Peter Bradwell is a researcher at Demos. He works mainly on the way information and knowledge is shared. He also researches digital identity, online culture, copyright and intellectual property.
Following the FYI personal information project, he is starting a new project looking at how the public can drive personal information policy and practice. You can read a short intorduction to the work here.
Peter also works on Demos' podcasts and other audio-visual outputs.
Peter joined Demos in February 2006. He holds a Masters with distinction in Critical Theory and Politics from the University of Nottingham, and previously worked at the Campaign for Freedom of Information.
This report argues that as our places become more important, planners can play a key role in ensuring that place-making is sustainable and democratically legitimate. The challenge is to respond to a radically changed world that offers new a democratic contexts; planners will need to be able consider the needs of people who work, play and visit places as well as local residents' interests. And they need to plan for the global as well as the local environmental impacts of new development.
Around the world, the way that English is used has come to reflect the changing powers of globalisation; it is spoken in different ways, by different people, for different purposes. The UK has developed an unsustainable complacency to its native tongue. Opportunity and influence remain tied to English, but As You Like It argues that native speakers are at risk of being left behind.
FYI: the new politics of personal information argues that individuals do not have enough influence over how personal information is used, and that we need to reconnect the everyday experience of giving away our details with the longer-term consequences.
Co-design has become an international movement. This discussion paper reports on the findings of a ground-breaking international survey of 466 public service practitioners, and sets out the challenges that will affect the implementation of collaborative design principles in the future.
Cheap digital technology and broadband access have broken the moving-image monopoly held by production companies and broadcasters. In its place a new theatre of public information has emerged.
Humans are social animals, spinning intricate webs of relationships with friends, colleagues, neighbours and enemies. These networks have always been with us, but the advance of networking technologies, changes to our interconnected economy and an altering job market have super-charged the power of networking, catapulting it to the heart of organisational thinking.
British universities enjoy a position as international leaders in higher education. But their slowness to adapt to new technology and social media, as well as funding threats and fierce global competition, have put universities under intense pressure. The Edgeless University argues that online and DIY learning can create 'edgeless universities' where information, skills and research are accessible far beyond the campus walls.
The planning system has been reborn – what roles will planners be playing, and what tools will they need, to maximise the democratic potential of the planning system?
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This work examines the implications of current trends in the English Language for policy agendas. Run in association with Cambridge Assessment, and ESOL Examinations at the University of Cambridge, it will identify not only areas in which policy makers will have to change to meet the challenges posed by the emergence of variants of English - Englishes - but also how government and others can work with providers to take advantage of the many opportunites that 'Englishes' present...
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Children’s access to the public realm is currently heavily restricted – as much by physical barriers as by adult attitudes and anxieties. As heavy investment in play provision is currently set to deliver physical improvements, there is a need to address the wider social, cultural and political context in which the children’s public realm is being shaped.
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This Demos collection will highlight new thinking about privacy in the UK, and seek to address the future challenges of the privacy agenda in an increasingly open society.
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A project about personal information, why organisations want it and use it, and why it matters to us as citizens and consumers.
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Production companies and broadcasters no longer hold a monopoly over moving-images - instead, a new theatre of public information has emerged. Spread across the internet, television, festivals and campaigns this emerging ‘Video Republic’ is a messy, alternative realm of video creation and exchange, dominated by young people. Who inhabits, shapes and regulates the Video Republic?
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The expansion of the internet has distributed itself unevenly across the generations. Around 70% of people over 65 do not use the internet, compared to 30% of the overall population. Elderly people also experience some extreme forms of social exclusion; for example, 300,000 older people have gone a full month without speaking to family or neighbours. Will the ‘age based digital divide’ fade away or is it here to stay? The connections between old people‘s digital and social exclusion remain unclear. Exactly what does the internet do for old people? Can it help make for a better old age?
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This report explores how collaborative design, between public service practitioners and designers is taking hold across the globe. It opens the door better-functioning transport, health, social welfare and education sectors, across the UK, USA, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
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This project will explore how social networks will transform the workplace, with implications for how people experience work and businesses increase their bottom line.
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James Nachtwey won the TED Prize in 2007. He used it to take pictures of an under-reported health issue now affecting 50 countries across the world. We are helping him break and spread his images in London.
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This project explores how technological and social change impact on universities. Technology has the potential to help all universities become open universities, but its implications, opportunities and uncertainties need deeper explanation.
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This project explores the opportunities and uncertainties of access to patient records.
MoreArchitectural conjecture; urban speculation; landscape futures.
Research, thoughts and writing on communities in their place.
Strategic thinking
A brief and accessible look at the problems associated with participation.
Survey mapping the public's attitudes to, and uses of, mobile phones. Some interesting stats.
