Newspeak House is an independent residential college founded in 2015 to study, nurture and inspire emerging communities of practice across civil society and the public sector in the UK. more...
2022 Residential Programme: Apply Now!
We are seeking candidates for the next cohort of our residential programme, starting in October. Please share this with your communities and encourage others to apply. Expressions of interest are now open, and applying is quick and easy. The deadline is end of July.
The course is designed to support mid-career technologists gain a deep understanding of the landscape of political, civic, non-profit and public sector organisations in the UK, in order to found groundbreaking new projects or seek strategic positions in key institutions. more...
News
We have survived the pandemic. It’s amazing to see you all again. However, we are not out of the woods yet. The last few years have been disastrous for independent spaces. Many have closed their doors forever, and times are still tough. If there was ever a time to become a member, it is now. The pandemic has wiped out our reserves, restricting our core activities and putting us at risk of closing. If you want to make sure your community can continue to benefit from the facilities at Newspeak House, please consider joining as a member.
There has been a lot of chaos. Please bear with us while we find our feet again. We might be a bit slow at replying to emails. Our event programme may be a little sparse, while communities that have been dormant wake themselves up. In the meantime, we have been making ambitious plans:
Future Plans
To increase our resilience as an institution and grow our impact, we are planning to open additional campuses under the umbrella brand of “The London College of Political Technology”. They will form a federated network of spaces, each hosting their own residential programme and sharing a common curriculum. Nothing is certain in a pandemic, but if all goes well, we intend to launch our first new campus in 2024.
As part of this initiative, we are delighted to welcome two new members of our faculty, both leading experts on founding experimental spaces:
Dr Zarinah Agnew
[email protected] • zarinahagnew.com • @zarinahagnew
Zarinah is a neuroscientist by training. After spending over a decade in academia, they left to study the science of groups of brains - that is, humans in collectivity.
Alongside their work with the college, Zarinah runs three nonprofits aimed at experimental aspects of society, collective transformation and para-institutions. The Social Science Observatory is dedicated to the study of social science in the wild, Alternative Justices works towards abolitionist community-based harm prevention and response, and District Commons engineers experimental spaces where humans can ‘be otherwise’. Together, these strands allow both the prefiguration of new social configurations, as well as the study of their transformational potential.
Stephanie Sherman
[email protected] • stephaniesherman.info • @detectiveyes
Stephanie is a design director, strategist, writer, and producer working across urbanism, technology, and culture.
She is director of the MA Narrative Environments program at Central Saint Martin’s, collaborates with The UC San Diego Center for Design and Geopolitics and Design Lab Automation Team, and the future of work thinktank Autonomy
She is co-founder of Elsewhere and Common Field , and has taught at Strelka Institute Moscow, Neon Foundation Athens, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam, Cambridge University, Bauhaus University Weimar, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Institut Hyperwerk Switzerland, and CCA San Francisco.
Retrospective
As we emerge from the pandemic, Newspeak House is looking to the future and how it can survive and thrive for many more years to come. A part of this is seeking constructive criticism from the communities it serves.
We understand that it can feel hard to give direct feedback, even anonymously, but we really hope that you will, as we genuinely wish to learn and improve, as well as adapt to a world that has changed significantly. We will do our best to take heed from any criticisms, wishes and visions that are shared with us.
Scholarships
We’re absolutely awed that some community members have generously stepped forwards to offer scholarships, the first we’ve ever had. Students are now faced with higher living costs than ever before, and our bursary fund was obliterated by the pandemic. This prevents deserving candidates from applying to the course, or being able to focus on their studies.
Newspeak House is still a young, scrappy institution, and it’s a great honour for our work to be recognised in this way. We know that these scholarships will be life-changing to the recipients, and that they will go on to have great impact in their future work. Read on to find out who pledged these scholarships, and also for information on how you can join them. more...
Events
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As part of our research we offer our spaces for civic communities of practice to convene. Since opening in 2015 we have hosted over a thousand events, including lectures, meetups, hackathons, conferences, unconferences, workshops, roundtables, screenings, fundraisers, launches, and exhibitions.
To keep up with the event programme you can subscribe to our event calendar. If you’d like to host an event in our space, you can hire it outright, or if you’re convening a civic community of practice do get in touch ([email protected]) to see if it could fit into our programme.
What's On
Edward Saperia
Each week the college hosts a community dinner called Ration Club. It's open to anyone who'd like to find out more about the college and its work. To find out more or if you'd like to attend, please register.
Register ↗Making the most utility of high summer, we’ll have a vegan barbecue on the terrace, accompanied by mocktails, and a light selection of lightning talks.
A lightning talk is a 5-minute talk. Sign up to give one here: https://forms.gle/7GUX6Fv9pdogTnP6A
We look forward to your ideas. First-time talk-givers welcome! You don’t need to keep the topic strictly within tech or EA, but it should at least be interesting.
Register ↗In only a decade, the labour market has changed beyond all recognition - from zero-hour contracts to platform monopolies - meanwhile union memberships are at historic lows. So how are workers fighting back?
“An insurgent work – challenging and at times uncomfortable. It provides much needed original research into the modern world of work.” Jon Cruddas MP, Author of The Dignity of Labour
From doctors disillusioned with the BMA to crowdworkers organising for the first time, from a VC-backed company building trade union software to the reform of incumbent national labour organisations, former WSJ journalist Lucy Harley-McKeown takes us on a journey to discover how workers are organising in the 21st century.
Edited by Hannah O’Rourke of Labour Together & Edward Saperia of Newspeak House.
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗The official bi-annual London meetup for fans of the popular blog Astral Codex Ten (formerly Slate Star Codex) by American psychiatrist Scott Alexander.
There will be drinks and a barbecue on the terrace, and simultaneously a series of short talks in the auditorium. If you’d be interested in giving a talk, please contact [email protected] or @nwspk.
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗Do you want to work on open source but never find the time? Us too! Join us in an open source hack night. Bring your own projects or choose one of these that we will be working on:
- polis, an application for large scale open ended feedback, built with JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, Clojure.
- decidim, a participatory democracy framework, built with Ruby and Rails.
The plan for this event: Improve the code for one of these applications. Fix a bug or implement a small feature.
Event notes
- Scan through the above projects and their issues and figure out what to work on more specifically.
- This event is for people who feel comfortable coding on their own.
- We are not familiar with these projects! We’ll be figuring it out as we go along with you.
- High quality snacks and drinks as always!
- Attendees are expected to come with their own laptops. We’ll provide AC electricity and wifi.
- Feel free to arrive at any point, most people come around 6:30 to 7:00.
Join online
If you’re interested in contributing but not able to attend, we will also be online in our Discord group. Hope to see some people there as well!
Register ↗