Future Forecasting

Crowdsourced Resources on Open Data

By Elizabeth Merritt

A lot of great folks joined me for last Friday’s Tweet chat on open data. Here’s a compilation of the resources, recommendations and questions shared by participants, to help you Find me on Twitter@futureofmuseums with your exploration of …
Visualizing the Future

By Elizabeth Merritt

As someone who reads a killing amount of text every week—news, blogs, email, journals, newspapers, reports, even (luxury of luxuries) books—I find switching over to nonverbal mode to be a sweet relief. Besides, other modalities (pictures, …
Monday Musing: TrendsWatch Watch

By Elizabeth Merritt

Here’s a quick roundup of recent stories related to the themes in TrendsWatch 2015 (Haven’t got your copy yet? Download the free PDF here. Print copies will be available in the AAM Bookstore soon.) Open Data Here’s a story I featured in …
The “Open” Economy: Filling The Data Pipeline

By Elizabeth Merritt

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2015 edition of Museum magazine. A sample of TrendsWatch 2015. “‘Open’ is already on track to supplant ‘participatory’ as buzzword of the year, with good reason. The proliferation of …
Finally Beyond the Hype? Simulcasting Experiences and Virtual Reality

By Elizabeth Merritt

I hope you’ve had a chance to look at TrendsWatch 2015 (download your copy here.) In coming months, a host of guest bloggers will explore each theme in more depth. First up, CFM Council member Garry Golden, a professional futurist who …
Releasing TrendsWatch 2015 into the Wild

By Elizabeth Merritt

I want to say “Tada!” but I think all I have the energy for is “whew.” This year’s TrendsWatch is now available for download, and for the next week I’ll be hovering anxiously over my Twitter feed (#TrendsWatch), blogroll and e-mail to …
Futurist Friday: Alt History & Alt Futures

By Elizabeth Merritt

Ever wonder how the present would be different, if some some key event in our past had torqued just enough to propel us into a different sector of the Cone of Plausibility? Exploring such scenarios is the realm of “alternative …
Privacy in a Watchful World TW 14 update

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is one of a series of mid-year updates on the 2014 TrendsWatch trends. I’ve already posted entries on Big Data, Social Entrepreneurship, the Sharing Economy and Robots, as well as updates on the Crowdsourcing and Philanthropy …
Keeping up with the 2014 Trends: Big Data

By Elizabeth Merritt

This is the second midyear update on the CFM report TrendsWatch 2014. Last week I week I reviewed recent developments related to “For-profit For Good”—the rise of social entrepreneurs. This week I take a look at the last six months of news …
Keeping up with the 2014 Trends: For Profit For Good

By Elizabeth Merritt

It’s been about 6 months since the Alliance released TrendsWatch 2014, so I’m going to blog a round of updates on each of this year’s six trends. In each of these posts I will recap the trend, report on its overall arc in the first half of …