DEMOS

• top of the demos christmas tree yup, Their Space: education for a digital generation is the top Demos download of 2007, clocking nearly 60,000 downloads. continue reading Posted by Charlie Tims on 21st December 2007
• Podcast: The Dreaming City/Glasgow 2020 Glasgow 2020 was a project to imagine the future of Glasgow through storytelling, wish-making and a series of discussions with people across Glasgow. I know this sounds cheesy, but we tried to focus on 'imagination' rather 'consultation'. The project trod a thin dividing line between political representation, and cultural expression. Basically i'm not sure if a load of stories, wishes and discussions can be considered to democratically 'represent' the entire populous of a city, but at the very... continue reading Posted by Charlie Tims on 21st December 2007 in Demos Podcasts
• Highs and lows Everyone else is doing lists of the highs and lows of 2007, so how about a participative Demos version? continue reading 20th December 2007 Comments (3)
• Sober Assessment Last night Sir Richard Mottram, the former Permanent Secretary, Security, Intelligence and Resilience at the Cabinet Office gave a lecture on Building a national security architecture for the twenty-first century. It was a sober assessment of the Government's achievements and an interesting insight into where ‘improvement’ is needed. You can read the speech here. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 19th December 2007
• Waiting for Panto... The new extension to Coventry's Belgrade Theatre was opened in September of this year.  It was designed by the architectural practise, Stanton Williams, the firm behind Compton Verney, the refurbishment of the RSA, the Tower Environs Scheme at Tower Hill and several other major projects of recent years.We have just published a review of the theatre in this week's Architectural Journal.  It's registration only site I'm afraid.  However, very briefly, we examined the theatre from... continue reading Posted by Joost Beunderman Samuel Jones on 17th December 2007
• QDOS The FYI pamphlet was big on the need for ideas that can help people manage their personal information - and the trail of information we leave behind us that is often called our 'digital footprint'. That tells other people a lot about the kind of things a person likes and, ultimately, the sort of person they are.
  
  So I thought it was worth mentioning Garlik's new tool 'QDOS', which looks like a really interesting and accessible way to start thinking about, and managing, that digital footprint... continue reading Posted by Peter Bradwell on 13th December 2007 in For Your Information
• FYI Last Friday, 7th December, we launched FYI: the new politics of personal information, a pamphlet about how and why personal information has become so valuable and important.
  
  Whilst there are many benefits to sharing our personal details, the current debate and attitude has seen us lose control over what other people know and think about us. People need to have more of a stake in influencing the rules that determine how and where their information is used. continue reading Posted by Peter Bradwell on 12th December 2007 in For Your Information
• National Security for the Twenty-First Century Today we launch a new report on national security. The report argues that the government lacks a clear and coherent view of the nature and priority of risks to the UK with Whitehall structured around functions and services with separate budgets for defence, foreign affairs and intelligence. This model of government may have suited the security environment of the Cold War but today's challenges demand a fundamental review of the way departments and agencies are organised. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 10th December 2007
• Fact and Fiction More than half the population have a library card and the number of visits to public libraries is increasing. Libraries are among the most loved and trusted public services. But debate has raged about the direction that libraries should take, and about where and how resources should be invested. Recently, Demos published an article in association with Hampshire County Council that looks at these debates and argues that the future of our libraries should lie in the hands of local people. continue reading Posted by John Holden Samuel Jones on 7th December 2007 Comments (1)
• How do you tell one scratched CD in a rubbish tip from another? How would you like to spend your weekend? Going to the football, lying in bed, rolling round the shops? Or rummaging around in old baked bean tins and rotting copies of the London paper, for a few scratched CDs? Are these people looking for a needle in haystack, 20 million haystacks in a needle or 20 million needles in 20 million haystacks in a or er, a piece of hay in 20 million needles... Either way somewhere in there, there’s some kind of metaphor for the general craziness of the... continue reading 1st December 2007

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