About this Issue (July-August 2011)

Dealing with Data

Fifteen years ago, Future Survey editor Michael Marien organized a debate at the World Future Society’s annual meeting to address the issue of whether the ongoing Information Technology Revolution would turn out to be all that good for us. In other words, is more information coming at us a good thing or a bad thing?

I’ve always felt that more information is better than less information, but now I’m not so sure. As Marien said, “having much more information is bad for our heads. … It produces infoglut, which may well be the greatest under-studied problem of our time.” (“Information Technology Revolution: Boon or Bane?” THE FUTURIST, January-February 1997, page 11.)

Among the consequences of infoglut that Marien forecasted were the devaluation of information and increased stress and workloads. All of these problems have largely come to be. So now the question becomes, what do we do about it?

In this issue of THE FUTURIST, business trend analyst Erica Orange offers a “data abacus” to help organizations to assess and leverage the increasingly digital lifestyles of consumers and citizens (“Augmented, Anonymous, Accountable: The Emerging Digital Lifestyle”). One aspect of that digital lifestyle involves our money, so David R. Warwick, an advocate for the cashless society, shows what governments need to do to advance digital transactions that improve society’s safety and security (“The Case Against Cash”).

As for dealing with the data itself, one major issue is keeping it secure. International IT security advisor William H. Saito advocates higher standards at the design level, with better self-regulation of the industry (“Our Naked Data”).

Also in a special Web-exclusive, Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn.org warns that more-personalized Internet searching may have hidden side effects. Pariser will be exploring this topic in greater depth for our September-October issue so stay tuned(“Escaping the Filter Bubble“).

And since the “data deluge” is likely to continue accelerating, analyst Richard Yonck offers insights on a variety of technologies, from nanotech to genetics to search engines, that will keep us from drowning in data (“Treading in the Sea of Data”).

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While I admit to often feeling overloaded by the information coming at me at the World Future Society’s conferences, I always look forward to them because of the variety of perspectives that can be found nowhere else. The opportunity to sift through the data and to tap into the great energy store of new ideas is one not to be missed!

For information about WorldFuture 2011: Moving from Vision to Action, to be held July 8-10 in Vancouver, visit www.wfs.org/content/worldfuture-2011.

—Cynthia G. Wagner
Editor