Rebooting Britain

June 17th, 2009

A call to arms has sounded – that hails you and I to be participants, as Woodrow Wilson wrote

The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of free people.

That’s us then!! Reboot Britain shouts from the rooftops – let me paraphrase – We must become the change we want to be.

An extraordinary one-day event which will take a totally different look at the challenges we face as a country and the new possibilities that – uniquely – this generation has to overcome them.

We face an unprecedented set of challenges: a decimated economy, ever increasing demands on our public services and trust in our political system at an all time low.

But instead of more pessimism, how can we begin to punch through the gloom and take advantage of the radically networked digital world we now live in to help revive our economy, rebuild our democratic structures and improve public services?

I am included in an impressive speakers lineup [list below]

Martha Lane-Fox | entrepreneur and campaigner | twitter

Gillian Tett | Assistant Editor, FT

Howard Rheingold | Technology guru | twitter

Sir Michael Bichard | Director, Institute of Government

Jon Gisby | New Media Director, Channel 4

Craig Newmark | Customer service rep and founder, craigslist | twitter

Alan Moore | Media and Communications | twitter

Paul Miller | CEO, School of Everything | twitter

Lee Bryant | Director, Headshift | twitter

Andy Hobsbawm | Co-founder, Green Thing & Agency.com[block]25[/block]

Daniel Heaf | Digital commissioner, 4iP | twitter

Included in this very innovative and interactive event are possibilities for you to engage with these far ranging topics

Demos who present their Progressive Conservatism thinking which will look at the major challenges we face for public services,

Reboot SICamp and PICamp [health and politics]

WeBank Given the failure of traditional banks and financial instruments, are peer-to-peer platforms the answer or just a fleeting phenomenon?

Jeff Saperstein presents ‘Busting Open Silos,’ his view on how our organisations need to restructure in order to adapt and grow

For the People, By the People Two sessions from UK Online exploring what users of public services actually say.

Innovation Live wants you! Join the collective mindpool at Reboot Britain for a live brainstorming session to develop practical solutions out of the content of the day.

Social by Social will challenge you on how to make social technologies work for local neighbourhoods

Learning Without Frontiers slate a number of sessions, from how technology is changing cognitive development, to redesigning our schools for the new age.

In the project I am currently developing [No Straight Lines] I write,

As I continued to research the evolution of the media and the commercial communication environment. I had a dawning realisation that what I was witnessing was something deeper, more profound, more epochal, more revolutionary.

It is in fact a communications revolution. And once you have stormed the Bastille you don’t go back to your day job, just ask anyone; Robspierre, Lenin, Che, take your pick. Why was this happening? What were the deep social undercurrents driving this revolution that is as big, if not bigger, than Gutenberg inventing moveable type?

And as Jamais Cascio explained to me; technology can be wielded as a powerful agent of social and political change, as it is indeed being wielded today with great force and ferocity. We seem to have arrived at a crossroads, faultlines run through every aspect of our society – this makes me fearful that few truly understand the underlying reasons of what is happening now, nor the implications of what happens next.

So I want you, Reboot Britain wants you [sign up here] – we need each other, as Jung wrote

“I”
needs “We” to truly be
“I”

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