Community Mobilization

Innovation Development Requires Innovative People

Core to the success of my work with the Futuring and Innovation Center at ACS was filling our work group with brilliant people. To achieve successful rapid program prototyping we had a system, but that system relied on input and insight from a diverse committee. Over the course of 6 years we prototyped 13 marketing programs, all of them ahead of their time, produced in under 18 months and for under $35,000. Some of them were monumental successes, and some of them never left the prototype stage, serving as valuable learning lessons.

I have had a few requests from friends to catalog the development process we used, and I have below the fold. It is nothing groundbreaking, just a modified Stage-Gate development structure modeled after the Shell Oil Game-Changer system. If you have question about the process please feel free to comment, or send an e-mail.

Disney's Futures Efforts Fall Short

P.J. O'Rourke write up a scathing review of the most recent Future-scape that is the Disney Hall of the Future II in The Atlantic. Under Walt Disney, the company took great pains to create ambitious future-visions and offer them to the public in their theme park. I visited Tomorrow Land in 2007 and caught a glimpse of the new / old retro style. As someone who studies the future, I was let down.

Disney was dedicated to developing innovative future scenarios and throughout his time he used his theme parks as showcases for his imaginative work. What is dissapointing most is that Disney Co. has not taken up the challenge of continuing to develop those future visions. The current offering that is the Hall of the Future, so I understand, falls flat in an attempt to placate the patrons instead of challenging them.

Silicon Valey Meet Akihabara

Friend and occasional conference compatriot Joi Ito hosted a number of Silicone Valley intellectuals as part of the Digital Garage New Context Conference. Part of being in Tokyo is experience the Otaku Culture and the best place to do that is Akihabara. Never having been there I will let the provided video provide context.

What I find most intriguing, and fascinating about the entire venture is that Joi brings out the top thinkers from Silicone Valley to Tokyo to cool hunt and discover social contexts that are on the cusp flourishing. He does this out of a sheer desire to share the experience, and I find that simply awe inspiring.

The Future of Mobility - An Award Winning Scenario Tool

MobilityVIP is an award winning scenario planning and development tool put together in part by our fellow futurist Lloyd Walker. The program recently won an award for design, and after looking through their materials it is obvious why. MobilityVIP makes understanding scenario development around transport and mobility. I know that Lloyd and team have put a lot of time and energy into preparing the cards for this tool, but it is the simplicity that communicates such a complex message that is the real triumph in design.

Forecast for the Next 25 Years

The World Future Society tends to put out exceptional long range trends. The most recent list is interesting in so many was as it looks into a mix of positive and negative trends. The ecological impact of our ways are apparent in the trends; a mass extinction, floods, and peak water. The continued scientific advancements appear in terms of textiles, computer enhanced decision making, and a healthier population. Read on and go to the World Future Society site to see some analysis.

Forecast #1: The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025.

Forecast #2: Fashion will go wired as technologies and tastes converge to revolutionize the textile industry.

Forecast #3: The threat of another cold war with China, Russia, or both could replace terrorism as the chief foreign-policy concern of the United States.

Forecast #4: Counterfeiting of currency will proliferate, driving the move toward a cashless society.

Forecast #5: The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event

Forecast #6: Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century.

Forecast #7: World population by 2050 may grow larger than previously expected, due in part to healthier, longer-living people.

Forecast #8: The number of Africans imperiled by floods will grow 70-fold by 2080.

Forecast #9: Rising prices for natural resources could lead to a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic.

Forecast #10: More decisions will be made by nonhuman entities.

Even the French are Futuring

I just read that the French government is launching a foresight initiative called "France 2025".
The objective of the initiative (I am roughly translating) is to produce a strategic diagnostic for the next 15 years, describing the different possible futures for France, defining the means to seize the best business opportunities and limit risks of more threatening scenarios.

During several months, parliamentarians, social partners, senior servants, experts and civil representatives will work on 8 major issues for the future of France: globalisation and its consequences; organization of the productive workforce; developing France's innovative and creative capabilities; protection against new risks; social cohesion; limited resource management; impact of technology on daily life; and the future of the State and public services.

Fitness on your Cellphone

Computational power continues to shrink and the eventual reality is that  our computing devices will follow suit. To a point we will be able to cram a movie theater, a home stereo a camera and a telephone into one ... But even more important is when we begin to include our health monitoring devices into the cellphone / smart phone package. The Micoach is a all in one device in conjunction with Adidas that incorporates fitness training programs into a fully loaded cell phone. The brains of the system is a Samsung phone that gets linked to a pair of shoes through rfid or blue tooth for tracking exercise. Available only in Europe at this point, look for Micoach and other integrated devices to help keep us healthier longer.

Meme Box- a Future Scanning Project

MemeBox is a great futures scanning toll launched by a friend of mine Alvis Brigis. MemeBox is a collective space for people to drop in clippings of the future, and it is a great resource for people looking to expand their horizons and thinking.

Teen Communication Modality - A Look Forward

They say you can take a good guess about the future by looking at those who will be in charge then, and if that holds the Pew study on Teens and Social Media is pretty  telling. It focuses on the fact that social media gained a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media. the study found that 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online such as artwork, photos stories, or videos. They are creating a culture and location of sharing work unlike anything mass media could ever have dreamed.

Even more telling is that girls (who we knew communicated more than boys) are taking it online too. Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. Some 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. And the most interesting statistic to me is HOW the teens are communicating when they communicate. Social portals and networks WAY out pace face to face (duh - we have global friendships now) but face to face is higher than e-mail. The killer app is dying! Amazing. Asked about the communication they have every day with their friends, the multi-channel teens say:

70% talk daily with friends on a cell phone
60% send text messages daily
54% instant message
47% send messages daily over social network sites
46% talk to friends on a landline phone
35% spend time with friends in person daily
22% send email every day to friends

FBI is Looking for a Futurist in Residence

The FBI has a Futurists in Residence Program associated with the
Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI Academy.  The FBI is currently taking
applications for the next FIR.  The deadline for application is February
1, 2008.    If you are interested or know someone who is interested,
please contact Dr. John Jarvis, [email protected] for details.

SUMMARY
This is an unpaid, part-time research opportunity.   However, the FBI
does provide for necessary travel expenses.   The position is ideal for
scholars (professors and grad students) needing to conduct research.
Past FIRs have been scholars employed by other agencies and/or
universities.  The position requires a security clearance be obtained
after acceptance. 

Tons of details and an application below the fold: