Dr Laura James's writings

Starting with  today’s article by John Naughton about corporations , and the agency they have in our world. He notes, too, the role of founders as leaders, and the trust many people place in them to shape what they create. As well as the big tech founders (Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk), there are the co-founders people look to as ethical guides (such as Mustafa Suleyman at DeepMind); I’m reminded of many conversations where I’ve been told not to worry about DeepMind because Mustafa is amazing and will hold them to do the right thing. It seems a lot of faith to have in one person, and a lot of responsibility and workload (possibly an impossible one) for these leaders to take. Then there are the charismatic founders of new tech initiatives such as RChain, Holochain and Hashgraph, where it seems like any doubts are addressed by blithe statements about the greatness of the founder — often both in terms of technical skill, and good intentions. If you don’t know these people personally tha...

I was in San Francisco this week, for a mix of meetings and the  Partnership on AI ’s annual all partner event, representing Doteveryone. A year ago in Berlin much was made of the importance of balance between industry and civil society voices, with half for-profit and half non-profit representation. This seems to have shifted somewhat, with civil society feeling very much in the minority (although there were plenty of academics present, the scholarly research community is not the same as that representing wider society). Also a useful reminder in one conversation with an industry person that ‘civil society’ isn’t always a useful term — they understood it to mean government and regulators. This trip meant I missed the  ExtinctionRebellion  protests in London,  blocking bridges on the Thames to call for government action on climate change . San Francisco was smoky — to look at, anyway; whatever pollution was in the air wasn’t something you could smell. Also, a ...

A lot more about people than technology at the moment. Carnegie  published a report from Julia Unwin  about kindness and emotions in public policy, which is fascinating in drawing out some of the tensions between efficiency and other public service success measures, and kindness. A good read. It reminded me of Cassie Robinson’s emphasis on generosity, especially in thinking about networks and collaboration. I wanted to come back this week to reflect in more depth on  her post about strengthening and protecting what matters most , but realise I’ve not much to say other than that it’s a different perspective I don’t often encounter. I like the different examples that help bring ideas of the social sector to life, especially as the whole idea of the  social sector  is one which still feels quite new to me. It’s not a concept I came across until recently — I think other circles would talk about a mix of  public sector  and  third sector  w...