February 2008
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18 April 2008
Rowland's Links
Above is the progress report on Viewfinder, a project to "flickerise" GoogleMaps. Thanks to Ewan for the tip.
Bit of an absence recently. Here a few short links to keep you going:
- Motionbox, a video editing suite type thing. Also Animoto.
- Information Architects, who do future trends better than anyone and have a nice map to prove it.
- Visuwords, which turns the thesaurus into a diagram.
- An article by Robert Kagan in TNR about the end of history: why the twenty-first century will look like the nineteenth.
- And a link-fest, in Conde Nast Portfolio's Brilliant Issue. A pretty bullish title, but one they might actually have lived up to.
R
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29 February 2008
International relations
An amazingly busy week for us here in the events team. We started on Tuesday with a joint event with the Equality and Human Rights Commission where David Cameron and Trevor Phillips drew a buzzing crowd to talk about Sharia Law amid the controversial comments that have recently hit the headlines. MT then bumped into DC on his bike outside the Houses of Parliament when DC had only positive things to say about the RSA.
From religion and law to arts as Turner Prize winner, Jeremy Deller spoke about social and environmental challenges with John Wilson of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row in the second of our Arts & Ecology Exchanges. With Wednesday came an international slant on education, as Ray Simon, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education travelled to the UK for the first time to speak on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. And from America to Russia as our popular RSA Thursday took on the Russian Presidential elections with an expert panel. Speakers included Edward Lucas who has recently published The New Cold War: How the Kremlin menaces both Russia and the West.
Finally we finished off the week with acclaimed director and self-proclaimed master of hype Tony Kaye with an exclusive screening of his epic documentary Lake of Fire. After a massive 15 years in the making this black and white film tackles the ever-dividing issue of abortion head on.
We step into March with an exciting and varied range of events, including a mini-series on Iraq five years on from invasion. We start with a bang as British filmmaker, Nick Broomfield joins us for an exclusive screening of his new film, Battle for Haditha. -
28 February 2008
fresh perspective
This week in Fellowship...
I've been on holiday. So I had a severe case of Monday blues induced by no longer wandering round Marrakech with my rucksack and the 2000 unread articles in GoogleReader. But by Tuesday I realised that being away for a while has given me a fresh perspective on what we're trying to achieve, and I can better appreciate the progress we're making here.
Fellowship seems to be getting busier and busier. Yesterday afternoon, Steve B, Head of Fellowship, was yelling out the names of new Fellows that caught his eye in the increasing large pile of application forms on his desk (this is particularly satisfying if it's someone I've researched). Today it's a bit quieter because half the team have gone up to Scotland for a Fellow's event, in line with efforts to boost our regional and international presence.
Staff meetings have changed recently too, as each department is going to take responsibility on a rolling timetable to improve internal communication and relationships. Today was the turn of Hospitality and, as a result we've all got a bingo card of faces and a bottle of wine to the first person who meets everyone and collects their signature. And lots of the office staff volunteered to job-swap and spend some time in Hospitality roles. So if you pop into the House, you might just catch MT behind the reception, or perhaps offering you a canape.
Until next time...
Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.
(Photograph by me - this one taken in Marrakech, Morocco)
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26 February 2008
Is the voluntary sector immune to producer capture?
Is the voluntary sector immune to producer capture? I thought about this question when reading the other day the views of veteran film maker Ken Loach. The director of Kes, Raining Stones and countless other powerful pieces of social realism, was urging people not to donate to the homelessness charity Shelter while it was in conflict with its own employees over plans which may worsen the terms and conditions of some of the charity’s staff. In defending the action of Shelter management, its chief executive, Adam Sampson (a recent speaker at RSA), said 'People give us money not to benefit our staff but to benefit those we were set up to serve - the poor, the vulnerable, the homeless - and my moral and legal duty is to use that money as efficiently as possible’.
‘Producer capture’ is one of the key concepts imported by New Labour from the nostrums of neo-liberal economics. It describes the process whereby the goals of an organisation reflect the interests and prejudices of its employees (the producers) rather than those it is supposed to serve (the consumers, customers or citizens). More precisely, given that workers in a customer-friendly organisation will see their own interests served by serving the customer, capture is evident when producer interests are not aligned with those of the consumer and it is the former that predominate.
New Labour reformers in large part accepted the neo-liberal charge that public services – sheltered from the disciplines of competition or profit – were prone to producer capture. This insight contributed to some of New Labour’s most important public service reforms. It also legitimised rhetoric critical of public employees. This rhetoric (remember the ‘scars on my back’?) also contributed to the public service morale problems which have plagued this Government despite extra investment and higher public sector pay.
I am often asked to speak on issues relating to that nebulous concept ‘the third sector’. With all the major parties taking every opportunity to sing the praises of, and make more promises to, the third sector I feel honour-bound to challenge the consensus, arguing that the voluntary sector is as prone to producer capture as the public sector.
