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A new Arts amalgam…

In the last two weeks the BBC have launched a new set of web pages and content dedicated to the arts. The material , as you would expect from the Corporation, is diverse and stimulating, with a fresh feel in terms of web layout and visual impact we thought. It draws upon television, radio  and web outputs to create a new miscellany.

Below are some of the items we have found interesting at conversationsEAST this week.

Both are of a historical bent, with historian Niall Ferguson opining on how young students now see and re-act to the First World War. A topical segment from the 2014 Hay Festival, with brief contributions from Rosie Boycott and Kate Adie.

Niall Ferguson, ever controversial, begins by describing the teaching of history about the First World War in the UK as, essentially, education about the Home Front. The lack of familial links for young people to the events of 1914 onwards make the story of the Battle of the Somme as relevant as the Battle of Thermopylae, thus the concentration on social history.

The Ferguson thesis on how students see The First World War is encouragingly developed to include how contemporary learners, Ferguson argues, are now very interested in strategic calculation and miscalculation.

This is a credible argument for a return to interest in the prevailing political frameworks by students of 1914. The less comfortable summation is completed by references to the teaching of the impact of the First World War as a video game…perhaps something of an unfortunate trivialisation of all the stories of loss, destruction and bravery that will emerge as the centenary of the conflict is remembered this year?

Have  a look at the clip above and see if you agree?

You can see details of Changing Chelmsford’s First World War: Then and Now programme on our projects page. This is a Lottery funded project between RSA Fellows and the local Civic Society which pertinently concentrates on the historical context of the Home Front, under-scoring the very real social and economic impact of war to the Fellows credit…despite the Fergusonian treatise on domestic history above.

We also found on the new BBC Arts site a page link dedicated to the Scottish novelist, Denise Mina, who has created a social history film about her family, inviting them all to see the finished output at the Glasgow Film Theatre. See more here on this BBC Scotland web page.

Image of novelist Denise Mina
See Scottish novelist Denise Mina talking about her film project here…

We loved the fact that the project was filmed on a smartphone, with very modest funding. The finished piece will be premiered today at the Go North Festival in Inverness.

We thought what a great project, harnessing the power of ubiquitous modern technology, to create a story about a community. An ideal medium for a local arts/history project for Fellows in the region perhaps? Detailing the currency of everyday lives, to to be made enduringly available on the web.

We warmed to the new BBC Arts amalgam and will revisit its news feed regularly. See more here…

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80,000 Hours – route map for change?

80,000 Hours have just published their strategic review for 2014.

As a new organisation 80,000 is clearly flexing and changing as the efficacy of their campaigns, support for students and discovery of a sustainable social business model begin to emerge.

As a group of people they are dedicated to the take up of social impact as a career choice by graduates. They have fostered a wide debate about earning to give, and now, from the evidence of their strategy thinking, are looking for a way to build upon their research expertise and web publishing capabilities.

We read the strategy document with interest here at conversationsEAST. What has been produced, it seems to us, is a general template for any organisation which wishes to pursue societal change.

What emerges is a strong focus on original research, coupled to applying the emergent information, data  and reflection to web outputs in order to disseminate ideas and raise recruitment.

Whilst expressed briefly here, the concepts do not seem sparklingly original. However, as to be expected from the creative cohort at 80,000, they are not often expressed so elegantly or in such a clear and structured way.

interneticon  Discover 80,000 Hours for yourself and read their 2014 strategy and development document here…

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Anyone can change the world!

A new RSA Short – energy renewal in a busy day…

“What if you really could change the world? Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize winner, firmly believes that each and every one of us can and should contribute to creating a better world. In this empowering RSA Short Jody explains why it is so important that we strive to make a difference”. Narrative courtesy of The RSA…

Jody Williams (born 1950) is an American political activist known around the world for her work in banning anti-personnel landmines, her defense of human rights – especially those of women – and her efforts to promote new understandings of security in today’s world. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work toward the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines.

interneticon  You can see a longer version of this talk on YouTube here…

Jody posits that her reaction to anger is to harness it into passion. Mainly because anger and rage upsets her mom…harnessing instead a passion to change things in order to resolve injustice. Anyone can change the world? Yes you can she argues, if you turn your passion about injustice into your work. Exhilarating!

Join THE RSA – make change happen. interneticon Find out more here.

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About the region!

 

Malcolm Noble, regional Chair of the RSA in the East of England writes…

Regional Fellowship – an overview

Our regional team arranges a programme of events open to Fellows wherever they live in the East of England. There are local networks serving four of the main population centres: Norwich, Ipswich, Cambridge and Chelmsford. They are all engaged in Fellow led projects designed to realise the objectives of our regional plan. The projects are:

• NorwIch – educational disadvantage in some parts of the city; involving an RSA Catalyst funded link with Futures Radio.
• Ipswich – the Shout Out Suffolk programme on educational under-achievement.
• Cambridge – Community Based Initiatives.
• Chelmsford – Changing Chelmsford shaping the future of England’s newest city.

