Ideas for a Quiet Riots book

Have just written down some thoughts about a book related to a model of change that underpins Quiet Riots.

What do you think?

Ideas for a Quiet Riots book

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An inspired kid to challenge the rules

Love the fact this 12 year old has shown some gumption and been prepared to stick his neck out by wearing a skirt to school in silent protest at a rule not allowing boys at his school to wear shorts when it's hot.  A natural Quiet Rioter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-13362700

Brains on Fire - building movements

A great read over Christmas was "Brains on Fire".  It's about "ingniting powerful, sustainable, word of mouth movements".

Very clear lessons such as "Movements have powerful identities", "Movements are about passion".

Brains on Fire is an agency in the US.  http://www.brainsonfire.com/

And the book is here on Amazon

Drugs policy: legalising them all

Jane Asher was in the Daily Mail yesterday saying that all drugs should be legalised. Read here

Good for her.

We'd cut the criminal ecosystem rapidly, stop locking up so many people in prison, cut the funding to shady groups in Afghanistan, Columbia and every corner of the world.

The prohibition doesn't work.

One day we'll see some sense and changes will happen.

Join the Drugs Quiet Riot to give your support. You can even get more involved and attend a meetup and agree what the Quiet Riots approach should be.

Join here.

Yochai Benkler has some deep insights

Yochai Benkler is a Harvard Law Professor who wrote a book I read 18 months ago called "The Wealth of Networks" that gave real insight into how the world is reconfiguring and everyone can contribute doing small, modular, volunteer tasks. Wikipedia is just the beginning.

The book's quite hard work. His videos on YouTube were just as good.

Here's one of his TED talks but there's others worth a quick look.

Embarrassing but back

This blog was billed as my first foray into blogland two years ago. Now it's just an embarrassment.

Time for it to come to life rather than just die totally.

So some more posts to come.

Am at Seedcamp right now www.seedcamp.com and #SCW09. Good quality panels and startups this year.

highly recommend this book by Eric Beinhocker: The Origin of Wealth

This book came out in the summer and I re-read it over Christmas.

Have posted a review on Amazon as below and should be up live here on Amazon by now. Should declare that I know the author but I'd think it was great whether I knew him or not.


Highly recommended if you work in business, economics or politics, 2 Jan 2007
Reviewer:
R. S. Darling (London, UK)

This book is well worth a read if you're interested in business, economics or politics. I've found myself turning back to re-read chapters over the past few months it's given so much food for thought.

Complexity theory sounds scary. Eric Beinhocker shows that it isn't. He shows how simple and incredibly powerful it is as a way to explain what we see in the real world every day.

The business reader gets an utterly compelling insight into why innovation in big businesses is so hard to pull off. I found myself having 'aha' moments about why innovation at the companies I've worked at is such a challenge. It also led me to think about why Google's seemingly chaotic strategy might just work and to build my own understanding about why services like YouTube and Skype are hard to predict but huge when they happen.

Readers interested in economics see that complexity theory provides the economics profession with a way of explaining the economy without requiring theoretical modelling assumptions that don't reflect reality. I studied economics at Cambridge University several years ago and finally can see an economic theory that more closely reflects the whole story.

And for those interested in politics, Eric Beinhocker shows why Left and Right ultimately is not the best theoretical foundation for explaining how to improve things. Complexity theory provides politicians with a framework that starts with cooperation (Left) and competition (Right) co-existing and builds its policies with both present.

One final prediction: this book will continue to grow in popularity. The world is complex. This book thoroughly stimulates the mind.

QuietRiots wants to do something about this

In today's Evening Standard was the news that Janet Street-Porter's sister had died including a moving diary of her last days.

The diary recounts the problems she faced at the hands of the NHS in the last month. It's exactly these sort of experiences that can surely be helped by people using the web and social networking to catalyse change faster?

Some quotes from her diary before she died this weekend:

• Monday 13 November
  The district nurse came and said she would get a doctor from the hospital to visit as I told her I was very worried about my swollen legs, my sore mouth - it's been four days and still no one has brought the cream for my lips and so I can hardly eat - and, most importantly, the amount of medication I am taking. It is TWO WEEKS since a doctor saw me.
• Tuesday 14 November
  A specialist nurse called from the hospital to say she'd had a chat with my oncologist and that "radiotherapy was now an option again". Problem is, I haven't seen my oncologist for ages, and no-one seems to be in charge of me. It's just a succession of departments and people calling all day with no coordination whatsoever. I want to have radiotherapy, in a couple of weeks, but should I book it now in case I lose my slot?
• Wednesday 15 November
  Up all night with pain. Crying and want to go in a nursing home to die because I cannot put my husband through all this. The anti-coagulation unit came and took a blood test to determine whether I should take warfarin or not. But my GP still hasn't materialised. My sister had given me a newspaper article about buying lung cancer drugs from Canada on the internet. I don't feel as if anyone in the NHS is really in charge of my case. It's all up to me, Janet and Mick.

