Program for the Future Challenge

An annual competition on improving collective intelligence, inspired by the vision of Doug Engelbart.

The Challenge:

Develop a practical method, tool or technology that connects people so that they collectively act more intelligently. We are looking for new ideas – even simple ideas – that help people work better and smarter together in some important area. The challenge embraces all areas of human endeavor – not just technical domains like computing or engineering but also the arts, business, economics, education, government, health, law, philanthropy, science and other spheres. Winning entries will be displayed in the participating museums.

Background:

The Program for the Future Global Design Challenge is inspired by the vision of Douglas C. Engelbart, who fifty years ago saw that the big problems mankind faced were growing faster than our ability to solve them. In response, Dr. Engelbart began his life-long quest to improve our collective intelligence. It is in that spirit that The Tech Museum and the MIT Museum are sponsoring a design challenge to inspire innovators around the world to build the next generation of tools to augment our ability to think and work collectively.

The Program for the Future Design Challenge is organized by the Tech Museum of Innovation in collaboration with the MIT Museum, under the supervision of a distinguished Board of Advisors. The kickoff for the challenge was the Program for the Future Summit and Workshop, held Dec. 8-9, 2008, on the 40th anniversary of Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos."

Calendar and Deadlines - click here for more

Timeline for the 2009 Challenge
Dec. 8, 2008    2009-10 Design Challenge Launch
Feb. 8, 2010    Entry Deadline for 2009-10 Challenge
Mar. 3, 2010    Program for the Future Conference 2010
Mar. 3, 2010    Stage 1 judging selections announced
Mar. 3, 2010    2010-11 Design Challenge Launch
April ?, 2010     Winners of the 2009-2010 Challenge announced