We have a region wide project on renewable sources of energy. Our working group commissioned research undertaken by University Campus Suffolk on the mismatch between skills and employment opportunities in this sector.

New local networks are being established in Hertfordshire and South Essex.

We now plan to provide opportunities for Fellows to contribute to all of our projects, regardless of where they live or work. ConversationsEast will enable Fellows to link in to the project discussions through the ‘Local Groups’ and ‘Projects’ pages.

Our new Projects Group, representing each of the local networks, will connect all of the individual initiatives and facilitate Fellow involvement across the region.

interneticon Our conference on 14th June will enable Fellows to influence the changes now underway.

Image of Malcolm NobleMalcolm Noble
Chair: RSA East of England.

Regional finalist – Art Museum of the Year 2014

The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts has been selected as a finalist in interneticon the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2014 competition.

Designed by interneticon Foster + Partners, this iconic building rests in the University of East Anglia campus landscape and is perhaps the pre-eminent collection of modern art in our region. The permanent collection housed at the Centre was relaunched with a complete re-display in September of 2013.

At the same time the Centre’s largest exhibition to date was opened – interneticonMasterpieces: Art and East Anglia. The exhibition was assembled from some 250 works, donated by over 60 institutions. The  ranged from neolithic flint hand axes, tomb effigies from East Anglian churches to paintings from the Norwich School artist John Cotman.

The space, with its endless variety of ways to approach the works, still attracts a sense of wonder and deep engagement. The short video below, featuring the Centre Director and art historian Philip Mould, conveys this sense of connection well.

If you have never visited the interneticon Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, you should. Not least to see how the curatorial energy of the Centre team has won them a deserved place in this competition.

interneticon  See the Art Fund pages and details of the other finalists here. cropped-conversationsEASTbanner2.jpg

The Social Progress Index 2014

A new indicator of human well-being and potential delivered, the Social Progress Index for 2014,  uses non-economic data to map the nations of the world and to determine their relative rank in achieving social progress. interneticon Discover it on-line here.

A recent article and the latest RSA Short focus on the issues of economic growth and how there are omissions in the singular pursuit of economic growth, as a proxy for the development of the human condition.

It is an interesting idea that there should be a non-economic proxy for human well-being, regularly and cogently calculated, which serves as a measurer of human development. The pursuit of which leavens the aggressive one-sidedness of capital by pivoting economic activity into a pursuit for human happiness.

Could the Social Progress Index be the proxy long awaited?

Poorer countries are often compared using to the UN’s Human Development Index, though this tends to be highly-correlated with GDP, with all the limitations that implies. One of the strengths of the SPI is that, by only using social and environmental indicators and excluding all economic measures, it is easier to compare how countries with similar GDP are doing relative to each other.
Matthew Bishop – The Economist

In this 2014 analysis the United Kingdom ranks 13th in the world in terms of the values subscribed to by the index. The top three world nations are New Zealand, Switzerland and Iceland.

The interneticon data clusters used for the index are divided across three main headings – basic human needs, the foundations of well-being and opportunity. The U.K. does well in global terms with regard to water and waste infrastructure for example, as to be expected, and has a good score on the opportunities available for individuals to change their lives. We do poorly on rankings around  equality and inclusion.

This short video compares and contrasts Gross Domestic Product outcomes with the SPI…

The new index is fostered by the Social Progress Imperative. A movement that subscribes to the goal of developing and guiding access to social investment ‘…which creates a shared language and common goals to align different organizations and achieve greater social impact’.  interneticon Find the Imperative on-line here.

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Profit pitch or social welfare?

The short film below, from the TED talks series, is delivered Harish Manwani, the Chief Operating Officer of Unilever. It is not, perhaps surprisingly,  an advertisement for soup or soap.

Harish joined Unilever in 1976, rising up the corporate ladder, to his current eminent position. This talk seeks to add to the three basic tenets of growth, Manwani argues, which traditionally is built upon consistency, competitiveness and profitability, by adding responsibility.

The notion of adding social value as a contingent outcome with economic value is not new, but the telling of it by a key player in a world wide corporation is remarkable.

Manwani tells of the Unilever project, interneticon Shakti, which seeks to empower women in small business (..and to sell soap). But he argues with passion that science underpins his company’s activity, yet teaches millions about hygiene and hand washing as life saving activities.

‘A brand can be at the forefront of social change’ he says – this is a powerful argument for the interneticon Social Business model we think. Do you agree?

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Climate Data – Microsoft contributes

Microsoft Research has recently announced its commitment to provide large amounts of cloud computing resources to help research projects contribute to the White House Climate Data initiative, a response to the Climate Action Plan sanctioned by President Obama. interneticon

The programme involves Microsoft Research providing 40 successful bidders with 180,000 hours of cloud computing time, using Windows Azure, and facilitated with 20 Terabytes of cloud storage.

Microsoft will also provide researchers with training and classes to ensure that project teams are best equipped to exploit cloud data mechanics.

Microsoft further commits to the deployment of FetchClimate, a climate data resource for past and present observations and for climate-prediction information. FetchClimate will be available as a fast, free, intelligent environmental information-retrieval service and as a cloud-based system that can be adapted to the specific needs of new projects.

interneticon You can read more about FetchClimate, a Microsoft free on-line tool tool, here.