This powerlessness that people feel can surely be harnessed via the internet and the principles of social networking to get change to happen.

Change requires some vision of how things can be better as well as a group of people to get behind that. With QuietRiots (a domain name I registered but haven't really done anything with), I always imagined HealthRiots, EducationRiots, EnvironmentRiots where they were all QuietRiots by building a vision of an alternative approach and building a lobbying approach to get to that vision that's much more active than most lobbying groups. It has a paying membership, milestones for change and is a broad church of participants from all those impacted and excludes as few as possible. QuietRiots would be a hub for change and an approach that's tailored to different causes.

I buried this idea five years ago because I couldn't see how it could ever get traction. In those days, I was thinking about text messaging as a vehicle to harness what was new. But it was too limited. Now, with everyone having broadband and the rise of social networking, it's a lot more credible to believe big things are possible. QuietRiots can develop a platform and approach to catalysing change and transforming things in many arenas.

More to follow.

ratemyteachers.com and the law

Having personal comments left about you on the web can't be a very nice thing.

However, if you're a teacher or a doctor or anyone in business, is it fair game for your customers (students, patients, staff) to say what they think of you?

I'm looking into ways the web can create more energy for change in education and health and other areas where it seems there isn't enough energy at the moment.

This weekend I read on the BBC news website about something that is already working along these lines. www.ratemyteachers.com is fascinating (www.ratemyteachers.co.uk). It's been around in the US for the past five years and has ratings on nearly 100,000 UK teachers. It's a mystery to me how they manage to do it in the UK given our libel laws and the responsibility a website has for publishing content. In the US the law is different where you have a right to say anything anonymously and a web publisher is not liable. (http://www.ratemyteachers.com/info.php?type=Legal)

What I love about this site is the fact that it gives greater transparency to what people think of teachers (both students and parents). From reading the comments boards (http://www.ratemyteachers.com/usercomments.php), lots of teachers hate this site and believe it allow irresponsible students to say what they like.

Easy to see why this is the case but what about the 'wisdom of crowds'? If there's enough people commenting you get a pretty good idea as a reader of the pros and cons of someone.

The benefits outweigh the costs in my book. By enabling this degree of dialogue about people, those that are not good have far greater energy to sort it out and do something about it rather than languishing behind a veil of protection.

The guy behind RateMyTeacher expresses exactly the same sentiment.

recent sightings...

Of interest to me at least this week:

Techcrunch is a great daily blog on web startups. It's incredible how much innovation is underway. www.techcrunchuk.com and www.techcrunch.com. I get their daily email.

www.mmmzr.com. Will it take off like Million Dollar Homepage? It just might.

Moo www.moocards.com - the cards really are very cute with a separate photo on the back of every one. I saw some last week. Incredibly they've shipped more than half a million cards in less than a month to more than 70 countries.

This leads to the thought that businesses will have spectacular hits faster than ever in this connected world. YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, Skype are all examples of this recently. There's going to be more. A lot more. And it won't just be businesses. It'll start happening in politics, art, all aspects of life.

I went to the Battle of Ideas on Sunday at the Royal College of Art. Heard debates on citizen journalism and the impact of films changing the world. Can't help thinking that there's a lot more change to come now that the web gives access to a global audience whoever you are. You're not reliant on the gatekeepers in movie studios and newspaper editors.

Getting the hang of this blogging thing

I recommend it. If you're not already blogging, do it. I'm clearly behind the times by only getting it now. Definitely been working too hard at eBay. Every time I start playing with the blog the more I get excited about the possibilities for really getting things moving via a blog and building a community of like minded people.

Also have been playing with bells and whistles to add to it to make it more effective. I've added www.feedburner.com to enable people to subscribe and have it as a news feed (someone might) and it provides great stats packages on where viewers are coming from.

Next is adding video and visual content.

Impressed by Conservative Party Conference fringe event topics

Whether you love them or loath them, political parties are a key part of the mix in changing things.