If you were to plot the sectors as lines on an axis of producer capture, I suspect the voluntary sector would be the longest. In other words the third sector contains both the least producer captured and the most producer captured organisations. The former would include small community based groups run on a shoestring by low paid employees and volunteers while the latter might include (naming no names) well-heeled high status NGOs that have managed to make themselves almost immune to any tough questioning about the actual impact of their work. A trustee of one of these organisations recently described to me spending a whole day being shown round its offices before eventually bursting out in exasperation ‘the offices are great, the staff lovely but when am I actually going to meet a client?’.
If this was an essay not a blog post I could spend more time exploring producer capture in each sector. It is, for example, a difficult concept to apply to the private sector. Last week many people were outraged at the profits of energy companies at a time of rising prices and fuel poverty. But many of us complaining are also shareholders in these same companies through our pensions funds, life insurance or savings. So where does the producer interest lie? This is, by the way, one of the issues we will be exploring in our Tomorrow’s Investor project (for which we’d love another sponsor or two!).
For now let me end with a plea to avoid ‘sectorism’. The private, public and voluntary sectors are different in systematic ways, but it is more obfuscating than illuminating to ascribe any characteristics, including producer capture, to a sector as whole. -
22 February 2008
China crisis
The latest from the RSA Events team...
This week the Events team comforted themselves with copious quantities of luxury chocolate and pondered the meaning of life. We welcomed the end of the Hollywood screenwriters strike as it means more meetings of GDAC – the Events team’s very own Glossy Drama Appreciation Club (applications on a shoulder pad, submitted via an appropriate agent, are welcome). Though the dramatic twists and turns of Damages have given us plenty to chew over in recent weeks, for lighter relief we’re impatient for the return of Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.
A moment of real-life drama gave us our starting-point for this week’s RSA Thursday debate. Following Stephen Spielberg’s resignation as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics, an impressive line-up of China experts gathered at the RSA to debate the likelihood of human rights having a sporting chance at this summer’s games.
And while we’re talking news, this week’s evening lecture explored the serious matters of data protection, identity cards and privacy laws with a wide range of perspectives and, perhaps surprisingly, a high level of humour. Look out for an edited audio download of the evening coming soon on our podcast...
Next week looks like being yet another very busy one with a packed programme of events ahead. So, we’ve re-stocked the chocolate supplies... bring on the drama!
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14 February 2008
Read all about it....
Another week, another wide-ranging spectrum for the Events team. We began the week with academic Richard Sennett discussing the innate human quality of craftsmanship, how it has been lost through industrialisation and ways in which it can be rediscovered. We continued with Sudhir Venkatesh, a young American sociologist whose groundbreaking fieldwork was featured in Freakonomics. Sudhir held the audience in thrall as he recounted his unique experience of following and even befriending a crack dealing gang in Chicago, with compelling frankness. Read his fascinating tales in Gang Leader for a Day.
And speaking of frankness, we rounded off the week with some concerning insights into the current state of UK journalism. Nick Davies’ new book Flat Earth News has caused a firestorm of debate in the media blogs but Adrian Monck was on hand to quote from The Art of Ballyhoo (Harpers Magazine, 1927) to remind us that fears over the corrupting influence of big business interests, the forces of commercialisation and the pr machine are nothing new†plus ca change†
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13 February 2008
Pro-social initiatives - they do work
In Manchester on Monday to talk about our project on pro-social behaviour. We are getting a good response as we go around the city and in the evening I was asked to speak to local government officers and members from the greater Manchester area. I began my talk by referring to two articles in Monday’s Manchester Evening News.
The page one lead was about the impeccable behaviour of Manchester City fans in the one minute’s silence to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster. Six thousand, predominantly young, men had put aside a lifetime of hostility to United and not one of them had broken the pledge of City fans to respect the silence. Contrast this with the story on page two reporting that the North West is the worst region in the UK for attacks by gangs on fire crews attending emergency call outs.
The success of the minute’s silence was based on a sophisticated and concerted campaign. The way Manchester had responded as a city united in grief fifty years ago was constantly emphasised. There were many reminders that City had lost a former great – Frank Swift – in the crash so they could mourn for their own and not just United’s loss. City fans' websites hosted long debates and agreed amongst themselves that it would be letting City down not to respect the 'minute'. On the day United gave every fan a free scarf – with sky-blue scarves for the City fans. There was an iron fist inside the velvet glove: a proclamation from City that any fan seen disrupting the minute would get a life ban, but everyone knew this threat would have been unworkable if thousands had ignored it.
So it is possible to persuade people – even people resistant to authority – to do the right thing but it takes thought and effort. The day after the talk, the Head of Public Affairs at Canary Wharf, Howard Dawber, told me about an initiative in a nearby area, the Isle of Dogs. Fire crews facing false call outs and attacks on a local estate had explored the reasons for the problem. They had come to the conclusion that it was because the youngsters found fire engines and fire crews exciting. So they put together a set of activities which brought the fire engine into the community and provided youngsters with opportunities to ride in the engine, undertake an adapted form of the fire crew training and even wear an adapted uniform. The effect of all this was that not only did the false alarms and attacks virtually dry up but that the fire service had an unprecedented level of applications to join from youngsters on the area.
