Group items tagged

We (Cognitive Edge) would be really grateful if you would be prepared to share your thoughts, fears and hopes about the current state of the world post the financial cris. What are the implications for public service? How will our institutions adapt? What will be important for the public service in the future? What is going to happen to public service anyway? We want your micro-narratives, you mini-scenarios as part of a crowd sourcing project. Anyone who participates can have access to the data, results will be published here. Basically you click here and contribute your ideas, then you signify their meaning. The signifier (or index) set was produced in conjunction with experts in strategic foresight. We want to demonstrate the power of networks, the ability of the voice of the person on the metaphorical Clapham Omnibus, Jo Public (or whatever yiyr cultural phrase is) to stand up there with the views of experts. One is not better than the other, we need both! Also we want them fast - as many as you can over the next couple of days. The first report will come out on Sunday, then more over next week. Please participate please pass this on in your blog, Twitter, Facebook, emails lists or good old word of mouth.

We continually scan tens of thousands of high-quality, online news publications, blogs, public niche sources, trade publications, government web sites, financial databases and more.

"Together, they highlight five "technologies that matter" for cities in 2020: mobile broadband; smart personal devices, whether they're dirt-cheap phones or tablets; government-sponsored cloud computing (modeled on the U.K.'s national "G-cloud" initiative); open-source public databases to promote grassroots innovation, and "public interfaces." Instead of Internet cafés, imagine an outdoor LED screen and hacked Kinect box allowing literally anyone to access the Net using only gestures."

The Open Technology Initiative formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. OTI promotes affordable, universal, and ubiquitous communications networks through partnerships with communities, researchers, industry, and public interest groups and is committed to maximizing the potentials of innovative open technologies by studying their social and economic impacts - particularly for poor, rural, and other underserved constituencies. OTI provides in-depth, objective research, analysis, and findings for policy decision-makers and the general public. More Info

"The digital peasants are getting restless. The first signs of unrest are evident in the stirrings of the bloggers filing a suit against the Huffington Post and its parent AOL, which acquired the publication in February for $315 million. The same writers who were happy to contribute for free before the sale are now accusing the publication of turning them into "modern-day slaves on Arianna Huffington's plantation." The suit claims that about 9,000 people wrote for the Huffington Post on an unpaid basis, and it argues that their writings helped contribute about a third of the sale value of the site. These bloggers weren't paid a single penny in the sale-the money went mostly to Huffington and a few investors. "

Public Sees a Future Full of Promise and Peril Life in 2050: Amazing Science, Familiar Threats

Title: Scenarios 2040Location: The Bell Tower on 34thLink out: Click hereDescription: More vivid and dynamic than forecasting or visioning, scenarios are stories based on rigorous research, analysis and community interviews that help us understand how the powerful driving forces that affect our world - and the choices we make right now - could affect our region's future decades from now. In 2009, the Center for Houston's Future embarked upon Scenarios 2040, the largest public-interest, business-led, regional scenario project in the country. The resulting scenarios will describe different future worlds we might face in the year 2040, and will be used to generate wide public discussion that will help individuals, organizations, business, and government identify their own options and responses to different future worlds. These scenarios will help us learn how to protect and nurture what we value, and achieve what we want to achieve - a healthy balance between competitiveness and sustainability. Start Time: 18:00Date: 2011-10-04

Malcolm Turbull on Wikileaks, "There will be a medium term impact on the candour with which people talk to American officials. Frankly if I were an American citizen I would be less outraged with Assange than I would be with a Government that can allow such a gigantic breach of security. The United States will need to demonstrate that it has changed its ways, and it is not that hard. Most large organisations will not permit downloading of material to an external medium without express authorisation as those of you who work for large firms should already know. And it goes without saying that if a young Private can copy so much classified material off his own volition, how vulnerable are US systems to more sophisticated operatives who have the backing and expertise provided by foreign intelligence agencies. We will remain forever, I imagine, rightly angry at the recklessness of receiving and publishing so much confidential material. So far it seems less harm has been done than might have been the case, but the risks are extraordinary and if only one life was lost, if only one sensitive operation was compromised then the heavy responsibility for that must lie with Assange. I would like to hope that in the future such revelations will be more discriminating, but it is hard to be confident. The lesson for Governments, apart from improving their security, is to assume that everything said or written will, sooner or later, see the light of day. That may not be a good thing, and it certainly doesn't make life easier, but it is, I fear, a reality. The Governments with most to fear from such disclosure are those whose public statements are at odds with their private opinions - and as I noted earlier so far it appears, to its credit, that the US State Department's private cables have been consistent with their public policy."

