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Why brands shoudn't get lost in the Twitter storm
11 November, Digital Thought Leader column Netimperative.com

Social media is more about creating loyalty than new ideas
21 October, Digital Thought Leader column Netimperative.com

Powerful Connections
Available as PDFs to download: page one (2mg), page two (2mg)
19 October 2009, The Big Issue
The rise of ‘virtual communities’ has changed the face of politics. But are MPs genuine about online engagement – or is it just more spin?

A transparent attempt at social engineering
10 September 2009, spiked
The initiative to re-design pub glasses to stop them being used as weapons overhypes the problem and the solution.

Digital Britain: welcome to the slow lane
25 June, spiked Review of Books
The UK government’s report on the future of the internet and the creative industries replaces the freedom to innovate with an overwhelming impulse to regulate everything.

Speech: Beyond the Crisis: Debating the role of innovation

2 March, Hub Kings Cross, London

With a few others I presented a 'stump speech' on what I think are the major barriers to innovation. As reported, I said “we are in the middle of a 'cult of managerialism'”: companies, politics and our culture has become fixated by KPIs, ROI, evidence-based policy and a never-ending game of measuring everything to death. On one level it is therapeutic. For example, many internal managers now rely on performance indicators and "digital dashboards that tempt you to keep things as they are". They flicker with activity that signal that everything is working and is ok. But they also stultify genuine innovative and creative problem solving when it becomes too risky to change things and upset the apple cart.

Reviews of Future of Community book
"In the absence of the now-defunct forms of interaction between state and citizen, we’re seeing a tendency to more authoritarian solutions. Unless this controlling impulse can be opposed, it may well represent the future of community."

Reviews from Rob Lyons in spiked Review of Books and Lee Jones in CultureWars.

Quoted in: Not all designers are happy about the British Standard draft on Web design

‘Nudging’: the very antithesis of choice
19 December 2008, spiked Review of Books (Republished on Future Cities Project)
‘Libertarian paternalism’ represents a retreat from political debate, and the rise of a base psychological agenda that wants to make us conform on green, health and lifestyle issues.

11 December 2008, Design Week

My unedited comment responding to the new Accessibility British Standard draft (published version has little context):

"The draft standard on accessibility reminds businesses and their designers of their legal responsibilities. However its preaching tone, informing clients of the apparently untapped disabled market misses the mark—and for many doesn’t add up. Ever since the original 1995 Disability Discrimination Act stated to the providers of goods and services their legal obligations, many have happily used accessibility as a means to promote their Corporate Social Responsibility credibility.

However it is questionable whether disabled people have fully benefited from those paying lip-service to their needs as many websites continue to be hit-and-miss affairs. In fact an important and unintended consequence of an accessibility standard may well lessen the need to invest in researching and developing new technical and scientific innovations that might actually benefit everyone, transforming people's interaction with digital content. By all means promote accessibility—just don’t forget about the impact of bionic eye implants, robo-skeletons, touch interfaces, voice recognition and many more advances that are just around the corner. But only if we argue for them."

Article: This is no time to call the 'design police'

5 December 2008, spiked (Republished on British Design Innovation)

By reorganising our lives around suspicion and the fear of crime, design can leave us feeling insecure - and less free.

Debate: A Brave New World? Are the emerging economies the new technological innovators?

2 November 2008, Battle of Ideas festival, London.

Link to the full recording on Flora.tv's website

Speakers were Norman Lewis of Wireless Grids Corporation Parminder Bahra, executive editor of Times Online; Dinah McLeod, head of sustainability practice of BT Global Services.

The rise and rise of 'anti-design'

21 August, spiked

Designers who focus on producing only meek and sustainable things are denying their own creativity and impact on the world.

Responses include the Graphic Design USA's weekly newsletter leading on it saying I raise 'a tough and prickly question wth power and style. His argument deserves an airing and debate, even if it goes against the flow. Not that I don't feel just a little guilty for bringing it up.' Elsewhere, it was included on the US design site Core77, the über Design Observer, UK's digital marketing news NetImperative and dynamo london's i-design 08 conference.

Quoted in: 2012 Olympic logo 18 months on

13 October, The Independent newspaper

Appear alongside brand guru Stephen Bayley and designer Adrian Shaughnessy
"The 2012 Olympic logo has failed to capture our imaginations no matter how many colours they print it in, including putting the Union Jack inside it. Its socially inclusive 'yoof' asethetic only reflects a flagging sense of Britishness than a truly Olympian, universal spirit. Redraw it now - or it will become a worldwide joke."

The best foundation for the web: open debate

23 September, spiked

Tim Berners-Lee's new group aims for a 'free and open' web, but the idea of 'rating' content would close down discussion.

Book review: Organised defeat?

12 September, Culture Wars

My review of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky arguing that until we become less fascinated with group behaviour and let genuine purpose and content rise to the surface, the tools will continue to do all the talking.

Book review: Changing the meaning of 'change'

29 August, spiked review of books

Charles Leadbeater tries to convince a sceptical Martyn Perks about the positive powers of 'we think' and how unleashing the creative potential of ambitious individuals could potentially overhaul society.

