June 2010, Vol. 11, No. 6

In This Issue:
The Edward Cornish Award for Futurist of the Year
FUTURIST Magazine Published in Turkish
Visions of Europe
Dator, Henderson, Coates Honored
2010 High-School Essay Contest Winner
Clicks of the Month: Futurist Reading List
Citizen-Scientists and the Future

THE EDWARD CORNISH AWARD FOR FUTURIST OF THE YEAR

Theodore J. Gordon, co-founder and senior research fellow of the Millennium Project, will be honored as the first recipient of The Edward Cornish Award for Futurist of the Year. The presentation will take place during the closing plenary session on July 10 at the World Future Society’s meeting, WorldFuture 2010: Sustainable Futures, Strategies, and Technologies, to be held July 8-10 at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel.

“In the last year, Ted Gordon has influenced greatly futures studies in many countries of the world, especially in methodologies and normative scenarios,” said WFS Global Advisory Council member Eleonora Barbieri Masini, professor emeritus of Gregorian University, Rome. “Very important [is] his interest in ethical issues at the global level and as related to futures issues. In the last months he has lectured in Italy at different universities influencing thus students, lecturers and, very interesting for Italy, decision making. In Italy this has been specially important, as futures studies have not been too well accepted at the decision-making level.”

During 2009, the Millennium Project released Futures Research Methodology Version 3.0, a substantially updated edition of a comprehensive CD-ROM offering invaluable tools for foresight, planning, and decision making, including material that Gordon produced with colleagues at The Futures Group International.

Along with Millennium Project co-founder Jerome C. Glenn, with whom he has also prepared the series of annual reports on the State of the Future, Gordon represents “the best of futures research and execution on a global basis, which improves the development of foresight around the world,” said World Future Society board member Jack Gottsman.

Named for World Future Society founding president Edward Cornish, editor of its magazine THE FUTURIST and author of FUTURING: The Exploration of the Future, the Award is presented to the individual or group on the basis of work completed within the past 12 months, demonstrating an effective application of foresight (including classroom work) or the public discussion of the future. Nominations were open to any individual or organization involved in futures work anywhere in the world.

“This award is exciting because it honors the vision of Society founder Ed Cornish, the achievements of foresight pioneer Ted Gordon, and the inspiration that both offer to futurists following their outstanding example,” said FUTURIST managing editor Cynthia Wagner. “It brings together the past, present, and future of our field.”

FUTURIST MAGAZINE PUBLISHED IN TURKISH

The Turkish Futurists Society and the Aktif Group, a privately owned postal company, have teamed to produce the first Turkish language edition of the World Future Society’s flagship magazine, THE FUTURIST.

“Future anxiety is a very common feeling in people,” said Ufuk Tarhan, Turkish Futurists Society president and founder of M-GEN Future Planning Center, during a press conference in Istanbul on May 18. “However, it is in our hands to change it. THE FUTURIST may shape our future by informing us about future trends, forecasts, and ideas about the future.”

The venture produced 10,000 copies of the May-June 2010 issue, according to Aktif Group Board Chairman Yusuf Köse. “This initiative is like a social responsibility project for us,” he said.

DETAILS: See also “Futurist Magazine Publishes in Turkey for First Time,” Hürriyet Daily News (May 19),

OXFORD SCENARIOS PROGRAMME

6 - 10 September 2010, £4,750 (ex VAT) all-inclusive

Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

This programme helps you identify the crucial drivers of change shaping the wider context. With the future in mind, you will learn how to develop strategies, policies or programmes to prepare your organisation for tomorrow's turbulent and uncertain business climate.

For details contact mailto:caroline.williams@sbs.ox.ac.uk

VISIONS OF EUROPE

The Foundation For Future Studies in Germany, a new Institutional Member of the World Future Society, has released the English-language version of two of its 2008 reports, “Future Expectations of Europe” and “A Vision for Europe from Economic Community to Community of Values.”

The group, which conducts original scientific and statistical research on long-term trends in attitudes and behavior, is now also producing English-language versions of its Current Research newsletter.

SOURCE: Dr. Ulrich Reinhardt, BAT-Stiftung Für Zukunftsfragen (Foundation for Future Studies)

The Foresight Network has bestowed its newly created Futurist of the Year Laurel on Jim Dator (director, Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies), Hazel Henderson (founder and president, Ethical Markets Media), and Joseph Coates (consulting futurist and contributing columnist for Technological Forecasting & Social Change).

The Network’s 2,400 members were asked to name the futures thinkers who had the most-important influence on them.

“These three have contributed so much to the field of futures thinking and it’s an honor for me to present them with this recognition,” said Myles Hopkins, chairman of the Foresight Network.

