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LQD What are they worth? | 28 comments (28 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: LQD What are they worth? (4.00 / 3)
The history of nef | the new economics foundation
The new economics foundation was launched in June 1986, along with the publication of Paul Ekins' book The Living Economy, which was a compilation of the presentations from the two international conferences known as TOES (The Other Economic Summit).

This began with the idea that a group of new economists, environmentalists, development campaigners and futurists TOES should challenge the right of the G7 leaders to speak for the economic future of the planet, and grew out of a series of meetings in Jonathon Porrit's flat in 1984.  The first TOES was held when the G7 came to London in July that year.

nef was designed as a permanent secretariat for TOES, but has developed into one of the largest and most prominent think-tanks in the UK, and one of the leading organisations in the world developing an economics which puts people and planet first.

It's all the same neither new nor small.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 at 04:50:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: LQD What are they worth? (4.00 / 6)
But it is home grown.

And pretending that you're big and significant, even if you aren't necessarily, is one of the prerequisites for becoming big and significant.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 at 06:03:51 AM EST
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Re: LQD What are they worth? (4.00 / 2)
When in fact you're a recognized outfit with a line-up of fifty people, quite a number of whom seem to be fulltime, including an experienced press officer, it must be easier to "pretend".

What's my point? That pretending to be big and significant, though doubtless necessary, is far from sufficient. And in the case of nef, it's not even what matters most. nef is in fact a moderately big, significant, and recognized think tank, and one would expect it (after twenty-odd years) to have pretty solid networks in the British media.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 at 12:17:15 PM EST
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Re: LQD What are they worth? (4.00 / 3)
Okay - so let's not do what nef did.

Where are we going to be twenty years from now?

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 at 12:49:28 PM EST
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Re: LQD What are they worth? (none / 0)
afew:
What's my point? That pretending to be big and significant, though doubtless necessary, is far from sufficient.

So I said don't do what nef did? As for twenty years time, you don't know, I don't know, no one does.

I'm simply trying to put a bit of realism and balance into this subthread. But since that apparently ain't cool, I'll drop out.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 at 02:12:23 PM EST
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Media weight (none / 1)
Media weight (overnight celebrity apart) comes from track record. Networks can gain media weight faster than hierarchical organizations because each member of a new network brings in their own track record of connections and achievements. That can create a new 'personality' for a branded network much faster than a hierarchical organization can change its perceived 'personality'.

Top-down organizations tend to be represented by their chief officers (who can you name but Branson out of his entire empire?). With networked organizations there tend to be many (distributed) representatives. This means that it fairly easy to stress different aspects of the personality of the group (Think John, Paul, George and Ringo).

From a media perspective, there are more stories to follow. More stories mean more weight. (after a critical point).

What we (ET) haven't learned yet to do is to better exploit our own networks to get that media weight.

I agree with your main thrust. Though it may not be clear from these meanderings ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Dec 15th, 2009 at 05:27:38 PM EST
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LQD What are they worth? | 28 comments (28 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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