Future Now
The IFTF Blog
The Launch of Signtific!
After many months of hard work, we are proud to announce the official launch of Signtific!
Signtific.org is an innovative and dynamic collaborative web-based platform designed for engaging scientists and technologists from all areas of study in identifying disruptive trends. The platform is three-fold: First, Signals are the foundational indicators that point to larger trends and supply the conversation on Signtific. Second, Notebooks are the organizational hubs where you can collect Signals and choose to share your ideas with trusted colleagues. Last, Forecasts are combine signals in your notebook to identify a key trend, disruption, opportunity, or shift in the competitive landscape.<p/>
Navigation around Signtific is organized into four categories: Create", "Discover", "Discuss" and "Experiment.
" In Create you can start signaling and forecasting. Discover is where you can go to dive into the rich information that other users have created, and where you can comment on, rate, and otherwise interact with site content.
No science is complete without experimentation, so keep an eye out for Experiment going live shortly! In the coming weeks we'll be launching The Lab where you can connect in real-time with colleagues from around the world through science and technology scenarios. We don't want to give away all the cool stuff too quickly so make sure to log in frequently to be a participant.
Finally, one of the most valuable contributions that you can make to Signtific is rating the site's content base. When reading a signal or forecast, click on Submit Rating and you will be asked to rate the signal based on two characteristics: Likelihood (how likely it is that a signal or forecast will occur) and Impact (if the signal or forecast does occur, how important will it be).
Rating content will help users find strong and relevant content, identify outlying signals and forecasts, and help us with our work visualizing Signtific's data - in short, everybody wins when you rate, so get to it!
The Signtific team is looking forward to your contributions, thoughts, and discussions. Check back to
the blog for updates where we'll uncover the latest in the world of Signtific, have special guest contributors, interviews, thought-provoking write-ups, and user and affiliation showcases./p>
Signal On!
-The Signtific Team
P.S. we have had a lot of questions about the Signtific Labs page, and in order to whet your appetite, we are proud to present the following sneak peak at the first Signtific Lab Experiment, which will be debuted by our game designer Jane McGonigal at Webstock 2009 in New Zealand from February 16 - 20. Enjoy the video, and stay tuned for more updates.<p/>