SOURCE: Shaping Tomorrow, or contact Bengt-Arne Vedin, mailto:bengt-arne.vedin@telia.com

2010 HIGH-SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST WINNER

An essay describing the impacts of technology on social values and happiness has earned first place in the World Future Society’s second annual high-school essay contest.

“A Hurting Society” was written by Trevor Hu, a senior at Hawaii Baptist Academy in Honolulu. As winner, Hu will receive $300, a three-year membership in the Society, and complimentary registration at WorldFuture 2010 in Boston.

Second place was awarded to Jeremy Sia of the Raffles Institution in Singapore for “China’s Household Registration System,” an analysis of the impacts of the Hokou system on rural and urban families. Third place was awarded to Nicole Watts of Mililani, Hawaii, for “Socially Active,” an essay describing the impacts of new communications and networking technologies.

The winning essays will also be published in a forthcoming issue of the World Future Society’s journal for professional members, WORLD FUTURE REVIEW

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LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES AND EDUCATION SUMMIT AT WORLDFUTURE 2010!

WorldFuture 2010 will bring together a thousand futurists from around the world to the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, July 8-10. Come early (July 7-8) for preconference courses, the MIT Media Lab tour, and the Education Summit, and stay late (July 11) for the Professional Members’ Forum.

Futurists looking to enhance their own skills will also have a variety of learning opportunities before the conference gets under way. Courses range from introductory to advanced, such as how to build and use scenarios and using patterns of inventions to predict the future.

Robots in the classroom, "power teaching," and innovative problem-solving strategies will all be explored at the annual Education Summit immediately preceding the opening of WorldFuture 2010. The Summit will address the challenges and opportunities of demographic and technological transformation to improve learning in the future.

The conference program itself boasts an outstanding lineup of speakers, such as business futurists Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown, inventors Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Thaler, and representatives from global organizations such as UNESCO, the Japan Institute of Negotiation, and the European Futures Observatory.

CLICK OF THE MONTH: FUTURIST READING LIST (AMAZON.COM)

Get ready for this summer’s most exciting learning experience! Here are recent books by some of the confirmed speakers at WorldFuture 2010:

Janna Quitney Anderson and Lee Rainie:

• Up for Grabs: The Future of the Internet, Volume 1 (with) Susannah Fox (Cambria Press, 2008)

• Hopes and Fears: The Future of the Internet, Volume 2 (Cambria Press, 2008)

• Ubiquity, Mobility, Security: The Future of the Internet, Volume 3
(Cambria Press, 2009)

Harvey Cox:
• The Future of Faith

Anthony Flint:
• Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and

Transformed the American City (Random House, 2009)
Theodore J. Gordon and Jerome C. Glenn:
• Futures Research Methodology Version 3.0 [CD-ROM] (The Millennium Project, 2009)

Ray Kurzweil:
• The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Penguin, 2006)

Ramez Naam:
• More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement (Broadway, 2005)

Robert R. Prechter Jr.:
• Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression

Arthur Shostak (editor), with contributions from Tsvi Bisk, Joseph Coates, William Crossman, William E. Halal, Timothy C. Mack, Marsha Rhea, Daniel I. Shostak, David Pearce Snyder, Marianne Solomon, Stephen Steele, and others:

• Creating the School You Want: Learning @ Tomorrow's Edge
Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown:

• FutureThink: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change

CITIZEN-SCIENTISTS AND THE FUTURE

“The Rise of the Citizen-Scientist” is the theme of the H+ Summit, to be held at Harvard University, June 12-13, and hosted by the Harvard College Future Society.

Among the 60 scheduled speakers are inventor Ray Kurzweil, physicist and business leader Stephen Wolfram, biologist Andrew Hessel, and gerontologist Aubrey De Grey, who will address such issues as AI, neuroscience, transhumanism, and accelerating change. Registration is $200, but a generous discount is given for students.

The Summit is organized by Humanity+, a nonprofit educational organization focused on applying technologies to human enhancement and on understanding the potential consequences of such pursuits. The Harvard College Future Society is a student organization dedicated to promoting awareness of the impacts of accelerating technological growth on future society.

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THE FUTURE MATTERS: Since 1966, members of the World Future Society have supported the publications, resources, research, and networking opportunities that have helped develop the field of futures studies. Now, our goals have expanded, and so has our need for your support, because “The Future Matters.”

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FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright © 2010, 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, mailto:cwagner@wfs.org
Senior Editor: Patrick Tucker, mailto:ptucker@wfs.org
Staff Writer: Aaron M. Cohen
Network Administrator: Jeff Cornish, mailto:jcornish@wfs.org
mailto:sechard@wfs.org