Serious Organised Crime Agency - marketing fraud figures
AC Grayling on Privacy
"Colleges moving courses outside LSC funding altogether are seeing the benefits of not having to worry about whether they are within the national qualifications framework or someone's idea of regional priorities. The approach might have the gratifying side-effect of allowing them to tell the LSC that their provision really is demand-led - providing what the customer actually wants, and will pay for - because it responds to paying customers rather than a dodgy dossier of labour market analysis"
IndustryWeek : Taking The Nanopulse -- Good News! The Public Is Ready For Nanotechnology In 2007
Imperialism - It's still here and it's more rational than ever'I picked up...
Peter Pan - sorry, Ruth Kelly, in her new role as Secretary of State for Communities, said...
Projects like OpenStreetMap and the related 'Mapchester' show how technology '...
Two examples stand out. First, his stunt was called 'Drowned Alive'. Has anyone...
We spent Wednesday (21st June) and Thursday (22nd June) in Milton Keynes talking to planners...
Cities are loud. My world cup experience has already been defined by eerie sonic mash-ups...
...there was nuclear power. Or, at least, talk about nuclear power.The government's...
A US senator recently made an amusing attempt to explain how the internet works - apparently...
A key area in thinking about the future of the English language is that of standards - the...
We've been developing our Future Planners story for a while now - a process that really...
Rather predictably, one of the key tensions to emerge from our discussions with planning...
The apparent re-emergence of Russian centralised planning caught my attention over the weekend...
"B2X also announced its 10 year exclusive partnership with the China Daily Information...
The Freedom of Information Act has been in force for a year and a half now. It's an...
It appears that there might be another piece of evidence to counter the excitement of the...
One of the claims about the prevalence of the English language is that people want to learn...
Got any spare time next Thursday evening? Have anything you want to get off your chest?Then...
So Universal has signed up to the incoming download site SpiralFrog - which promises to...
Just read an interesting piece in China's 'People's Daily Online'. It argues...
What better way to dispel the accusations that you're vacuous and policy-lite than to...
The Freedom of Information and Open Government Blog picked up yesterday on an early day...
Today is a day of action against DESO - the Defence Export Services Organisation. This...
Information wants to be free? Well somebody, apparently, is paying over the odds to oblige...
It's easy to say that providing English language teaching to newcomers to the UK is...
Just prior to his talk here last Thursday, Ian Bremmer discussed nations, states, openness...
I haven't ranted for a while so here goes...Mick Hucknall, in what I can only describe...
I've blogged before about the changes being suggested by the government in relation...
Not so much a friday rant, as conspiratorial speculation. Much talk today about the end...
"On 16 October 2006 the Department for Constitutional Affairs published the independent...
At the risk of becoming a bit of a one trick blog pony, I picked up today on yet more government...
Brian Haw is the possibly heroic megaphone-clenching peace protestor whose lone vigil outside...
We are about to launch the report Future Planners: Propositions for the next age of planning...
During November we asked subscribers to the Demos update if they would like to share an...
How to be a Creative Entrepreneur – Anamaria Wills Anamaria Wills is the Chief Executive...
Creative Management - Mark IrvingMark Irving is a journalist and broadcaster who recently...
The 'open access' crowd - those loosely connected fellows who care about how easy...
On 8th February we held the Look Into My Ideas event with the Hayward Gallery. It...
Tim Drake is an entrepreneur, speaker and writer. He set up Cobra sports in the 1980s...
Dr Bryony Randall is a lecturer at The University of Glamorgan. Later this year she...
DK is the founder of Mediasnackers - a souped-up blog looking at the changing ways young...
Be A Podcast - 3 clunky words, 15 fun-packed minutes. The concept is the same as before...
Lots of interesting stories about languages recently. The Guardian picked up on a protest...
Tech critic Bill Thompson pointed out recently that what is really great about the internet...
Jean Baudrillard died on Tuesday, in Paris, aged 77. It is desperately sad news indeed whenever...
We've just launched the pamphlet As You Like It: Catching up in an age of global English...
We launched the new pamphlet As You Like It yesterday here at Demos. We had a great...
There's a lot to the speech that Lord Falconer made on Wednesday evening. He was...
I’ve been following an interesting thread unpicked from the loud, often shapeless...
I can't help but think of those particularly miserly teachers whose hatred of a pupil...
I spotted some news today (press release here) about Sainsbury's renewing its contract...
Reading the Freedom of Information blog today you might come across a couple of interesting...
I just found an interesting quote in a Wired interview with Tim O'Reilly. It ties...
The second day of the pdf conference has taken on the form of an 'unconference'...
...how many search results for my personality came back?We ran a roundtable discussion yesterday...