The Tory Party conference has many fringe events. (I once went to the Labour Party and Conservative Party conferences in consecutive weeks to see what they were like. That's a whole other conversation but was impressed by the fringe in terms of intellectual energy and ability to hear lead players speak close up on matters).

To me, the topics below seem like pretty fundamental questions covered by the fringe events organised by Reform: www.reform.co.uk. I'm not going but I'd love to find out how radical the thinking is.

• “Successful education reform: creating the classroom of tomorrow”
  3 October, 12.30pm, Marriott Highcliff Hotel, Purbeck Suite
  David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education & Skills
• “How do we pay for a reformed NHS?”
  Monday 2 October, 8am, Marriott Highcliff Hotel, Marquee 1
  Andrew Lansley MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Health
• “Beyond economic stability: reviving Britain’s enterprise culture”
  2 October, 6pm, Royal Bath Hotel, Gladstone Suite
  George Osborne MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
• “A new approach to criminal justice reform”
  3 October, 8am, Marriott Highcliff Hotel, Marquee 1
  Rt Hon David Davis MP, Shadow Home Secretary

Inspiring innovation in education reported today

Many won't agree with kids sitting at home on their computer all day attending 'virtual school' but I read about a new virtual school in the UK today and was inspired.

More can be read on the BBC web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5382994.stm

In essence it's using technology to deliver a classroom curriculum but obviously with some good bits of school (social interaction) and bad bits (bullying) omitted.

What's inspiring is the fact that this innovation has happened. Hats off to the people who have got this going. How much more innovation would there be in education if all parents could choose to spend their education money whichever way they chose? Some would love this 'virtual classroom' approach and money would develop it further.

Children are different and so much of the schooling system is one size fits all. Hence, truancy rates are at their highest levels (one of the reasons) and so many parents feel forced to push their kids to get great grades when they know instinctively there's more to learn in life than this.

Changing things without being elected politicians

Don't you think the education system is a bit broken? Why do children spend hours being slaves to exam results when this is only a part of what matters in education?

It matters how well you get on with other people. Are you good at taking initiative? Are you self-confident and keep going when you have some knocks? How do you cope with failure? This is what education should provide as much as any academic excellence.

Given the system is broken at present. There's too little innovation. Every school should be competing with each other over how innovative they are in their teaching methods. This can't happen under the current education system dictated from the centre.

Whether we like it or not the education system needs blowing up. A strong term that can be misunderstood. What it means is that the system needs a radical overhaul. Should government be a provider of education services or simply something that pays the bills? I vote for the latter. Allow the private sector in all its forms to provide the services. Allow competition. Unshackle schools from regulation and too many standards. Put parents and teachers in charge.

I'm interested in seeing how much change can be initiated without entering conventional politics. How much can be done building coalitions on the web? How much can be done without too much antagonism? How much can be done innovating in the way we engage people?

I'm interested in seeing. If you are, please drop me a line. It would buoy me on to do more which I'd like. And please critique this view.

Over and out. Off to cook supper.

there's another Simon Darling

I know there's at least one other Simon Darling out there. When I was 10 years old, he was 10 years old. I know because I was watching SwapShop one Saturday morning and saw him. He was talking to Keith Chegwin trying to Swap something.

Today I found a Simon Darling on the web who might be him. If it is, it's funny where he's ended up. An actor with a funky look: http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/showpeople/feature.php/12341/simon-darling

Not quite regular yet

I set up this Blog to try out Blogger and see if I found the time to write stuff. So far I haven't.

Am writing this because I bumped into Shervin Moghaddam today who said that he'd been checking the blog but hadn't seen anything posted at all. Quite right Sherv. Haven't done a thing.

So, just testing that you're still looking Sherv. If you are, reply to this with a Comment.

Hello other readers of this. Tell me who you are and I can then figure out who I'm writing for.

Have you ever thought Westminster looks out of date?

There's something wrong with the way politics works in this country (and most others if not all).

It's a form of representational democracy with methods that were built in an era pre-dating TV let alone the internet.

MPs braying at each other in Westminster seems sooooooooooooooooo out of date and ineffective.

David Cameron thinks he's got a smooth ride to Number 10. He might have but I would lay bets on the fact that in the next 10 years (and possibly 5) there's going to be some new political movements and figure heads emerge. They will be enabled by the new technology and will rewrite the rules of engagement.

MySpace is the clearest sign of a generation that expects to do something different. They're the Netscape Generation who can't remember anything at all pre-Internet. This generation are now voters and innovators. What will they produce? Certainly something that will give him a run for his money.