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Announcing an Open Source Guide to 21st Century Movements
We need you to help us explore the art and science of 21st century movements!
On September 25-26, Institute for the Future hosted a writing jam to kickstart the Open Source Guide to 21st Century Movements, a resource for anyone who wants to seed transformative change and a future for good. 20 people came together for two hours at our office in Palo Alto to co-author the guide.
What they drafted is the start of a conversation. It’s designed to be generative, not exhaustive. It's meant to be a living document. And that’s where you come in.
We need your help to build on this initial sketch of the changing landscape for social movements, and to make it more complete. Please add to it. Include your name as a co-author of a given section, and of the overall guide. This is not designed to be a consensus document, but rather a spark to get us thinking about the future of movements. Access and contribute to guide here. Use and share it with your community to build impact for your own cause!
Why 21st century movements?
The SOPA Blackout. #BringBackOurGirls. Occupy. The Ice Bucket Challenge. When movements reach a flashpoint, we see massive amounts of people acting in concert with each other with unprecedented speed and coordination. But the future’s epic problems require more; they require that we mobilize groups at epic scales. We will need—not organizations, not platforms—but 21st century movements that can superstruct groups around the world, creating new practices, tools, and flows of social coordination with new levels of speed, reach, and impact.
Why create an open source guide?
For that reason, IFTF is scanning a broad set of examples to consider the science and art of 21st century movements. We’re exploring what it will take to grow a movement in the future—to mobilize for change at massive scales. At the basic level, we also want to understand what a movement is, how movements evolve, and the strategies and tactics used throughout their life cycles. Grounded in IFTF’s history of researching transformative change, the Open Source Guide is a conversation. It's open to anyone to add their experiences, resources, tools and share with others as we move into the future.
Grounding in urgent futures
To ground the analysis in real-world examples, we’re engaging with our 2014 IFTF Future for Good Fellows. They are seeding movements to create change around urgent futures:
- Future of Crime | Moving Beyond Law Enforcement
- Future of Place | Reimagining Spaces as Social Laboratories
- Future of Internet | Confronting Peak Advertising
- Future of Identity | Cultivating Lifestyle as a Force for Social Change
- Future of Well-Being | Practicing Joy Interventions
- Future of Work | Exploring Sustainable Pathways for Musicians
How can I take part?
Contribute to and help us share the Open Source Guide for 21st Century Movements using the hashtag #future4good.
For More Information
For more information about the Open Source Guide and our Future for Good Initiative, contact Rachel Hatch ([email protected]) or Carol Neuschul ([email protected]).
About the Future for Good Initative
The unknown, urgent future calls for practical visionaries, who ask provocative questions and seek actionable, impactful answers. The IFTF Future for Good initiative brings together innovative social thinkers to start this process. They will meld seeing with doing and thinking with making, inspiring all of us to join—for the future belongs to everyone. We must all dedicate ourselves, our careers, and our aspirations to create a future for good, now and in generations to come.