American pragmatist philospher Richard Rorty died on Friday, June 8th.I saw Tony Benn speak...
A really useful report from Privacy International - rankings of the major internet companies...
We're holding an event with Google next Thursday evening at their offices in Victoria...
Just read a story about Oxford University using Facebook to find evidence from their students...
Reading a story about a further round of lawsuits from the International Federation of the...
Just read on Times online how Canon engineers, joining the hunt for the culprit in the leaked...
It’s striking how frequently there are stories about the insecurity of our personal...
There's some coverage on the BBC website of the 'DNA database' - the store...
Data and information about us, for reasons fair, foul or just opaque, travels across nations...
It seemed worth highlighting the unfortunate blogging saga involving billionaire and Arsenal...
The front page of the Mail on Sunday was rather enjoyable today, expressing as it did tangible...
Being pretty geeky, it pleases me when stories that you might assume are a bit tecchie make...
I just read a really useful post from the Read/WriteWeb blog about where the internet is...
Big 'Big Brother' headline today, on the front of the Daily Mail. A written answer...
"The aim of border control is to sort traffic into legitimate and non-legitimate and...
We've been telling anyone that will listen for a long time that personal information...
Last Friday, 7th December, we launched FYI: the new politics of personal information, a...
The FYI pamphlet was big on the need for ideas that can help people manage their personal...
In this episode of the Be A Podcast series, Peter Bradwell spoke to Jonathan Winter and...
Yesterday saw the launch of the new Demos pamphlet The Everyday Democracy Index. It sets...
The Library of Congress recently began a fantastic trial with online photo sharing site...
In this Demos podcast, over tea in the Demos kitchen, Rachel Briggs caught up with David...
It's not Friday - but can I rant? Unsurprising reports today of some imminent proposals...
Demos associate Paul Miller is part of a team who have set up the really brilliant School...
The website for the Stranger Festival - a celebration of videos made by young people across...
Celia and I have just got back from a fantastic week in Helsinki, where we were visiting...
The Information Commissioner Richard Thomas yesterday ordered the release of minutes from...
When Celia and I were in Helsinki for the week of 18-22 February, we made a video...
Last week we hosted a joint seminar with the Italian think-tank Vision on the Italian general...
On 24th and 25th March I spent two days at the marvellous Schlesische 27, a youth arts organisation...
Last weekend I got pretty excited by 'iTunes U' - an area of iTunes that lets Universities...
It's worth taking a look at the recent Governance of Britain Draft Bill and accompanying...
We're back for a new series of Demos podcasts. In the coming weeks you'll be able...
Last week we published a new pamphlet called The Politics of Public Behaviour. It features...
We're in the midst of accumulating and reflecting on the material we have drawn from...
In 2006, David Cameron famously described Gordon Brown as an 'analogue politician in...
Today we are launching our new discussion paper Making the most of collaboration: an international...
We're igniting what has been a dormant Twitter account.We've started with a feed...
"Whenever you change the way groups get together or get things done, you change society...
Last week, we were delighted to see School of Everything scoop a Catalyst award. The awards...
We're busy writing up the Children of Europa project at the moment. We're really...
'The Internet was built without a way to know who and what you are connecting to.'...
Indie band Oasis have been in the news recently. Firstly, because someone pushed over Noel...
Today, James Nachtwey breaks his story of a global health crisis through a new set of photographs...
In this new Demos podcast, our own Jack Stilgoe spoke to Peter Cockersell of St. Mungo...
Last Monday, 20th October, we hosted a fantastic discussion on the upcoming US elections...
Since it's launch, Twitter has led many people to shrug and say: 'I don't get...
I thought it was worth pointing towards Jeffrey Rosen's excellent piece in the New York...
Content regulation or censorship online has been steadily climbing up the agenda for a while...
Last Thursday we hosted the launch of our new pamphlet The Skills Paradox.We welcomed a...
We do love our plastic, and this snippet of career advice, from the film The Graduate, was...
The front pages today are all rightly focused on a bright new dawn for American politics...
This week Demos launches a new project called 'Progressive Conservatism'. In this...
A week ago we hosted the first podcast for Resilient Nation. Head of Demos' Security...
Last month, the Information Tribunal ruled that the minutes from key Cabinet meetings in...
Last week we recorded the second podcast for Resilient Nation. Head of Demos' Security...
Today we’re launching our new series of podcasts called Policy Beats. Jamie Bartlett...
08/06/09 As well as piling pressure on the beleaguered Labour party, the European elections...
10/06/09 Tory MP Sir Peter Viggers is to sell that notorious duck house for charity. And...
18/06/09 Everybody is talking about Twitter. Again. This time because it has become intimately...
18/06/09 Everybody is talking about Twitter. Again. This time because it has become intimately...