Institute For The Future

Why blog?

"Our Ten-Year Forecast is famous for having outlived its own forecasts. So why turn it into a blog?

Simply put, we think the blog will make it possible to do some old things better and to do some new things that we've always wanted to, but couldn't in print.

First and most important, we want the blog to be a chance for the Institute and its clients to think together. Our ideal is to move from the model of interacting with clients annually to one where we interact on a more continuous basis--not replacing the few intense meetings with more regular exchanges, but adding a new layer of interaction and, in the process, making it possible for us to do even more in the meetings.

At worst, blogs are soliloquies; at their best, they're a salon. Blogs have distinct authors, but invite participation and feedback from readers. One remarkable academic blog, Invisible Adjunct, created a firestorm of controversy earlier this year when its author announced that she was leaving academia and shutting down the blog. Some readers were upset over her decision to give up her academic career; but more were incensed at the idea that she would close what they had come to feel was their space. If the TYF blog becomes the property of its clients, we'll be able to declare the effort a great success.

Of course, the success of the blog-as-salon model will depend not just our ability to create an interesting platform for conversation, but also on the willingness of members to contribute. We also want to learn how to create digital facilitations and experiences that are as interesting as our real-world ones. So we'll be trying a variety of things here. It'll take time to figure out how to develop online conversations, but we'd like to get started.

The blog is also an opportunity to share some of the research materials and thinking that structure our final reports, but aren't part of them. DVDs let directors show alternate endings, comment on a tricky shot or clever plot twist, and explain how they made the choices they did; blogs let writers share work that otherwise goes unseen, and turns the writing process itself into a product. This is especially valuable for us, for every researcher acquires far more interesting material than they can possibly publish in a short article, and many of those citations, articles, interviews, field notes, or musings could be of value to clients. The TYF blog will not only be the place where we publish our final reports; it will be where we share the work as it happens.

The blog will also introduce clients to the potential for using weblogs in business. The blogging phenomenon is just a few years old, and like IM and e-mail, is evolving from a recreational medium to a productive one. We've used blogs at the Institute to support distributed research groups, as a tool for making complex decisions, and to communicate with the public at large. Clients who aren't already familiar with weblogs will get a sense from the TYF blog of what new opportunities the medium offers for discussion, collaboration, and communication.

Finally, we will also move from an annual publishing model to one in which reports are released throughout the year.

Comment by gene becker on 08/31/2004 04:08:51 PM: Kathi & friends, this is a great idea. I love the idea of breathing some networked life into the TYF, I think it will help make TYF more relevant on an ongoing basis, and allow it to be extended by the social fabric of the IFTF and the client community.

A couple of things on my wishlist, since I read dozens of blogs daily in an RSS aggregator:

- Put a visible link to your RSS feeds on the site.

- Syndicate the full text of entries rather than just the excerpts.

Also, is there a limit on the number of readers a member company can have here? If not, could you make a generic user/password for us folks at HP to share?

Comment by Kathi Vian on 09/02/2004 03:01:21 AM: Thanks for your comments, Gene...As you probably know, Alex is our blog guru here at IFTF, so he's been a real guiding force in this effort.

Re: complete entries...some of the pieces are quite long and complex with lots of data charts. Let us think about how best to handle this.

And re: passwords...yes, you're free to share the blog throughout HP. I'll get you a generic password.

Comment by Kathi Vian on 09/02/2004 02:26:14 PM: So it turns out that generic passwords present some thorny problems here. But we can provide individual passwords for anyone who wants one. Just have them contact Maureen Davis at [email protected].

Another option for companies that have an appropriate intranet for sharing the Ten Year Forecast is to set up a pass-through link directly to our blog. Let us know if that would be useful for you.

Comment by Alex on 09/07/2004 04:34:22 PM: I'll reset the RSS default to something very high, so we're assured of always getting the complete entries.

Comment by gene becker on 11/17/2004 03:11:46 PM: Testing, is this thing on?

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