News & Previews from the World Future Society February 2007 (Vol. 8, No. 2)

In This Issue: • Social Networking by Cell Phone • Overcoming the "Experience Deficit" • Urban Farming • Strategic Reading • Click of the Month: GuruLib • News from the Futurist Community

SOCIAL NETWORKING BY CELL PHONE So you want to meet your MySpace friends at a concert, but you're nowhere near your computer. What to do? Integrating the Internet and cell phones will help make social networking more mobile, according to Benjamin Roodman, a University of Missouri-Rolla computer engineering major and entrepreneur. Roodman is CEO of ImThere, a social-networking service that sends text-message alerts about concerts, CD release parties, film festivals, or any other event of common interest to subscribers. Like other online social-networking services, ImThere offers users a place in cyberspace for people to make friends and to gather–but to do so while on the move. Roodman is also investigating other applications for the mobile networking technology, such as news and blogging services. SOURCE: ImThere, http://www.imthere.com OVERCOMING THE "EXPERIENCE DEFICIT" The downside of instant expertise via the Internet is a growing "experience deficit," warns trend watcher Faith Popcorn. Much of the "knowledge" we routinely acquire from the vast (and fast-growing) electronic storehouse of information is not vetted by reliable authorities, Popcorn notes in her annual overview of cultural and economic trends. She believes this trend will be reversed as society increasingly seeks authority figures to assure us that the information we rely on is reliable. For example, What Happens Now <http://www.whathappensnow.com/>offers advice for handling key personal events (identity theft, car accident, funeral) from individuals with first-hand experience, as well as from experts. Respect for elders and their experience could make a comeback, Popcorn believes. Look for Ask Your Grandma hotlines and seniors starring in how-to videocasts. SOURCE: Faith Popcorn's BrainReserve, http://www.faithpopcorn.com EXPLORE THE FUTURE WITH LEADING EXPERTS Breakthrough technologies and their impacts, innovative ideas for a safer world, boosting our own enlightenment, and improving our foresight capabilitiesexplore these and other exciting topics with a thousand of the most future-minded men and women in the world. The World Future Society's next annual meeting, "WorldFuture 2007: Fostering Hope and Vision for the 21st Century," will be held July 29-31 at the Hilton Minneapolis and Towers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Expand your conference experience by participating in one of about a dozen preconference courses or the all-day symposium on Nanotechnology: Innovation and Opportunities. LEARN MORE: http://www.wfs.org/2007main.htm SPONSOR A STUDENT: A donation of $100 will allow a young futurist to attend WorldFuture 2007: https://www.wfs.org/donateol.htm SAVE $150 off the on-site registration fee! Register by February 29  https://www.wfs.org/2007regform.htm URBAN FARMING Half the populations of Africa and Asia will be living in urban areas by 2025, posing a major challenge for food distribution and waste handling, warns the Paris-based Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD). Massive migration from rural areas means more poverty in the cities and greater difficulty for more people in finding food. One solution is to promote urban agriculture, CIRAD suggests. Urban farms provide not only food, but jobs as well. And they help make cities greener, both literally–with trees and gardens–and by reducing the environmental impacts of transporting food from rural areas. The growth of powerful supermarket chains that promote imported foods remains a challenge to urban farmers' markets, CIRAD notes. Assisting urban farmers in bringing their products up to supermarkets' standards of quality will help keep these providers competitive and more food available to the growing numbers of urban poor. SOURCE: CIRAD, http://www.cirad.fr/fr/index.php  for French or http://www.cirad.fr/en/index.php  for English STRATEGIC READING The Association of Professional Futurists recommends these classic texts for inspiring a "more nimble strategic planning approach": • SEEING WHAT'S NEXT by Clayton M. Christensen et al. (Harvard Business School Press, 2004 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591391857/thefuturistbooks • THE SIXTH SENSE: ACCELERATING ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING WITH SCENARIOS by Kees van der Heijden et al. (John Wiley & Sons, 2002) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470844914/thefuturistbooks • STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE by Jay Barney and William Hesterly (Prentice Hall, 2005) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0131542745/thefuturistbooks • BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne (Harvard Business School Press, 2005) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591396190/thefuturistbooks SOURCE: Association of Professional Futurists, http://www.profuturists.com/ ********************************************* WHAT'S NEXT IN THE FUTURIST U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker examines the most significant long-term challenges facing the world community and outlines the steps that government agencies need to take to meet these challenges. See "Foresight for Government" in the March-April 2007 issue of THE FUTURIST, which mails to World Future Society members on February 5. The issue also features a look at the growing dominance of multimedia communication and the impacts of a future world without words. Contributing to the section are prominent futurist writers such as MEGATRENDS author John Naisbitt, journalist Michael Rogers, and foreign-policy specialist Edward N. Luttwak. Join or renew your membership now to ensure that you receive this outstanding issue. World Future Society membership is just $49 per year and includes a subscription to THE FUTURIST magazine, invitations to meetings, networking opportunities, and many other benefits. JOIN NOW: http://www.wfs.org/member.htm LEARN MORE: http://www.wfs.org/tomorrow ********************************************* CLICK OF THE MONTH: GuruLib http://www.gurulib.com Music and video-sharing Web sites have made it easy to borrow playlists from other people. Now, GuruLib lets you do the same thing with your books, as well as games, software, and other media in your collection. Sample collection: http://www.gurulib.com/coolabcgirl Uploading your titles to GuruLib will also let you retrieve information about the book from other online resources and to keep track of what you loan to others. The GuruLib cataloguing service now boasts more than 1,000 users, including public libraries and video rental businesses seeking better ways to track their rentals. NEWS FROM THE FUTURIST COMMUNITY DEVELOPING YOUR FUTURING PROFICIENCY: The Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community College offers noncredit personal and professional development on the future. Mix and match these modular brief noncredit offerings to best suit your needs. Organizations may select sets of modules to meet their corporate training needs. Each module is a "free-standing" learning unit that contains a set of learning objectives, before-and-after self-assessments, a contributing facilitator, and opportunities to meet others through online discussion. DETAILS: http://www.aacc.edu/future/conedcourse.cfm FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright © 2007, World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. Telephone 1-301-656-8274; e-mail mailto:info@wfs.org; Web site http://www.wfs.org. Editor: Cindy Wagner Assistant Editor: Patrick Tucker Network Administrator: Jeff Cornish Webmaster: Sarah Warner Vice President, Membership/Conference Operations:  Susan Echard To subscribe, send an e-mail message to mailto:majordomo@wfs.org with "subscribe futurist-update" in the BODY of the message. To unsubscribe or change your e-mail address, send message to Jeff Cornish, mailto:jcornish@wfs.org. Submit feedback at http://www.wfs.org/fbfeb07.htm. The WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association with a global membership. Regular membership in the Society, including a subscription to THE FUTURIST, is $49 per year, or $20 for full-time students under age 25. Professional and Institutional membership programs are also offered; contact Society headquarters for details: http://www.wfs.org.