Our 12 favourite newsletters on government innovation, tech & culture and beyond
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The amount of stuff out there that you could read, watch and listen to is nearly infinite. How do you sort the wheat from the chaff? Well-curated newsletters are a great way of discovering relevant material without having to process all of it yourself.
Here are 12 of our favourite newsletters sorted into three categories: “government innovation”, “technology & culture” and “extracurriculars”.
Before you read on you should, of course, also subscribe to our own newsletter.
Government Innovation
The Digest: Published by the GovLab at NYU this is a weekly link-fest that collects reports, articles and other interesting tidbits from the wider government innovation community. The Digest covers a whole lot of ground, there’s something in there for everyone.
Lab Notes: Lab Notes, published by Nesta, MaRS Solutions Lab, SIX and GovLab, is the polar opposite of The Digest. Where The Digest gives you an entire buffet of links to choose from, Lab Notes is a monthly, highly curated email with only a handful of entries with sparse, precise descriptions.
OECD OPSI: The Observatory for Public Sector Innovation’s newsletter is a great way of keeping on top of all the good government innovation work coming out of OECD HQ.
Australia Public Sector Innovation Network: The Australia “Public Sector Innovation Network” has a lovely weekly newsletter that surveys the government innovation landscape. It’s geared towards an Australian audience but much of it will still be relevant even if you’re not based there.
Technology & Culture
Exponential View: Possibly the most consistently excellent newsletter on technology, business and society, written by Azeem Azhar. It hits your inbox every Sunday and is an indispensable source of information. Rather than just linking to sources, as many newsletters do, Azeem adds useful analysis and commentary.
public.digital: A weekly missive on all things digital government from the good people behind public.digital. They’re a digital government consultancy led by former GDS leaders and CPI Fellows Tom Loosemore and Mike Bracken (as well as a whole host of other excellent people).
The Blast: NOBL is a consultancy specialized in culture and publishes The Blast, a weekly newsletter on culture. Recommended for anyone thinking about cultural and organisational change.
statecraft: Published weekly by FutureGov, a digital transformation and service design consultancy, statecraft covers design, technology and culture.
Matt’s Thoughts In Between: A weekly tech/society newsletter from former-McK consultant and Entrepreneur First founder Matt Clifford.
Beyond our immediate brief
Money Stuff: You don’t have to be a finance wonk to enjoy Matt Levine’s daily (!) newsletter on all things finance and banking. His writing style is equal parts hilarious and accessible.
Poplar Week Notes: Poplar are building a product that allows workers in stores to communicate directly with each other. What’s special is that the team document what they are trying and learning every week in a “week note”. The newsletters are well-written and captivating — almost like a serialized novel but about product-market-fit, conversion rates and customer acquisition costs.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation Weekly Round-up: The JRF’s newsletter is a weekly summary of research relating to poverty in the UK and the foundation’s efforts in tackling it. Its narrow focus makes the analyses to the point and reveals the uncomfortable truth about poverty in one of the richest countries on earth.
Do let us know if we’ve missed one of your favourites — add a response below, send us a Tweet or email us (danny at centreforpublicimpact dot org).
