New Website: Next Step

As you all can see: Public Space has a new website, both in layout and in technique. It has taken us months of intensive work, by contentexperts, consultants, builders in ICT technology and the backoffice.

Find what you’re looking for in a large cloud of information

An important renewal of the amazing thing about a website for a ThinkTank like Public Space is that modern technology on the one hand really advances and facilitates the access of and search within the many blogs, articles, books and lectures on theme and tag, but on the other hand it exposes the big problem of the modern digital world: it also shows the threat of an overload in data and information. Therefore it is crucial to guide the visitor by images, colours, transparancy and fast searchtools.

“Serendipity (the accidental find, as a result of systematic search for something else) is what ThinkTanks like Public Space want to stimulate!”

The point is: no longer is it convenient or even necessary for Public Space to show it possesses many data and information (and hopefully wisdom). The main thing that’s really necessary is to clarify to people that are searching for data, information and knowledge that a) they find us in their search and b) that once on our website they can find what they are looking for in the big cloud of data and information of Public Space. Or even further: that he/she finds something new that suits his/her search in a suprising or unexpected manner. Serendipity (the accidental find, as a result of systematic search for something else) is what ThinkTanks like Public Space want to enhance and stimulate! They want to let you think anew, outside your box and to create your own new insights! We want to ‘catch’ the searchers with to our message and mission (and the nice, goodlooking, modern website!) and at the same time give them special results with a (maybe accidental) ‘catch’.

English sibling-sister of the Dutch website

Another important addition is that the English website is completely independent as a kind of sibling-sister of the Dutch website. It no longer is just a translation of important or relevant Dutch blogs and articles, but concentrates (of course within the mission of Public Space of ‘promoting active citizenship and social entrepreneurship’) on all kinds of important topics, news and debates that are actual and vivid in an international or even global context. It further shows that the themes and topics Public Space concentrates on are of global importance and have the same strategic effects on many places of the world. At the moment I see the main comparable impact especially in OECD countries, but it is certainly not limited to them.

Inspiration from all over the world

So we can learn from each other all over the world and in all circumstances and cultures. Public Space has from the beginning been looking for new insights, new practices, new policies and new leadership outside the Netherlands or Europe. I have always learned a lot about leadership and strategic thinking from other continents or countries. One could even say that much of the practices of active citizenship and social entrepreneurship can often be found and observed better and more frequent in non-Western countries. So the inspiration can come from all over the world and it is often better to look – objectively – at practices than reputation or political rhetorics of countries!

International booktour

The direct reason to have this special attention to the English website is of course my  booktour around the world about my latest book: ‘Civil Leadership as the Future of Leadership. Harnessing the disruptive power of Citizens’ (Amazon), my second book in English after my disseration on ‘The Value(s) of Civil Leaders’ (2014).

I wish you pleasure, inspiration and wisdom in your search and intellectual results on this new website!