The Nanodialogues
Four experiments in upstream public engagement
Way upstream
at 6:13pm on Wednesday, 3rd January 2007Next week, I will be a mentor at the EPSRC's 'Ideas Factory' on Software Control of Matter. This takes me way upstream and puts me among a diverse group of scientists, who are coming together to consider how to approach an esoteric problem with potentially massive implications - building stuff nano-bit by nano-bit. The EPSRC, who distribute the engineering and physics part of the UK's science budget, have set aside money to fund the proposals that are produced.
For the last year, we at Demos have been doing what we call 'experiments in public engagement.' We have been bringing together new groups of people to open up debates about the means and ends of nanotechnology research and development. The fascinating thing about the Ideas Factory for me is that it is an experiment in funding science, as well as being an experiment with a new form of conversation about science. Scientists, like any group, spend much of their time hanging out with, talking to, reading and reading about people with narrowly similar interested. What will happen when people are brought together from different disciplines, cultures, places and languages? We'll see.
Richard Jones, who is running the thing, has set up a blog that gives the world an opportunity to look at and shout into the sand pit. Nano-geeks can join us at ideasfactory.wordpress.com.
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I was really pleased to be able to take part in the Ideas Factory in Bath in October - Taking Care to the patient: new thinking in mobile healthcare delivery. Working in health and social care progress (change) relies on constantly trying to improve interdisciplinary working. It was fascinating as a non-academic to see how disparate strangers are introduced, 'baggage' that might hinder was left behnd, people were ready to listen and ideas nurtured and developed through to the final day.
The range of disciplines represented was excellent, resulting in some invaluable contacts in other essential fields of practice and study.
Participants are in for an enjoyable, challenging and hard-working treat. Good luck! If you feel in need of an 'holistic innoculation' there's one available at the site below.
I hope you have a really productive and rewarding time.
Best regards
Peter Jones
Clinical Specialist: NHS Care Record Service Project / Informatics
Lancashire Care NHS Trust
Greenbank
Ripon St
Preston
Lancashire
UK
PR1 6LY
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http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/
Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model
h2cm: help 2C more - help 2 listen - help 2 care
- Emergence: how, when and why the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
- Coping with extreme weather events
- Computing with uncertain future devices
- A Noisy Future
- Bridging the Digital Divide
- Scientific Uncertainty and Decision Making for Regulatory and Risk Assessment Purposes
- Gun Crime: Taking the Heat off the Streets
- Mapping the Underworld
- Chemical Craftwork: New Ways of Making Molecules and Materials
- Closing the Gap, Crossing the Levels: New Perspectives on Productivity
Some of these obviously fall into the EPSRC's remit, some less obviously. I think the novel thing about this next Ideas Factory is that, while the others have been guided by real-world problems, this one is as much about defining what the problem is - a complicated, nebulous but vital upstream challenge.