Category Archives: Information

The iron law of business-as-usual: What is it and can we escape it?

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

Here’s a presentation to the annual Communities in Control conference run by the amazing outfit Our Community established in the 1990s by Denis Moriarty who had previously been a Deputy Secretary in the Victorian bureaucracy. It is as it were, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics and public policy, Information, Isegoria | 4 Comments

How others are organising the Covistance: ideas for those who want to help.

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Paul Frijters

How are we going to escape the authoritarian nightmare and regain our liberties and zest for life? This long read is written for organisers of new Covistance initiatives, explaining the logic of what others have done and what could further … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Death and taxes, Democracy, Geeky Musings, Health, Information, IT and Internet, Journalism, Law, Libertarian Musings, Media, Parenting, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science | 17 Comments

Covid and the lessons of the Dreyfus affair

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Paul Frijters

One can tell many stories of how current times resemble some earlier historical period. The conflict between nationalism and internationalism, as personified by the controversies surrounding Brexit and Trump, has been seen as somewhat of a re-run of the conflict … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Education, Films and TV, History, Humour, Information, Life, Social | 94 Comments

Evaluation is not a thing

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

An earlier version of this piece was published last week on the Mandarin. Because the idea I have called “the Evaluator General” is several ideas knitted together to try to resolve a number of dilemmas, it comes with numerous implications … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Information, Innovation | 1 Comment

Info-philanthropy: a small cost for a big benefit

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

As part of the Government 2.0 Taskforce in 2009 I coined the term ‘info-philanthropy’ though someone may have coined it before me and the Taskforce proposed that it qualify as a head of philanthropy. I don’t think any changes have been … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Information, Web and Government 2.0 | 5 Comments

Defending independence in the age of deep spin

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

pic.twitter.com/QhTWvcY4Ke — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2020 If you know anything about the latest State of the Union Address, you know that after Donald Trump had handed Nancy Pelosi his speech as if she were his secretary when … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Democracy, Information, IT and Internet, Media, Sortition and citizens’ juries | 4 Comments

A recent presentation on ‘Making an impact’

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Nicholas Gruen

Here’s a presentation I gave to a recent Government Economists’ Conference in Canberra. Like some other reflections of my book launching years (only some of which have been preserved for posterity),1 it tries to describe how I go about thinking about economics. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Information, Philosophy | 2 Comments