As a Residential Fellow of the first cohort of the Newspeak House Fellowship back in 2016, I have maintained a connection and presence in the Newspeak House space for over 10 years. I lived in the house for 15 months between 2016 and 2017, through a very politically turbulent year marked by the EU Referendum and the 2017 General Election. As a Fellow and member of the NH Faculty, I have engaged with and seen how various cohorts have spent their time in the space. I can offer my thoughts on how best to engage with the Fellowship and how to use your time most effectively in this space.

As the cohorts have changed, so too has the Fellowship, but the fundamentals remain the same - these include: the importance of gathering and convening your communities in the space. Using the building to run events and experiment. Actively managing the community and catalysing opportunities for diverse groups of people and organisations to mix, meet, build friendships and work together. Invite your people, invite your networks to the Ration Club weekly community dinner. Attend as many community events in the college as you can manage and discover new people and practices. Invite communities to run events in the space, introduce them to others and volunteer to help them run events in the space. Immerse yourself in and help strengthen the networks of those within your cohort, the wider Fellowship and existing communities and networking in Newspeak House. Use the space - it’s yours, want to run a conference, speed networking, festival or party - go right ahead. Ground your thinking, experiments and projects in the problems and challenges of existing political and civic communities. Actively reach out to faculty, we’re here to talk things through, assist and get stuck in - invite us.

Be political - Newspeak House is a space for working to build power, technology and the means to build a better world. Be bold, adaptive and experimental in your approach and act with an abundance mindset. You are here to collaborate together as a fellowship, not work in isolation - incubate each other's ideas and be a critical friend. The fellowship is an opportunity for you to explore, dip into things, and draw upon community resource - before contributing to broader civic and political technology impact through your end of year prototypes and projects. As Fellows of Newspeak House, you are stewards of a community resource - water it, nurture it.

If any of this sounds useful, get in touch. Your time here is what you make of it and remember, have fun.