London as a #networkedcity gains support at first event. Now here's the plan

We had a terrific meeting at Newspeak House earlier this week, which I trailed as the launch of the London Networked City exploration. I wrote previously:

The exploration we are launching tomorrow, with the London Council for Voluntary Action, aims to complement a much bigger exercise by London funders, LVSC and Greater London Volunteering.

That initiative, called The Way Ahead, was prompted in part by the fact that traditional ways of doing good through charities, voluntary organisations and community groups face funding cuts by public bodies, who now focus on contracting.

In addition the future of organisations like LVSC and GVA is in doubt. Fresh thinking is needed on the way that the whole system operates, from individual citizens working with others to improve neighbourhoods and support each other, to borough-level councils for voluntary service, and London-wide networks of interests and support.

The next steps for Networked City are to plan further events on January 31 and February 22, develop task groups around specific topics, and set up a blog and wiki and other tools.

I'll post more shortly, including signup details for the January 31 event.

Updates

Here is the background paper we circulated for the event. It explains the relationship to The Way Ahead initiative in more detail, offers some models for thinking about civil society, and describes how we'll use the fictional but realistic London borough of Slipham as a testbed for new ideas.

In the last post I pondered #networkedcity or #goodforlondon ... and on reflection #networkedcity wins out for now. We do of course think it will be really good...

Thanks to Matt Scott who led the way on Wednesday, and everyone else who contributed so much energy. We'll be in touch more directly as well.

For other information please drop a comment here, email david@socialreporter.com or DM @davidwilcox