Censorship online: who needs evidence?

5 August, spiked

A new UK parliamentary report says the internet must be regulated to protect children - even though there’s no proof they are being harmed.

Letter: Designer-thinking alone will fail to tackle crime

31 July, Design Week

My response to this article that proposes designers together with UK Government can play a far wider role in tackling crime.

Hands off our internet connections

30 July, spiked

The UK government is demanding that service providers punish users who share files illegally. That's a threat to everyone's freedom.

Comment: Creativity versus Counting

12 June, Netimperative

Is the digital industry becoming too dependent on using web analytics to asses customer behaviour? Collecting too much data can cloud decision-making, even causing complacency when bolder decisions need to be made.

Can design cut crime?

22 May, spiked

Government attempts to ‘design out’ crime by sticking anti-theft, noise-emitting devices around the country will make us feel less secure. Update Read Lorraine Gamman, director of the Design Against Crime Centre's vitriolic response, also on spiked. Wonder if I touched a raw nerve?

Winners and losers in a troubled economy

10 March, The Telegraph Business Club [Registration required], Director of Finance online & iMedia Connection

Trendy online gadgets are no substitute for genuine innovation in products and services.

Why we should swat The Mosquito

13 Feburary 2008, spiked

The launch of the Buzz Off campaign to rid Britain’s streets of a screeching ‘anti-youth gadget’ should be welcomed - and built on.
Are marketers hiding behind UGC?

18 December 2007, netimperative

Does our infatuation with user-generated content betray a lack of creativity and conviction within the marketing industry?

Tracing the history of Helvetica

28 November 2007, spiked

A film about a font?! Yes, and it's gripping, too, showing how a sleek typeface has encouraged good design and helped to shape big ideas.

Debate: World Usability Day London - Positive Experiences in Healthcare

8 November 2007, London

Organised by design agency LBi and the Usability Professionals Association

Spoke on panel entitled Openness of information and communities in Healthcare discussing ways in which the internet offers opportunities for sharing information to inform the public, and to enable experiences to be shared and learned from within the NHS. Other speakers included Sir Muir Gray (Director of Clinical Knowledge for NHS), Julie Howell (Director of Accessibility at digital design agency Fortune Cookie and Founder of Jooly’s Joint, a Multiple Sclerosis community), Pete Gale (Head of User Experience at Cogapp)

Designing behaviour

28 October 2007, Battle of Ideas festival, RCA, London

Produced and spoke on a debate on why many now argue that design has a duty to promote wellbeing, responsible behaviour, and to make people think rather than just consume. Issues include health awareness and rebuilding community to reducing consumption and global warming. Speakers were Molly Webb, business engagement manager, the Climate Change group and Professor Anthony Dunne, head of RCA's Design Interactions. The debate was chaired by Austin Williams, director of the Future Cities Project.

Debate: Design in Denial

1 October 2007, Design Museum, London (Produced & chaired event) Sell out capacity!

Why do few designers, if any, defend design for its own sake? Instead, many argue that design only has worth once it contributes toward social renewal, regeneration, the environent, sustainability and so on. But doesn't this mean that design as a result will suffer? Speakers were Martin Brown (Wolf Olins), Jonathan Barnbrook (UK's foremost political designer), Clive Grinyer (director of design Orange France Telecom), Tom Dunmore (editor of Stuff magazine) and Austin Williams (director of Future Cities Project). Part of the Battle of Ideas 2007 festival.

Comment: Design in denial

November 2007, Blueprint Issue 260

Design is about more than being sustainable or socially responsible--and its time to defend design for its own sake. Afraid only available in print

Don't curb design enthusiasm

26 September 2007, the Guardian's arts&entertainment blog

The idea of sustainable design is an oxymoron. Design is about exploring limits, not about imposing them.

Online TV: Claire Fox News on Design

24 September 2007, 18 Doughty Street online Talk TV

Appeared as a guest to discuss design in Britain, including business, social engineering, green issues and innovation. The panel consisted of Angus Kennedy, IT Consultant, Nico MacDonald, Consultant and Author in the media sector and Vicky Richardson, Editor of Blueprint magazine. Hosted and presented by Claire Fox, Director of the Battle of Ideas festival.
Debate: What do you think you're doing?

21 September 2007, Design Museum, London (Part of London Design Festival)

Was asked by Jonathan Barnbrook (currently exhibting his one-man retrospective Friendly Fire at the Design Museum) to chair this debate. It examined the role of ethics in design and how designers should respond. Speakers were Jonathan Barnbrook, Adrian shaughnessy - design commentator, author of How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul and Teal Triggs - Professor of Graphic Design and Head of Research, School of Graphic Design, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

Talk: The confessions of a social networker

3 September 2007, Barclays Global Investors, London

Gave a talk, as part of their Inspirational Speakers season on the opportunities and perils of online social networking. Federica Squadrilli Carr, Web Manager at BGI said my talk was 'very interesting, informative, lively and thought-provoking... you were very engaging.'

See all my writing and events.