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 %h3 The Course: Introduction to Political Technology
 %p The course is made up of three pillars: core modules, advanced modules, and the tutor system.
+
 %h4 Core Modules
 %p Three core modules anchor the course. They are:
 %h5 Governance
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 %p This module also includes the Experimental Grantmaking Exercise, in which participants apply the new theory and skills they have learned to a difficult and unsolved real-world decision-making problem: impact evaluation and co-budgeting. The exercise also provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own values and priorities as they relate to political technology.
 %h5 Prototype
 %p The culmination of the year’s work. You will produce an original project in the landscape of political technology—such as an organisation or software application—both to demonstrate your sophisticated understanding of the field and to have an ongoing real world impact.
+
+%h4 Advanced Modules
+%p
+  The
+  %strong advanced modules
+  are additional modules designed to supplement the content and experiences of the core modules. They provide additional perspectives and support for course participants as they complete the core modules and offer opportunities for participants to familiarise themselves with terms and concepts from the fields of theory and practice that political technology draws on.
+%p The advanced modules planned for 2024-25 are outlined below. The course is developed in an agile way so there may be minor adjustments, but significant changes are unlikely.
+%h5 Sociotechnical Systems
+%p In this module we will consider how the ‘technical’ and the ‘nontechnical’ shape each other. ‘Technical’ things like train cars, computer systems, power plants, and standards are shaped by ‘nontechnical’ things like laws, politics, business models, organisational culture, and the psychology of user groups and influential individuals. ‘Nontechnical’ things can in turn be (re-)shaped by new possibilities — or constraints — afforded by technical systems. This module aims to support Fellows’ projects and other ongoing work by serving as a place to discuss the interplay between the apparently ‘technical’ and the apparently ‘nontechnical.’
+%h5 Decision-making
+%p There is no such thing as an independent individual: everything you do and know and think is shaped by other people.
+%p This module will develop a sociophysics-based framework for understanding and engineering decision-making in teams, organizations, and networks. A core component of this module will be experiential learning activities that engage you directly in real and simulated decisions. Each activity will be linked to a formal computational model of decision-making that explains macro-level outcomes as a result of individual agent behavior. This module will present a practical survey of the emerging field of collective intelligence with a focus on technology-enabled solutions for optimizing decisions.
+%h5 Mechanism Design
+%p If game theory is the study of optimal decision-making by agents given a set of resources, utilities, and constraints, [i.e. given a decision architecture, how should agents behave?] then mechanism design is the study of the inverse problem, namely, given a set of desirable behaviours, how do we design a decision architecture so that agents playing this game converge to the desired behaviour?
+%p i.e if microeconomics is the science of predicting the behaviour of optimising agents, then mechanism design is an attempt to engineer that behaviour.
+%h5 Political Organising
+%p As technology reshapes the political landscape, traditional wisdom in political strategy is being upended. In this module, you will learn about the current state of political campaigning and organising in the UK and explore how this is being changed by technology. It is designed to support students to develop and operationalise their own political strategies for the causes they care about.
+%p How can you make change actually happen? What pressure points can you target? How does technology impact this? What opportunities are there for technologists to influence politics? This module will teach you how to navigate the realpolitik of the political system and how to make lasting systemic political change.
+%h5 Open Source
+%p Open Source software is software whose source code is open for everyone to review and change. This way of making and distributing software has come to play a significant role in today’s internet-enabled world.
+%p The open source software movement is also interesting from a political point of view. Free software started as a socio-political movement in the 1980s and open-source governance has come to denote a political philosophy based on democratic principles championed by the open-source software movement.
+%p In this module, we aim to contribute to existing open source software (and make new ones) with useful and meaningful impact.
+%h5 Network Development
+%p Networks surround us, support us and breathe through us. When people think of networking, they may think of handing out business cards at a conference, selling themselves to the crowd. But they can be so much more.
+%p In this module we’ll explore network development as building community, as developing the spatial awareness of social interactions, helping disparate and disconnected groups to get to know each other so they can work together.
+%p Together, we will work to understand the building blocks of networks and a key set of practices that can enable you to better understand and weave community interaction wherever you are, including network mapping, asynchronous events, handbook practices, seeing as a network, communication channels and network leadership behaviours.
+%h5 Game Design
+%p Interactions with systems are not only transactional, but emotional. Given an intended emotional outcome of a system, how would you build it? Political regimes in the real world are in fact also such systems, albeit for different ends. In this module, you’ll learn some game design theory from the commercial games industry, and also get hands-on experience of making game-design decisions.
