Category Archives: News

It’s always enlightening to see a complex representation in a completely unexpected metaphor. Columbus Futurist member Steve Seeskin shared at our June meeting an intriguing graphic developed by Richard Watson of the “What’s Next” site – key trends and events in a form that emulates the Periodic Table of Elements.  Check it out here. TheContinue reading “Visualization of key trends”

Thanks to Jamie Bisker for a terrific presentation about Big Data – and it’s impact on a variety of business and social issues. Further,  Jamie has made available a paper he has written on the subject – download it to read.  This paper has a focus on analytics in the insurance industry but the discussion will be broad-ranging.  ThereContinue reading “Big Data, with a presentation by Columbus Futurist member Jamie Bisker”

The Columbus Futurists’ Book Circle will take place at the November 29 meeting, at our regular location at the Community Room at Panera Bread. David Staley has selected  The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future by Laurence C. Smith for discussion.  This book is “A vivid forecast of our planet in the yearContinue reading “Book Circle Title Announced”

Seems like many of our discussions at the Columbus Futurists turn on the subject of education.  We obviously recognize it as a key component of any future we contemplate. For a little more wood on the fire, here’s a link to a comprehensive look at the thescience standards for education in all 50 US states.Continue reading “New report on standards in science education in the US”

The June meeting elicited some very interesting conversation about education.  As someone pointed out, it seems that a lot of thinking about the future revolves around the subject of education. Here are the resources used to provide background: All the videos are from TED.com – recommended by Chuck Crawford who kicked the discussion off. • KenContinue reading “June Meeting – Threats and Opportunities in K – 12 Education”

Columbus Futurist member Bob Letcher has published a new post in the LA Progressive entitled “The Frog Economy – A Reaction to Professor Reich’s Tortoise Economy.” Here’s an excerpt: With great respect and much trepidation, I wish to challenge Professor Reich’s“tortoise” analogy, because he focuses so tightly on the challenge his tortoise faces in tryingContinue reading “The Frog Economy – Reaction to Robert Reich”

I subscribe to a wonderful newsletter about design, produced by a wise and creative fellow named John McWade (publishes a newsletter called Before and After) – he passed along this tidbit – that frames a basic problem in our education prospects going forward, in every profession.  Here’s the excerpted story: “{After a conference …} AtContinue reading “Education: Picnic basket or scavenger hunt?”

Another interesting perspective on trend analysis in history.  Yes it’s a TED talk, by Jean-Baptiste Michel, taped at the TED conference this February: The mathematics of history. Not that this topic hasn’t been addressed in the past, but with the advent of BigData, and other powerful new computing models and paradigms, the analysis of theContinue reading “The Mathematics of History”

Found out about it too late – but what fun it would have been to attend: The Future That Never Was. One of the speakers, Matt Novak, wrote a piece describing the background of the concept and the event.  It is fun – though sometimes melancholy – to go back and score our success atContinue reading “The Future That Might Have Been”

The meeting on Thursday was well attended and took some lively turns.  The topic was “Well-being in Ohio” and discussion was based on a survey conducted around the country to show the relative wellness, happiness and so forth for the US population at a quite granular level.  The Ohio report shows some interesting anomalies.  TheContinue reading “Lively meeting!”