 12 December

Newspeak House 10th Anniversary: a decade of Political Technology

The tenth anniversary of Newspeak House marks a decade shaped by profound political and technological change.

Smartphones. Group chats. Attention algorithms. Crowdfunding. Language models. Cryptocurrencies. Collaborative documents. Streaming. Emoji reacts. Privacy laws. The gig economy. Six UK elections. Brexit. Covid. Momentum. Ukraine. Reform. Gaza. Trump (twice). Cambridge Analytica. The birth and collapse of Buzzfeed, Vice, Gawker. Wikidata from zero to a hundred million items.

In that time Newspeak House has hosted thousands of events, launched twenty books, and graduated over a hundred fellows, many now in senior positions across a spectrum of key institutions.

We have supported fledgling movements that are now part of the furniture: impact evaluation, open data, service design, election tech, existential risk, community strategy, campaign innovation, decentralised social media, digital democracy, cognitive security, prediction markets, data journalism, and many more.

Furthermore, Newspeak House has become home for the London College of Political Technology, offering a formal one year programme with a homegrown faculty and original curriculum, with a dedicated classroom and a majority of non-resident students.

To mark our first decade, Newspeak House presents a series of talks and workshops from fellows and faculty across a full weekend conference. Keep up with the latest developments in the field, meet faces new and old, relax on our terrace, enjoy our all day buffet, and socialise late into the evening.

Fundraiser: for the next ten years

If you don’t support your civic institutions, they go away. As well as a conference and celebration, this event is also a fundraiser to secure the future of the college and its role as a community space.

Newspeak House has weathered a series of serious challenges, not least the pandemic and its aftermath. This event is to celebrate overcoming those challenges, becoming one of the very few autonomous and independent third spaces to still be opening its doors. However, these challenges have demolished financial reserves that are difficult to rebuild beyond the college’s normal activities.

It is with this in mind that we have set our prices for this landmark celebration. Your ticket contributes to the ongoing financial health of Newspeak House, as well as scholarships for students in future years. We are extremely grateful for all of your support.

If you’ve enjoyed the programming and facilitation of Newspeak House over the last ten years, now is the time to show your support. If you can’t attend the event, you can still donate or become a member!

This session will apply the principles taught in Week 4 to the art of facilitation. You will have the opportunity to practice facilitating somebody else’s conversation.

Part of a five part series on Negotiation & Conflict Management by Professor Joshua Becker, who is a practicing mediator and negotiation coach and teaches negotiation in the MBA at UCL.

Because each session builds on the previous session, and because space is limited, I am asking attendees to commit to attending all 5 sessions.

​This session is open to the public. A maximum of 10 students will be accepted. It is part of the course Introduction to Political Technology at Newspeak House, and so priority will be given to faculty, fellowship candidates, and fellows.

Please see the registration page for more information.

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

A facilitated session to help the 2025 Cohort reflect on the progress of their group governance activities so far, and make plans for how they can be improved going forwards.

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

​At the close of the autumn term, the faculty convene to consolidate insights and align on priorities. Lunch provided!

​This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House. It is primarily for faculty and fellowship candidates to start with, but if you don’t meet those criteria and are particularly interested do get in touch!

What’s the point of a manager?

• Group brainstorming
• Consideration of organisation vs authority in management
• EAFP vs LBYL - proposals not problems

Do we need clarity?

• RACI, and how you’d apply it in practice
• KPIs/OKRs

Do we need documentation?

• What’s documentation for, and how long does it last?
• Minimum viable documentation
• ADRs

Reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix
• “Reinventing Organisations” by Laloux
• https://hbr.org/2005/04/seven-transformations-of-leadership

​​​​​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.

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. You can also participate remotely via zoom link.

​​​​​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.