Welcome to the WFS Social Innovation Forum

The Social Innovation Forum

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The World Future Society invites its members and other interested persons to submit proposals for improving life in the future. Proposals deemed of general interest will be posted here, and readers are invited to peruse them and offer their comments, questions, critiques, or encouragement.

Copyright: These papers are protected by the authors' copyright and may not be reproduced or distributed without the authors' permission.

To submit proposals: Please e-mail the full text, along with an abstract of no more than 50 words, to the editors.

Modelpedia: A Vision of Transformation
By Alice Holstein Mack
Imagine, the existence of an international data base that could identify MODEL organizations, programs and development projects that are this very minute transforming the world. The MODELS would include technological improvements such as those done by Engineering Without Borders as well as social invention projects such as the well-known Delancey Street Foundation in San Francisco that for years has been a MODEL of prisoner rehabilitation and employment opportunity.

Proposal for a State to Protect Itself from Unfair, Debilitating, Federal Practices
By Alan F. Kay © 2003
Federal deficit spending has reached unprecedented heights. State and local authorities are being given new responsibilities from the federal government without adequate means to achieve them.

The Education Piece of a Possible Future
By Berenice D. Bleedorn
This article is a reminder of the urgent need for a new kind of thinking for a new kind of complex, integrated, interactive, dynamic world. It is argued that the mandated educational experience everywhere needs to include the understanding and practice of higher-order or quality thinking, which is said to include: creative, critical, systemic, futuristic, paradoxical, global, and complex, problem-solving thought processes. Since every important thing we do is said to "depend upon our habits of mind", a reference is made to the importance of quality thinking by both leadership and followership in a functioning democracy. Examples of enlightened educational programming and speculated predictions for educational futures are included.

New Urban Concepts
By Howard Kiefer
The concept of in-line cities may be the greatest advancement in modern living. The convenience, energy, time, safety, pollution, and cost of living will give greater personal freedom. Strings of in-line cities would transcend continents. In-line cities would have transportation at the center of an arc of their users. A man made mountain (Core) would be adjoined by meeting places and then by gateways. We could have facilities for all modes of transportation including strolling, walking, skating, biking, cars, trains and conveyers. The scope would be from local to cross-continental.

Common Good State: The Next Phase of Human Societies
By Peter A. Zuckerman
The foundations of the new American foreign policy should be the elimination of political mismanagement and the downsizing of the war institution. The purpose of the Grand Moral Strategy of the United States would be the New Human Order, to bring about common good states throughout the world, thereby ensuring continued human progress and survival.

4 Case Studies: A Model for Virtual Schooling
Intelligent Education, Inc.
Over the past three years, a fully accredited 9-12 virtual high school and curriculum content provider, has researched and developed such a model. Used effectively in a variety of settings, this model can easily be applied to any school wishing to enter the realm of online learning.

The Future of Your Own Health and Independence
By Sam L. Ervin
The head of a groundbreaking Social HMO in Southern California shows why--and how--Medicare can be revamped to meet the needs of the twenty-first century.

A Best-Practices System for National Elections
By Alan F. Kay © 2001
Based in part on the lessons of Florida 2000, this document describes an ambitious system employing rapidly evolving twenty-first-century computer and tele-communications technology to conduct U.S. national elections.

Delivering the Goods
By Ronald Adams and Terry Brewer
Telecommuting keeps people off the streets, but downtowns are still clogged with delivery trucks. A better idea is to use abandoned rail spurs to move goods efficiently and cleanly on maglev robotic pallets, untying urban gridlock in the process.

gTime, gDate and a gCalendar
By J.P. Singh
The emergence of a cyberconnected Global Village demonstrates the need for a universal time for global events. A professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad argues that we need to delink the measurement of time from geography.

The Eight-Day Week for Better Living
By L. Michael Hager
The eight-day week comprising a traditional five-day workweek plus a three-day weekend would dramatically improve the quality of life: it would give working parents more time with their children and allow more time for travel, for instance. It would also allow more widespread use of flextime, easing traffic congestion and reducing urban pollution, among other benefits.

Genetics in the New Millennium
The Promise of Reprogencis
By Walter P. Kistler
The century that is now coming to a close has been terrible in many respects. It has seen two world wars in which young people were slaughtered by the millions for no useful cause. However, this century also has been a fantastic one, with fabulous progress in science and technology. The coming centuries in the new millennium will probably be quite different, with the main focus on human biology and on understanding the laws governing human society. The great human genome project, now progressing successfully, will build the backbone for the new science and technology.

A Global Commission on the Future?
By Dr. Joseph N. Pelton
Many have suggested new initiatives that would help us create the 21^st century we desire—namely a future that preserves the biosphere, avoids global warming, and expands human education and opportunity. One of the oft-repeated ideas that emerged as the year 2000 arrived is the proposal to create a Commission on the Future (COF). Many countries have national commissions on education, transportation, energy, farm subsidies, and medical ethics and product safety. Why then not have a commission or a foundation that might help us plan for the future?

The Glories of the Nine Day Week
By Harold Howe II
Many of our frustrations in daily life could be abolished by a simple change in the calendar - replacing the seven day week with a nine day week. In the process, our economy would become more efficient, our leisure time more rewarding, our schools and colleges less crowded, our religious activities more meaningful, and our family lives more successful for both children and adults.

Can Real Estate Development Save Endangered Species?
By Jospeh Woytowitz
The Author offers a vision of how, by building connecting condominiums around a very large property, the homes could capture a complete biodiversity self-sustaining ecosystem giving residents an incredible wildlife view while permanently saving tigers & pandas from extinction in the wild, and enriching third world nations.