Technology Horizons
The Technology Horizons Program combines a deep understanding of technology and societal forces to identify and evaluate discontinuities and innovations in the next 3 to 10 years. We help organizations develop insights and strategic tools to better position themselves for the future. Our approach to technology forecasting is unique—we put people at the center of our forecasts. Understanding humans as consumers, workers, householders, and community members allows IFTF to help companies look beyond technical feasibility to identify the value in new technologies, forecast adoption and diffusion patterns, and discover new market opportunities and threats.
Lyn Jeffery | Director, Technology Horizons Program
For more information on membership in the Technology Horizons Program, please contact Sean Ness at sness@iftf.org or 650-233-9517.
When Everything is Programmable: Technology Horizons 2009 Fall Conference Material
Millennia ago, young couples in Egypt prayed to fertility gods with the hope of receiving the gift of a child. Much later, Native Americans performed ceremonial dances to pray for rain and a bountiful harvest. In the middle of the 19th century, the Central European monk Gregor Mendel selectively crossbred pea plants to control the characteristics of their offspring. While the approaches differ...
The Future of Real-Time Video Communication
What is the future of real-time video communication and what will it feel like to live and work in a world where real-time video is ubiquitous?
Skype commissioned IFTF to research and start a conversation about this question and much more in this newly-released report.
Video technologies are improving dramatically and rapidly, supporting mobile and ubiquitous real-time...
The Future of Real-Time Video Communication report released
What is the future of real-time video communication and what will it feel like to live and work in a world where real-time video is ubiquitous?
Skype commissioned IFTF to research and start a conversation about this question and much more in this newly-released report.
Video technologies are improving dramatically and rapidly, supporting mobile and ubiquitous real-time...
Persuasion, Coercion, and MLK
For many years now, serious academic researchers have been looking closely at the concept, technologies, and implications of persuasion. This Spring, the Institute for the Future is embarking on a very exciting research program to look at the state of persuasion as it stands today, how persuasive technologies and techniques might evolve over the next ten years, and what persuasion will feel...
Applying Superstruct Design for an Augmented Reality Developers Camp
Recently a few colleagues and I organized an Augmented Reality Developers Camp - a perfect example of a "Superstruct" an idea introduced In 2008 by Jane McGonigal, Kathi Vian, and the IFTF Ten Year Forecast team.
Su`per`struct´ v. t. 1.To build over or upon another structure; to erect upon a foundation. Superstructing is what humans do. We build new structures on old...
Mapping Kenya's largest slum
Kenya has begun an impressive project to map Kibera, it's largest slum. Although Kibera has an estimated 1 million inhabitants, the...
When Everything is Programmable Digital Stories
As a part of the year-long Technology Horizons Program research task, When Everything is Progammable: Life in a Conmputational Age, the research team created a digital story—a scenario of of the future—in three parts to accompany the research released for the 2009 Fall Exchange.
The story follows "Omar"—a doctor working at Seattle Grace in...
In Defense of Generalists
Musical Instruments of the Future at Swissnex
Ever wished that your cello's bow was bluetooth-enabled? Wondering why your guitar doesn't have a USB out port?
Barry Threw and Gil Carnal have been working on...
Municipal Vaporware: Why NYC's Data Mine is A Data Dump
This morning, Mayor Mike Bloomberg unveiled New York City's long-awaited Big Apps contest. Big Apps seeks to promote the Internet industry in the Big Apple (it's sponsored by the New York City Economic Development Corporation) and make local government more transparent.
I've been following the evolution of open data initiatives at the municipal level for about a year now, and was really...
- Research Director Mani Pande is quoted in the Global Finance story "A wide open world"
- Marina Gorbis and David Pescovitz are quoted in the Times Online story "Hurtling to a scary future"
- Executive Director, Marina Gorbis, is quoted in the AP article "Our devices will spin denser webs of data in 2010s"
- Research Director, Anthony Townsend, testifies before a Senate Committee on Research Parks and Transportation
- IFTF's Executive Director, Marina Gorbis, launches her new blog From Odessa to the Future
- Signtific's FreeSpace game at SigntificLab is featured in a Good Morning Silicon Valley post, "Play your cards right and you, too, can be a futurist"
