Module 2 Technology Trends Organizations to Watch

Organizations to Watch

  • Acceleration Watch Links to an external site.
    • A project of the Acceleration Studies Foundation (ASF) and written by technology foresight scholar and systems theorist John M. Smart. "It is intended for technology scholars, strategists, futurists, and the general public, to improve our understanding and management of accelerating change." © 2006, Acceleration Studies Foundation
  • Association of Professional Futurists Links to an external site.
    • A growing community of professional futurists dedicated to promoting excellence and demonstrating the value of futures thinking." Their mission is to lead international discussions on futures practice and encourage the use of foresight in strategic thinking, as well as provide resources and training to professional futurists.
  • BBC Future: Technology (Links to an external site.)
    • Their mission is to "enrich people's lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain." Their technology public purpose is to deliver the "benefit of emerging communications, technologies and services."
  • Centre for Future Studies (Links to an external site.)
    • They are a UK-based "strategic futures consultancy enabling organisations to anticipate and manage change in their external environment."
    • Their "work involves research and analysis across the spectrum of political, economic, social and technological themes" and they "translate raw information into insightful knowledge and concise understanding."
  • Discern Analytics (Links to an external site.)
    • Where "people, data and technology work in concert to identify early indicators and extend the curtain of good information well beyond timeframes typical in traditional analytics." The result = sustainable insight.
  • Google (Links to an external site.)
    • Their mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." They build products that they hope will make the web a better experience. they believe the focus should be on the user and all else will follow.
  • Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies (Links to an external site.)
    • "A nonprofit think tank which promotes ideas about how technological progress can increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies." They believe that "technological progress can be a catalyst for positive human development so long as we ensure that technologies are safe and equitably distributed."
  • Institute for the Future (Links to an external site.): IFTF Palo Alto
    • "An independent, non-profit research organization [whose] core research staff and creative design studio work together to provide practical foresight for a world undergoing rapid change." They provide tools, research and programs to work toward a global future.
  • MIT Technology Review (Links to an external site.)
    • This source "identifies important new technologies - deciphering their practical impact and revealing how they will change our lives. Founded at MIT in 1899, it derives its authority from the world's foremost technology institution and from [their] editors' deep technical knowledge, economic realism, and unequaled access to the world's preeminent innovators.
  • The Arlington Institute (Links to an external site.)
    • Founded in 1989 by futurist John L. Petersen, TAI is a "non-profit research institute that specializes in thinking about global futures and trying to influence rapid, positive change. They "believe that effective thinking about the future is enhanced by applying newly emerging technology."
  • The RAND Corporation (Links to an external site.)
    • RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan company, was established almost 70 years ago and was a pioneer of futures studies. They "bring together the finest researchers in the world and utilize the very best analytical tools and methods to develop objective policy solutions.
  • World Futures Studies Federation (Links to an external site.)
    • Founded in Paris in 1973 as a global network of leading futurists, WFSF is a non-profit global NGO that is "committed to global futures and creating alternative futures that embrace cultural diversity and individual difference." They "are independent, non-commercial in focus and geared towards strengthening the scholarship of futures research."
  • World Future Society (Links to an external site.)
    • Established more than 40 years ago, WFS's mission is "to enable thinkers, political personalities, scientists and lay-people to share an informed, serious dialogue on what the future will be like." They hold meetings, events and publish the magazine THE FUTURIST.