This map is a summary and synthesis of the answers we found in the last year. As a summary, it provides some key highlights from our research results. As a synthesis, it pulls together ideas from across the research programs to create an at-a-glance view of a changing world.

In 2002, we focused on five key areas of innovation: households, communities, markets, organizations, and technology. Looking for common themes across these five areas, we identified six big trends that describe emerging culture of a highly connected world.

These trends are not simple monikers for simple movements. They are rich and complex shifts in our attention, our behaviors, and our capacities as social beings. They are also not simple replacements for what came before. As we move toward something new, we keep much of what came before, and this often creates dilemmas.

We hope that this map can be a conversation starter about these emerging dilemmas, a way to focus our attention on some of the not-so-obvious patterns of future—and the not so obvious opportunities that they provide for improving lives everywhere.