Institute For The Future

Tech Horizons' Make the Future Bootcamp

How we get things done is about to change. We’ve already seen technology revolutionize the way we communicate with each other. Now, we’re on the verge of a revolution in how we coordinate with each other to get things done. New mechanisms for coordinating human activity will disrupt and realign how we organize human activity—whether it is the coordination of work and workers, learning and knowledge creation, citizenship and community engagement, collaboration and problem-solving, or creativity and innovation.

On November 7-8, at the Quadrus Conference Center in Menlo Park, we’re holding our first ever Technology Horizons’ Realigning Human Organization: Make the Future Bootcamp, to help IFTF clients anticipate the radical changes these emerging coordination mechanisms will bring about. Through a series of presentations and panels, as well as hands-on work with early versions of these emerging mechanisms, IFTF researchers, technology experts, and clients will explore the upcoming revolution in human coordination together and lay a foundation for resilience in the coming decade of dramatic organizational change.

Bootcamp attendance is open to our clients only, however, you can participate by following the conference on Twitter with the hashtag #realignorg and engaging with the conversations we’ll be having over the course of the two days.

Overview of Day 1 (Wednesday, November 7)

The first day of Bootcamp kicks off with a welcome by Tech Horizons Program Director Rod Falcon (@rodfalcon) and Research Director David Pescovitz, after which Research Director Devin Fidler (@devinfidler) will take us on a journey through the history of massive realignments of organizational capability, to ground the forecasts we will present and put them in historical context.

Next, a panel of IFTF and outside experts will explore six “New Mechanisms for Realigning Human Organization.” Devin, along with Research Directors Jason Tester (@guerillafutures) and Anthony Townsend (@anthonyiftf), will join Stanford Computer Science Professor Michael Bernstein (@msbernst), Pacific Social Architecting Corporation Director Tim Hwang (@timhwang), and Gigwalk Founder Matt Crampton (@mattccrampton) to introduce the technologies behind “Human Task Routing,” “Socialbot Swarms,” “Here-Sourcing,” “Do-ocracies,” “Matter Routing,” and “Autonomous Algorithms” and provide live demonstrations.

In the following session, Anthony, Devin, and Jason will present four “Visions of Realignment,” forecasts of how we might learn, innovate, collaborate, and come together as communities and citizens when new mechanisms for coordination dramatically change the current forms of institutions.

After lunch, David will host a panel on “Putting the Mechanisms to Work,” featuring Greg Lindsay (@greg_lindsay) of Fast Company and Tayyab Tariq, a MS candidate in computer science at Stanford. They’ll discuss the transformative potentials and unexpected consequences of these new emerging mechanisms for coordination.

Next up is “Make The Future: New Mechanisms of Coordination,” an immersive crash course in emerging technologies and tools for coordinating human activity. We’ll work in small groups, each of which will be assigned one of the following expert guides: IFTF Research Director Jake Dunagan (@dunagan23), Mobile Works CEO Anand Kulkarni (@polybot), Pacific Social Architecting Corporation Partner Ian Pearce (@peeinears), oDesk Labor Scientist Greg Little @thought_stream), oDesk Enterprise Solutions Manager Whitney Priest, or Thumbtack.com President Jonathan Swanson (@swaanson).

The first day closes with “Mounting Core Challenges,” in which Jason will introduce the Realignment Toolkit that we’ve created to help you navigate the coming opportunities and disruptions and prototype your responses. After which, there will be a reception and dinner keynote by journalist Quinn Norton (@quinnnorton), who has been published in Wired, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Make Magazine, Seed, and The Irish Times. She’ll discuss her recently concluded a multi-month Wired series on Anonymous and Occupy and explain what those groups say about the future of human coordination. 

Overview of Day 2 (Thursday, November 8)

After David leads the group in reflections on key insights from the previous day, Jason will lead a deep dive into the Toolkit in the session “Unboxing the Realignment Toolkit.” This will be a chance to sync organizational goals, diagnose new synergies between technology and organizational design, and prototype the actions you need to take.

The day will conclude with “Creative Chaos with Chinese Characteristics,” in which Research Director Lyn Jeffery (@lynj) will explore the growing convergence of Chinese creative imitation and new small-scale manufacturing in the West, and explains its implications for the nature of creativity and innovation. This will be followed by a brief preview of next year’s Tech Horizons’ research agenda by Rod and IFTF Business Development Director Sean Ness (@seanness).

We’re very excited about the new research we will be presenting at the Bootcamp and hope you’ll be following along on Twitter with the hashtag #realignorg. For more information, contact Sean at [email protected].