February 2008 News
Is migration from Poland reaching a tipping point?
Globalisation has led to increased levels of population movement around the world. In Britain, levels of migration were the highest in history due to rapid migration from the new Eastern European EU member states. However, a report released by the Times last week has revealed that for the first time since they began arriving four years ago, more UK-based Poles are returning to Poland than entering Britain. Is the trend of EU migration into the UK going into reverse? The reasons contributing...
Making new connections online
2007 was a big year for 'social networking': facebook and similar sites were rarely out of the news. I spent an enormous amount of time thinking about it, as I was also writing the second of our ICT Foresight reports - 'how online communities can make the net work for the VCS' and from anecdotal evidence it appears that the sector is beginning to get to grips with the potential of online communities, both 'bounded' groups (eg forums that people log-in to join) and the more flexible networks...
The impact of migration on the VCS - Third Sector Foresight seminar
How will migration affect your organisation and how should you respond?
This will be the next topic in our popular series of seminars. Read on to book your free place at the seminar on 8 April, from 2.30 to 5pm at NCVO's offices in London.
What's happening?
There has been a marked increase in immigration to Britain since the mid-1990s. In particular, some of this migration has been in areas that have not previously experienced high levels of migration. This has inevitably resulted in a...
Networking with government's future analysts
My Tuesday morning was spent in the Westminster village at a meeting of the FAN Club, otherwise known as the Future Analysts Network. The participants were largely civil servants but the discussions on how to think about the future were very relevant.
Annabel Turpie from the Strategy Unit took us through the findings of Realising Britain's Potential: Future Strategic Challenges for Britain, which was published last week. This provides a wealth of useful data for considering drivers and their...
Postcards from the music industry
So what exactly does, you are already thinking, the music industry have to do with the voluntary and community sector? Well aside from the obvious that many VCOs are in the business of making or performing music, the recorded music industry is going through the sort of structural changes that seem to be relevant for our sector. Let me explain.
Record companies have traditionally generated revenue from selling content generated by a roster of artists contracted to them. This intellectual...
London Futures Symposium - Friday April 18th 2008
London Futures Symposium - Friday April 18th 2008
The Keyworth Centre, London South Bank University
The European Futures Observatory are organising a Futures Symposium for futurists of all sectors. This day long event is fully interactive and will consist of a mixture of presentations, group discussion and networking, ending the day with an ‘open mike’ session. This day is aimed at those with an understanding of futures methodology and forecasting. We will be attending the event and feeding...
Where next for ICT Foresight?
Since 2005 we have been thinking about the impact of new technologies on the sector under the umbrella of a project called ICT Foresight (funded initially by the Vodafone UK Foundation and more recently by the ICT Hub). In doing so we've had lots of fantastic discussions with forward thinking people from inside and out of our sector, published 3 reports (with one more on the way) and ran a fascinating seminar.
But ICT Foresight is coming to an end, so a few weeks ago Karl and I went to...
Take the new NCVO Charity Forecast survey
NCVO is inviting voluntary sector leaders to give their views on the health and prospects of their organisations in its new confidence and trends survey. This quarterly survey questions sector leaders on current trends and future expectations. Follow the link below to take the test.
The survey
The survey aims to determine how optimistic they feel about the sector and what development plans they have for the coming quarter. The survey results will be used to make predictions about changes...
The impact of new technologies on the VCS - free seminar report
The seminar report from the last Third Sector Foresight seminar on the impact of new technologies on the VCS is now available to download. The seminar explored the implications of new technologies for the VCS, focusing on the key areas of: fundraising; membership; accountability; campaigning; and collaboration. The report is based on presentations by five ‘experts’ in the area of new technologies, and the discussion they stimulated amongst seminar attendees:
- Steve Bridger, nfp2.0 –...
Diversity and foundations
One of the frequent comments I tend to make on the site is that some of the developments in the US nonprofit sector might be indicative of what the future looks like in the UK. An emerging argument about diversity and foundations is one such example.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported that the Californian state assembly has passed a proposal (its not yet been agreed by the Senate) to force the largest nonprofit foundations to disclose the composition of their workforce and...