It takes effort, innovation, commitment but pro-social initiatives do work and the results can be spectacular.
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08 February 2008
SuperThursday
This week the Events team took life even more seriously than usual, with a screening of "The Bridge" - a sensitive portrayal of depression and suicide on San Francisco's most famous landmark. Telling such a tale in such a way raises numerous questions, but mental health workers in the audience complimented the film in an extended Q&A session.Director Eric Steel flew in especially from San Francisco to share his experiences of making the film. He told us he seriously considered flying in and out on the same day, but couldn't risk missing his homeward flight!
And while we're thinking of carbon, we also enjoyed our Arts & Ecology Exchanges launch event this week, "Culture in a time of Crisis" - which gave us a chance to share our green credentials as well as addressing the ways in which artists can further the cause.
And finally... in the week of SuperTuesday, we held a SuperThursday lunchtime debate on the US nominations race. A packed room listened to an expert panel give us their insights into one of the most exciting contests in recent memory. Perhaps the most surprising moment came when Stefan Halper (veteran White House insider and former adviser to Ford, Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr) revealed how he has been completely won over by the idealism and visionary power of Barack Obama... so it's not just popstars that have fallen for the Obama magic...!
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07 February 2008
Only one problem ....
I spent the weekend on a very intensive personal development course. It was challenging and ultimately inspiring. I am making lots of changes in the way I think and act as a consequence (email me if you want to know more about the course).
So, I was already in a slightly strange place when I arrived to chair an all-day conference hosted jointly by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Office of the Third Sector. The conference of local authorities and third sector groups had been organised around the announcement of Government’s plans for what are called ‘community anchors’ (cross cutting, community based third sector organisations). Only one problem. The night before the conference, ministers had pulled the announcement. So there we were, 200 people, including two ministers, to discuss the implementation of a plan that had been shelved! As it turned out the conference was fine, and I suspect many of the ideas that came out of it will be reflected in the plan when it does finally see the light of day.
The plan was pulled because of an unresolved argument about whether central government could specifically earmark the community anchor funds or should devolve the money to local authorities merely with guidance as to how it should be spent. However this argument is resolved, it does at least show the Government is taking seriously its commitment to reduce the funding constraints and targets it imposes on localities. Ministers, interest groups, and commentators tend to speak with forked tongue on devolving power. We attack the Government for centralisation but then protest either at ‘postcode lotteries’ or when money that has previously been earmarked for a particular policy or scheme we favour is made subject to local discretion.
This week saw us recruit our 27,000th Fellow. This is fantastic news and mainly down to the hard work of our brilliant fellowship team. We are also recruiting more Fellows through the recommendation of existing FRSAs so let me also thank all of you who have helped us reach this milestone. Onwards to 28,000!
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06 February 2008
In good company
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a company in possession of a decent turnover must be in need of a corporate responsibility programme. It’s certainly trendy – think Google’s “do no evil” tag. The RSA is very trendy too, and we’re currently looking at how an RSA Network could support SMEs in fulfilling all their social responsibilities (including turning a profit).
The argument about sustainable business development hasn’t been won yet. A recent Economist carried one of the best idiot’s guides yet to the potential pitfalls of the fashion for CSR. Is fixing the world what business is for? On a pragmatic level, does it mean having to actively build social responsibility into every part of your business or will the oddn philanthropic donation do?
Consider the CSR question in the context of the UK’s small to medium enterprises (SMEs). The majority of us working in the private sector are employed not by big corporations but enterprises of fewer than 100 employees; their social and environmental footprint is huge. But when upwards of 30% of small businesses go bust after the first year, turning a profit first and foremost is a matter of survival.Having to respect other bottom lines (environmental, social, progressive working practices) is an unrealistic burden, some say. We want home-grown entrepreneurship, local businesses and economic diversity, so how exacting can we be of SMEs?
The RSA Network’s challenge is to reconcile SMEs’ bottom lines with their impact on the world around them. The aim is to rethink CSR not as a big business luxury, with a small number of high profile wins, but as a huge number of small gestures.
Anyone with practical insights into how we might make that happen should keep an eye on the Networks platform for details of how to get involved. To be continued†
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01 February 2008
Home from home
Perhaps the most well-known face in the RSA Green Room this week was former BBC man in Baghdad, Rageh Omaar. Rageh became a Fellow six months or so ago and revealed to us that the RSA is now like a second home for him in London. Rageh's favourite spot in the House is the Fellows library. One of our best-kept secrets (er, oops - maybe not now!) the library has a fantastic contemporary collection and is an oasis of calm for RSA staff and visitors alike.
In the lively Q&A session following his talk, Rageh was upbeat about current state of multiethnic relations in the UK. Religious tolerance was the theme of Asma Jahangir's RSA Amnesty lecture in Oxford the previous evening. Asma had "started the week" on Radio 4 debating the difficult politics of the West and the Muslim world, post-9/11, with Martin Amis.
Next challenge for the events team - to get Martin Amis into the RSA Green Room... we'll keep you posted on that one!
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