Learning Ecosystems

From DSC:
Given the pace of change, thinking like a futurist is quickly becoming a necessary skill.  You don’t want to be the person they come up to and tap on the shoulder…telling you that your services are no longer needed here. I wish more colleges and universities had such programs — or at least integrating more of this way of thinking into all of the disciplines.

Addendum on 8/23/14:

• WFS CEO Amy Zalman speaks to London futurists and others during UK tour — from WFS
  Excerpt:
  Dr. Zalman’s tour concluded with an address to the London Futurists, where she spoke to an audience of 70 about the future of futurism. She stressed the need for “now futurism,” a call to action for foresight professionals to take active, incremental steps today to shape the future.”The need for ‘now futurism’ is immense. It’s partly why I think that networks like the one I now have the privilege of leading are so crucial,” said Zalman. “We are home to an important professional community, but also a very wide span of others who feel some stake in the future… Small insertions into the system will, through the wonder of network effects, create feedback loops that should reach into the society that lies beyond the boundaries of our membership and network.”To listen to the speech, click here.
  .
  
• Futurism – Profession, Art or Science?
  Excerpt:
  To put this into context, futurism is different from strategy, our own prime concern – instead of juggling knowledge of the past, current realities and future expectations into a plan of action and reaction against fast-moving opponents, the futurist is looking ahead to the probabilities and possibilities that might affect strategy beyond the immediate struggle.  Many of the audience were engineers and scientists used to hypotheses that had to be tested against evidenced data so some may have been surprised to hear Amy refer to professional futurism in terms that were more humanistic and the futurist, amongst many other analogues, as an artist.