The choices we make today shape our world tomorrow.
Author mpescePosted on Do we have surrender our hopes for utopia, or can we learn from others who found the levers to move our world to a better place? Together, are we strong enough to use these tools to change our course?
Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Scully’s new book Glimpses of Utopia: Real Ideas for a Fairer World covers far more ground then we could in our interview – it’s well worth a read!
We were also lucky to hear from Dr. Darren Sharp of the Sustainable Development Institute at Monash University.
Author mpescePosted on Social media created a new openness in political discourse – for a brief moment. How can governments, social media and democracy co-exist?
These are hard questions – ones that Micah Sifry has spent years working to answer. As co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, he’s gathered together the best minds (and best politicians) working across the intersection of politics and social technologies to help map and shape the future of the civic sphere.
Author mpescePosted on NYU Journalism professor Jay Rosen opens a window onto a world where the next billion seconds of journalism grows from a foundation of trust and relationships.
Jay writes and teaches extensively on journalism and it’s future. Here’s an essay “Optimising Journalism for Trust” about the Dutch publication De Correspondent that Jay refers to in our interview as one future for journalism.
Jay takes a deeper look at De Correspondent in “This is what a News Organisation built on Reader Trust Looks Like“.
(apologies for the rough sound quality in this episode – we recorded it remotely from Jay’s office in Berlin where he’s working with German journalists.)
Jay writes extensively at pressthink.org – have a look at what he’s thinking now.
The granddaddy of all alternative newspapers, the Village Voice closed down after 63 years in operation. Read all about it.
This is not great news, as Bloomberg reports: “Local News is Dying and It’s Taking Small Town America With It” — because without local news there can be no local politics.
From the Columbia Journalism Review – “A Civil Primer: The Benefits and Pitfalls of a New Media Ecosystem“.
Here’s a recent interview with De Correspondent CEO Ernst-Jan Pfauth
Author mpescePosted on 
For two and a half thousand years, cities and politicians have grown together. The city gives politicians a platform, a stage – and a demanding public. Always economic powerhouses, our cities also hold the key to an urban future where city-states like Singapore rise in prominence.
We talk to Sydney City Councillor Jess Scully about how best to grow a ‘world city’ like Sydney over the next billion seconds – and what it means to have a political career in a time when every citizen has social media to amplify their voice, their beliefs – and their anger.
The future is here – and it’s local. In this clip, Jess talks about the importance of Sydney to Australia’s economy:
In our interview, Jess mentions the DECODE Project – designed to give people rights over the data collected about them. Read about DECODE here.
The City of Sydney wants to increase the housing supply – and this article explains why that’s more difficult than it might appear.
Solar power cost $100 per kilowatt hour when energy futurist Ramez Naam entered the world. Last year, the UAE signed a 20-year contract for solar power at a four thousandth the cost. For Ramez Naam it’s no longer a question of if renewables, it’s a matter of when: the data proves it. Energy has been mixed with politics from the beginning – so over the next billion seconds, how do we talk ourselves out of our coal culture and into a sustainable future? Ramez Naam makes a convincing case for a future where we profit from the sun.
Here’s an excerpt:
There are some amazing things happening in the renewable energy space, as shown in this chart about a typical week of energy generation in South Australia:
Ramez gives a lot of talks about energy futures, here’s a recent one given in South Africa – a nation with some energy problems…
Ramez has also written a series of blog posts on the energy future – the first is linked here.
Finally, here’s that infamous photo of Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison, on the day they passed a lump of coal around in Parliament:
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