What do you imagine the world will look like in 2025? The FutureScapes project brings together a range of expert thinkers, designers, futurologists, writers and you - the public - to explore the opportunities and challenges of life in 2025, and to consider the potential contribution that technology and entertainment can make in shaping a better, more sustainable future.

looks like an example of emerging public science and science communication - attempting to do science in a way that influences the public

Futurepedia will be a public wiki in many languages that covers a topic Wikipedia traditionally hasn't (until recently, see below) allowed: thinking and writing about the future. This would be a major advance to global foresight culture, something all the world's citizens should have. We've reserved Futurepedia.org for this, and are just waiting for volunteers to help us find sponsors. Perhaps you? At Futurepedia you will find structured speculations on possible, probable, and preferable (3P's) futures in science, technology, environmental, economic, political, and social (STEEPS) domains. As in Wikipedia we will use MediaWiki software, and all material will be shared in a Creative Commons share-alike or GNU Free Documentation License.

"Project Anticipation is the website of the UNESCO Chair in Anticipatory Systems awarded to Roberto Poli, University of Trento. Formally speaking, the chair's activities will begin January 1, 2014. However, since the project is on the many forms of anticipation, and a crucial aspect of anticipation is taking antecedent actions, the project's advance publication shouldn't come as a surprise."

This is a very cool trailer that depicts many of the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. It is highly significant because the Communication of Foresight s one of the pre-eminent challenges we face today as societies. The dangers of climate change have been well developed by generations of climate scientists. But what about engaging various publics in the issue, garnering interest and energy for change through instigating new debates. How many other areas are like climate change - genetics, human consciousness, the list goes on. This trailer is a good example of aestheticizing the future in ways that CAN garner interest.

A few weeks before the tsunami struck Fukushima's uranium reactors and shattered public faith in nuclear power, China revealed that it was launching a rival technology to build a safer, cleaner, and ultimately cheaper network of reactors based on thorium.

"Thousands of museum professionals gathered Sunday in Houston to mull their futures and contemplate ways to recast their missions and audiences. Participants at the American Association of Museums' annual conference pondered possibilities that included a multiple-voucher system in which museums compete to meet certain components of a public school child's education. They even discussed a "Facebook update from hell" that would simultaneously publish everyone's personal data - including information museums have gathered in order to personalize visitor experiences."

"Foundation For the Future launches its fifteenth year of operation with exciting plans for an extension of emphasis on the study of the relationship between the human genome and society. Our mission of increasing and diffusing knowledge will also mean sponsoring lecturers to bring to the public, free-of-charge, direct access to expert information on topics that impact humanity. And a "Humanity 3000" seminar will again bring together a roster of leading thinkers from multiple disciplines to discuss the critical issues that have emerged in recent years for our species and Planet Earth."

This is the .org sister publication of the "Theconversation.edu,au" website.

"How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule is a report of the New Economy Working Group produced in collaboration with the New Economy Network; it is an outcome of a series of conversations focused on building a policy agenda for transforming our money system. David Korten is the lead author; participating organizations include Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, Capital Institute, Democracy Collaborative, Green America, Institute for Policy Studies, Living Economies Forum, New Economy Network, New Rules Project, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Public Banking Institute, RSF Social Finance, and YES! Magazine."

""Water-whether we treat it as a public good or as a commodity that can be bought and sold-will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous," wrote the scholar Maude Barlow."