The process for research teams to apply is not complicated. Short, three pages, submissions must be sent in by June 15th, 2014.

interneticon The on-line application form is here.

interneticon The call for proposals FAQ is here.

If you do, the very best of luck. See you in the cloud.

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Social entrepreneurs rewarded

This month the Skoll Foundation, based in Palo Alto, California announced the winners of their 2014 Skoll Award prizes for societal innovation. Driving forward help for the dispossessed and disconnected.

Each winning organisation receives $1.25 million dollars and a support package over three years from the Foundation. ‘The Skoll Award distinguishes transformative leaders who are disrupting the status quo, driving large-scale change, and are poised to make an even greater impact on the world…’.

This year the winners represent seven organisations, working in partnership across 35 countries, who are achieving outstanding results in tackling societal problems of the prime magnitude. ‘Driving transformation on a range of issues to maximize health, education, opportunity, transparency, and accountability in some of the poorest places on earth, these pioneers should be on the watch lists of everyone who cares about the future of the world…’. The winners are featured below.

B Lab        interneticon Connect with B Lab on the web here.

‘B Lab is fueling a global movement to redefine “success” in business, so that all companies compete not only to be the best in the world, but the best for the world. B Lab is challenging the status quo by building a new sector, legal structure, and standards; …advancing public policies that enable companies to create financial, social, and environmental value for both its shareholders and for society’.

Fundación Capital               interneticon  Connect with Fundación Capital  on the web here.

‘Fundación Capital is a pioneer in inclusive finance innovation to help the poor save; grow and invest their assets; insure their families against risk; and chart a permanent path out of poverty. Already reaching three million people, Fundación Capital is working to reach eight million more in the next few years by expanding access to training, capital, and opportunity…’

Girls Not Brides                      interneticon   Connect with Girls Not Brides  on the web here.

‘…the bold goal of ending child marriage in one generation. Child marriage traps girls and their communities in poverty. By ending the practice, the global community can start to address some of the most difficult challenges in development. Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 300 civil society organizations working across 50 countries’.

Global Witness                        interneticon  Connect with  Global Witness on the web here.

‘Global Witness investigates and exposes the shadow networks underlying  deals over natural resources that fuel conflict, corruption, and environmental destruction. They collect evidence and launch hard-hitting campaigns to find global solutions and end the “resource curse” by tackling corruption, protecting the environment, preventing conflict, and defending human rights’.

Medic Mobile                                           interneticon    Connect with Medic Mobile on the web here.

 ‘Medic Mobile builds mobile applications for community health workers, caregivers, and patients to increase life-saving health care coverage. Across 20 countries, its tools support 8,000 frontline health workers and benefit approximately six million people with plans to double these numbers annually for a total of 200,000 health workers serving 100 million people by 2018’.

Slum Dwellers International (SDI)                   interneticon   Connect with SDI on the web here.

‘Slum Dwellers International works to have slums recognized as vibrant, resourceful, and dignified communities. SDI organizes slum dwellers to take control of their futures; improve their living conditions; and gain recognition as equal partners with governments and international organizations in the creation of inclusive cities. With programs in nearly 500 cities, including more than 15,000 slum dweller-managed savings groups reaching one million people…’

Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP)            interneticon Connect with WSUP on the web

‘Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor has turned the traditional charity model on its head by developing commercially-viable models to bring water and sanitation to nearly two million people in urban slums in six countries…offering a creative package of private-sector, nongovernmental-organization, and academic expertise, WSUP equips public and private service agencies with the capacity and incentives to serve all citizens in their city’.

Every one of these projects represent a paradigm shift in how lack of resources of all kinds are tackled. Two favourites of ours were WSUP and Global Witness.

WSUP presents practical and openly available resources about how to get the water flowing. We also warmed to the new Global Witness campaign to press for the abandonment of ‘anonymous’ companies. Making it harder to hide corporate actions and ethical deficits behind un-named business registrations.

We were inspired to start a social business for good. Were you?

Project narratives: Courtesy of The Skoll Foundation.

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Research – the gender gap

The Times Higher Ed. have recently published an article detailing the results of the Research Councils UK findings on how successful women are in research bids.

The findings are particularly remarkable when looking at female success rates for large grants. In the age cohort 50 to 59 years of age, women are about half as likely as men to be successful.

Research grants by gender image
Source: Research Councils UK

Even in the lower age range the success of men bidding for grants under one million pounds exceeds women. The male gender bias is apparent across all age ranges, widening the gap as scientific careers progress, arguably.

This is, as far as we know, the first time that such research grant data has been published with gender segmentation. It is truly shocking to think that young women scientists, just at the start of their career, are doomed to an intellectual life hampered by lack of resource and opportunity.

Should this be a 21st Century state of affairs…now we know?

interneticon You can find the original Times Higher Ed. web article here.

pdfIcon4 You can find the Research Council data here.

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Image credit:

News Desk image by Markus Winkler, Creative Commons, Unsplash...

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