Program for the Future

Don't miss this unique conference on collaboration systems happening this Wednesday, March 3 at The Tech Museum in San Jose.

Organized by a batch of collaboration specialists known as Program for the Future, and basing their ideals on Doug Engelbart's vision of developing tool systems that can deal with the world's complex and "wicked" and problems - this conference will be an experiential dive into the real-time use of multiple collaobration systems.

Finalists  of the Program for the Future Challenge will be announced during the day - along with the announcement of one winner of the Engelbart Prize in the evening program (brief agenda)(full agenda).

Meshing virtual worlds, Google Wave, real time reporting from tables, video and more, this is one not to be missed.  Less than 8  "real world" attendee spots remain open  for the venue in San Jose, and if you can't make it in person, register as a virtual participant.  Join in with all the collaborative tools you can bring to this unique experiment.

Real and virtual registration at: http://colaboration2010.eventbrite.com

There will be multiple opportunities to link up with some of the most talented tool makers and users there, so here's your invitation to get involved on all these levels.
See you there,
- Bob Ketner

advisor Hirishi Ishii on the front cover.

Not only that, I was happy to see featured in the issue the artwork of CoLABoration 2010 organizer Eileen Clegg, Chuck House of Stanford Media X, Martha Russel, and SRI VP Stephen Ciesinski. It's great so see so many of our direct community featured in this magazine under the feature Advanced Design Research in issue 142.

-Bob Ketner

To see the current entries or add a new one, go to
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/program-for-the-future/program-for-the-future-challenge

The judging criteria for the Challenge entries, determined by a distinguished panel of advisors, are in three parts:

Your Method, Tool or Technology

• Can your innovation be a stepping stone towards enabling people to solve an important problem?
• Does your innovation promote communication and collaboration? 
• Will your innovation enable changes in the way people work together that will lead to better decisions or outcomes?
• Does your innovation scale, continuing to support better outcomes even as more people use it? 
• Does your innovation have the potential to change social and cultural practices for the better? 

Your Demo 

• Is your demo hands-on and interactive? Is the museum visitor's experience an improvement over Web access? 
• Does your demo adequately explain how and why your method, tool or technology works? 
• Will your demo inspire others? 

Your Plan for Impact 

• Is your plan likely to lead to successful adoption and widespread dissemination?
• Would winning a prize make a significant difference to your innovation’s potential impact? 
• Does your plan favor community contribution and global connection?

Many really interesting ideas have been submitted, but few have a well-developed idea for a demo (a.k.a. museum exhibit).  Apparently, developing collective intelligence tools and museum exhibits require quite different skill sets.  Who knew?  The advisors have therefore decided to split the judging process in two: deciding first on the merits of only the "method, tool or technology" and the "plan for impact."  Judging the merits of the demo will not occur until about a month later, in coordination with the sponsoring museums (The Tech Museum, the MIT Museum and Science Centre Singapore).

Accordingly, we are giving entrants an **EXTENSION** of about a month (details coming soon) to complete their demos.  This will not; however; change the Feb. 8 deadline to enter; describe your method, tool or technology; and your plan for impact.  The selection of the first stage of judging (but not the final winners) will be announced at CoLABoration 2010, the second Program for the Future Conference, on March 3.  The final winners will be announced a month or two later.

Finally, speaking of the PFTF Conference on March 3, it will be a collaboration mash-up.  At CoLABoration 2010, we are experimenting with Doug Engelbart's idea of "co-evolution" -- by bringing together technology leaders with experts in human facilitation and representatives of many disciplines -- all focused on improving collaborative techniques.  Can you help us fire up the global brain?  Our  goal is to launch a collaborative community that will become an intentional neural network for global problem solving.  Humanity could find innovative ways to handle our world crises (not to mention our day-to-day problems)  if we all could put our heads together and our egos out of the way.

Because it will be focused on doing collaboration not just talking about it, attendance will be limited.  If you would like to attend in person at The Tech Museum in San Jose, please fill out this application and we will contact you.  We will announce plans for virtual participation soon.  For more information, see programforthefuture.org/conference.

The Tech Museum Tech Connect Magazine: "Program for the Future: An Invitation to Innovation"

By Bob Ketner January, 2009

Program for the Future: An Invitation to Innovation

On December 8 and 9, 2008 The Tech hosted a major summit and workshop based around the topic of "Collective Intelligence". The purpose of the conference was to set the stage for the next wave of collective intelligence tools - innovations that enable people and computers to be connected so that collectively they act more intelligently than individuals, groups or computers have ever done before. Produced in conjunction with the MIT Museum, Adobe Systems, Stanford Media X, the New Media Consortium and others; the conference brought together computing legends, new innovators, and thinkers from around the world for a truly global event.

The event dates were chosen to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Doug Engelbart's 90 minute "Mother of All Demos" in which he introduced the world to the innovations of the computer mouse, file folders, copy and paste, and word processing.  The demo was the world debut of the foundations of modern computing that we take for granted today.  Forty years later, Program for the Future asks the question: what's next?

The 2 day conference featured talks by Tom Malone of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Hiroshi Ishii of the MIT Media Lab, Peter Friess, President of The Tech Museum, Peter Norvig of Google, and appearances by tech luminaries such as Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and Doug Engelbart himself.  The highly interactive conference featured brainstorming sessions, real-time surveys, roundtable discussions, panels, and a complete parallel event held in the virtual world of Second Life. In all, over 250 local participants and over 3,000 virtual attendees participated. 

Perhaps more important than the conference itself, Program for the Future is now focused on finding new collective intelligence tools, and working to enable the next wave of innovators to network and develop new solutions.  Not limited to techhies, Program for the Future is inviting people from all backgrounds to contribute to this worldwide challenge - to design new tools that enable us to work collectively on complex problems. 

This search takes the form of an annual design challenge to find new ideas – even simple ideas – that help people work better and smarter together in some important area. The challenge is to develop a practical method, tool or technology that connects people so that they collectively act more intelligently. 

What comes to mind when you think about the future of interactivity?  If you were to be transported to the year 2048, what do you think they would say is the most important thing that improved collective working since the days of the computer interfaces we have now?  We're welcoming people to join Program for the Future by submitting entries to this challenge, then illustrate them using our Tech Virtual platform. Winning entries may be displayed at The Tech, the MIT Museum and other participating museums as exhibits prototyped in the program. It might sound far-fetched - but you just might have some insight that will help develop the future.  

In 1968 Doug Engelbart dreamed of technology and tools that increased our Collective Intelligence and delivered a stunning example of how it works.  Now it's up to us to take up the challenge.  Please join Program for the Future online at http://www.programforthefuture.org

- Bob Ketner January, 2009