+%h5 Future Crafting
+%p In this module, we tackle issues of prediction, risk management and forecasting and how these tactics influence the future. There is a difference between predicting what is likely given where we are now and the current conditions, compared to creating possibility. All too often futurism conflates these two. Worse perhaps is our collective confusion about the difference between risk and uncertainty. Here we introduce the concepts of future-crafting and hyperstition, and discuss how these approaches might open up imaginary space in the future.
+%h5 Service Design
+%p This module introduces students to the fundamentals of product and service design, exploring the entire design process from concept to execution. Students will learn how to identify user needs, ideate solutions, create prototypes, and deliver user-centric products and services.
+
+%h4 Tutor System
+%p Each course participant will be assigned a tutor from the faculty. The tutor meets with their tutee in person at least once per month to discuss their progress through the course and agree on any support the tutee or the faculty at large can provide. This role is analogous to the role called ‘supervisor’ in UK postgraduate programmes and ‘advisor’ in US programmes. It is largely a coaching role.
+
+%h3 Faculty
+%p Faculty bios go here
+
+%h3 Residency at Newspeak House & Non-Resident Participation in the Course
+%p From 2015 to 2023 the programme in political technology was fully residential, and course participants lived on campus at Newspeak House. In 2023 we began to offer non-resident places in the cohort. This tradition is being expanded in 2024-25, and we are pleased to offer six resident and six non-resident places in this year’s cohort.
+%p Residential and non-residential participation offer various benefits. A principal benefit of residency is the opportunity to engage with the collegiate environment in an immersive, ongoing manner and participate in activities organised on campus. Non-residential participation may be more appropriate for participants with logistical constraints (e.g. care responsibilities) which prevent them from being resident.
+%p
+  Because of the importance to the course of 
+  %a{:href => "/events"} in-person activities
+  \, non-resident participants are required to live within 30 minutes’ travel to Newspeak House’s London campus. Participants are expected to be on campus several days per week. The course does not offer a fully remote or ‘hybrid’ participation option.
+%p Unfortunately the lodgings offered are not wheelchair accessible, and space is not available for partners/family. Also, aside from service animals, residents are not permitted to keep roaming pets.
+
+%h3 Pastoral System
+%p The wellbeing of participants is of great importance to us. Newspeak House employs an interfaith minister and retains a pastoral board who are there to provide support for the emotional and psychological health of our community members.
+%p Even in communities where everyone has the best of intentions, things can sometimes go wrong. Our pastoral team are experienced in community harm prevention and response, and we will proactively deal with any conflicts or pastoral issues should they arise.
+%p If you would like to know more about our pastoral provisions, please contact [email protected]
+
+%h3 Fees
+%p The course fee for the entire year is £2400, payable upon acceptance of your offer.
+%p For those who choose to live in college accommodation, the cost is £1000 per calendar month, payable from October 2024 until August 2025 inclusive. This includes all bills, as well as a full time facilities manager and a cleaner for common areas.
+%p Thanks to generous gifts from fellows and community members, there are some full and partial scholarships available. Please indicate in your application if your participation is contingent on a scholarship.
+%p (If your participation is contingent on securing a scholarship and you are offered a spot but are not able to secure a scholarship, you are not obligated to participate in the course.)
+
+%h3 How to Apply
+%p If you are interested in applying, please click the following link, where you will be asked for your email address and (optionally) your phone number:
+%p
+  %a.section-link{:href => "https://forms.gle/xbqd4L9oLtcdxxAr9"} I AM INTERESTED!
+%p
+  We will follow up with a short application form that should take you no more than 20 minutes to complete. This is to give us an idea of what your interests are, and start a conversation as to whether the course might be the right thing for you. After you’ve submitted your application, you’ll be invited to:
+  %ul
+    %li attempt a short written task that should take no more than an hour
+    %li attend an interview, either at Newspeak House or remotely
+%p Applications are taken on a rolling basis until all spaces are filled - if you are reading this, then applications are still open!
+%p While we welcome applications from outside the United Kingdom, we are currently unable to support the acquisition of visas. If you are applying from outside the United Kingdom and are accepted, you will need to secure your own visa and, depending on your situation, work permit.
+%p Newspeak House is strengthened by the diversity of our network and our differences in background, culture, experience, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and much more. We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, women, the LGBTQIA community, and disabled people.
+%p You're welcome to reapply if you don't get selected the first time.
+%p If you have any questions about the course or the application process, don't hesitate to reach out via [email protected]. Questions about the opportunity or process will not reflect negatively on an application.