Background to the Uploading...Series

Uploading...is a new series of monthly themed ‘social conferences' being launched by Policy Unplugged in London in February.

The Uploading...Series will explore the impact of the mass networking and collaboration taking place on the on Web and what it might mean for how we conduct business, politics, culture, work and education in the future.

From You Tube to My Space, Wikipedia to e Bay, we are witnessing a level of collaboration between people across the globe that is completely unprecedented.

The evolution of a Web shaped by the creativity, collaboration and conversations of hundreds of millions of us, is starting to have a profound impact on society, the economy and on our relationships with other people.

• But in the words of William Gibson it sometimes feels that - for all the buzz around the networking potential of the Web - ‘the future is here. It is just not evenly distributed yet'
• Are we really seeing the end of business models based on hierarchy, planning and management and pure competition?
• To what extent can the networking potential of the Web be harnessed to address the defining challenges of the 21st century?
• Is the Web really able to harness collective intelligence in a way that can generate real societal benefits?
• For sure the early tremors are being felt in the telecoms, software and print media worlds, but where will the riptide hit next?

The Uploading... Series of events will deliberately focus more on participatory culture and less on the technology that has created it.

The series seeks to invite not only technologists but people who have a passion for change, creativity, experimentation, discovery and collaboration. People who are more interested in the benefits of the behaviours and culture that technology can enable rather than tools and applications.

At each of the uploading events, we will be connecting people who understand how the new technologies can be used to generate change with people who are passionate change makers wanting to make change happen faster.

‘We are the Web'...The Opportunity

"In the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, or code a program. This idea is less outrageous than the notion 150 years ago that someday everyone would write a letter or take a photograph" - Kevin Kelly, Wired 13.08

Just over ten years ago the way we used the internet was transformed with the launch of the Netscape browser which illuminated the Web. It unleashed a new global cultural phenomenon based on mass collaboration.

As Kevin Kelly has observed ‘there is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one big Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born. You and I are alive at this moment. We should marvel...'

Today there are over 700 billion web pages (over 100 for every living person), around 50 million auctions taking place on eBay at any one time, over 175,000 new blogs? a day being set up, over 150 million people joining online social networks such as My Space, millions everyday are uploading photos to Flickr, videos to You Tube, making free calls via the internet and contributing to the worlds largest ever reference work Wikipedia.

The scale is of what is happening is something that the world has never seen before. Who had the time, the energy and the imagination to do all this? The people do. People like you and me and a billion others.

Uploading...The Future of Work

The Uploading series will be launched with our kick-off event, Uploading...Innovation, in London on 27 February at NESTA. This event will set the context and seed the ideas for the subsequent Uploading...Events.

Uploading...The Future of Work, taking place on 3 April, will be our first event in the uploading series that will explore the impact of the growth of social networks, collective intelligence and participatory culture generated by the Web on a specific societal theme. See here to learn more about the event.

This facilitated open space event will set the context for the remainder of the events in 2007.

Uploading...Events Overview

The Uploading... events will focus on the following themes:

• February Uploading... Innovation (the Launch Event)
• April Uploading... The Future of work
• April Uploading ...Education
• May Uploading... Democracy
• June Uploading... The New Entrepreneur
• July Uploading... Arts, Media, Culture
  

Each event will convene an eclectic community of early adopters of the technologies, aspirant users, politicians and policy makers, relevant practitioners', academics, writers, researchers, developers, marketing and communications professionals and others with a passion for the subject.

We expect to attract between 150 and 250 people to each event. The events will typically last all day. Some will run overnight and at weekends. The events will take place in London.

Policy Unplugged events work best for those who ‘prefer to make sense of a complex world through little stories rather than grand narratives'