Show Notes
Continuing their examination of the assumptions underlying today’s dominant AI narrative, David and Kate reflect on why AI has become such an important topic within IDEMS. They discuss how years of work on community ownership, trust, interoperability, and complex social systems have shaped their thinking, and why recent advances in AI may finally make it possible to build technologies that support rather than constrain local agency. The conversation explores the relationship between technology, governance, and social impact, and considers what kinds of foundations are needed for more distributed and community-centred approaches to AI.
More from The IDEMS Podcast
Michele and David explore how comparing IDEMS with Palantir can help explain IDEMS' technological vision. They discuss how both organisations seek to solve complex problems of data interoperability, but with fundamentally different approaches to ownership and control. They also reflect on how recent advances in AI are making IDEMS' vision of connected technologies with distributed ownership increasingly achievable, opening up new possibilities for technology that serves communities rather than concentrating power.
Santiago and David discuss why IDEMS was established as a Community Interest Company (CIC), rather than a charity or a conventional for-profit business. They explain how the combination of being a CIC, limited by guarantee and not-for-profit allows IDEMS to pursue commercial opportunities while protecting its social mission. They also explore the wider potential of this legal structure for social enterprises, and why greater recognition and support could help organisations pursue ambitious innovation without compromising their purpose.
Santiago and David discuss the Early Family Math app, a collaboration with Chris Wright that aims to help parents and caregivers introduce mathematical thinking into everyday interactions with young children. They reflect on the development of the app and explore its potential to support not only early mathematics learning, but also positive parent-child interactions through shared activities and play. They also discuss opportunities for future research to evaluate the app's potential impact and explore how the approach could be developed further.
Continuing their reflections on 20 years of research methods support, Lily and David explore the challenges of measuring profitability in smallholder farming. Through an example from agricultural research in West Africa, they discuss how conventional economic measures can overlook the value of community activities, why the way labour is valued matters, and how misleading profitability calculations can influence research and funding decisions.
George and David reflect on the journey behind IDEMS’ first patent, from recognising the potential of their ideas to navigating the challenges of turning them into a patent application. They discuss how the process helped them identify and refine what was genuinely innovative, the value of working with patent attorneys, and what they learned about the differences between academic research and protecting an invention.