The Big Picture

1
The Big Picture
Presentation to the AC/UNU Millennium Project
Planning Committee
MP-SOFI-SD Project

• A Full Scale Implementation of SOFI

17-Jul-2003 San Francisco, CA., USA. Peter P.
Yim ltpeter.yim_at_cim3.comgt (v 2.04)
2
Outline

• The Mission
• Core Concepts and Values
• A Look at the Software
• Who are the users
• What can one do with it
• Looking at the Big Picture

3
Mission

• To build on the previous research of the
  Millennium Project, including the spreadsheet
  model, algorithm and collection of data, and
  progressively develop it into an Internet based
  futures study and analysis tool supported over an
  open knowledge system.

4
MP-SOFI-SD Project Phases

• Phase 0 Strategizing, planning, staging
  requirements gathering.
• Phase 1 Initial software tool implementation and
  the launch of a community of practice around
  SOFI.
• Subsequent Phases Continuous development and
  improvement of the SOFI system, content and
  knowledge through the collaboration of open
  communities that are augmented by the Internet
  and other technologies.

5
Core Concepts Values driving this work

• The SOFI Methodology
• The "Bootstrap" Paradigm
• Serving a wide variety of applications
• Collaboration among participants and stakeholders
  in the form of virtual communities.
• The notion of "Openness"

6
The System (1/3) Design Criteria

• Interoperability
• Openness
• Standards Compliance
• Enterprise-class Robustness
• Scalability
• Reliability
• Security

7
Architecture
8
The User Interface
9
The Users (1) SOFI Developers

• Global, national, regional, NGO and corporate
  policymakers
• Professionals, scholars, academics
• Economists, political scientists, social
  scientists, etc., and
• The Millennium Project and its Nodes

10
The Classes of Users (2)

• General public
• Researchers, journalists, trend watchers
• Policy makers (government, NGO, corporate, )
• SOFI developers, modelers, futures researchers
• Data owners (those who own and maintain databases
  whose data is used to construct the SOFIs)
• System developers (those who will contribute to
  the software)
• System Administrators (those who administer the
  SOFI system)

11
What can we do on the System?

• Viewing/reading up
• Comparisons
• Drill-downs and searches on related information
• Asking what-if questions by tweaking the SOFI
  parameters, or exercising alternate Scenarios
• Developing new SOFI's
• SOFIs for different Countries, Regions,
  Municipalities, etc. (e.g. a USA-SOFI,
  France-SOFI, Russia-SOFI, China-SOFI or a
  EU-SOFI, Middle-East SOFI, Greater-China SOFI,
  Latin-America SOFI etc.)
• SOFIs for different government or industrial
  sectors (e.g. E-Government SOFI Petroleum and
  Oil industry SOFI Automotive Industry SOFI
  Aerospace industry SOFI Science Technology
  SOFI Nanotechnology SOFI Tertiary Education
  SOFI etc.)
• SOFI for Corporations individual Organizations
  Programs, Initiatives or Product Lines etc.
• Collaboration and Collaborative Development
• Interaction and accessing data, information and
  knowledge
• Human-to-machine
• Human-to-human
• Machine-to-machine
• Building up the systems database and
  knowledgebase

12
The Big Picture (1)

• this was not simply a software to calculate an
  index,
• but a framework for people to systematically
  think together
• about what is important to the future,
• how to measure it,
• what is the best bang for the buck to get the
  whole index up,
• alternatives to the approaches systematically
  vetted,
• generation of an improvement community to make
  better SOFIs,
• method to keep all this organized,
• allowing for group and private use,
• on the web and stand alone, etc.

13
The Big Picture (2)

• it's not just software, but rather, it is about
  the co-evolution of tool systems and human
  systems
• this is not another software project, but
  something that is of strategic importance to our
  MP type work
• this is not even about technology, but about how
  people can handle change and ever increasing
  complexities in the world we live in improving
  our ability to systematically measure, analyze,
  manage, be ready, be responsiveness, and
• be able to make informed decisions and cope with
  the ever more urgent and complex challenges

14
The Big Picture (3)

• We are creating the environment for collaborative
  development and innovation
• We have an opportunity in putting world-class
  futures researchers side-by-side with world class
  technologists
• expecting emergent patterns and behaviors
• A strategic initiative of the Millennium Project
• One that integrates and leverages our unique
  strengths in people, tools methodology
• potentially another differentiator of MP as a
  futures think-tank

15
References

• The Chapters on SOFI and its Full Implementation
  on Futures Research Methodology v2.0
• Copies of this and our last presentation are
  available at http//mp.cim3.net/file/project/mp-s
  ofi-sd/presentation/mp-sofi-sd-P2.htm
• http//mp.cim3.net/file/project/mp-sofi-sd/pr
  esentation/mp-sofi-sd-P1.htm
• The 3 page concept letter that you will need to
  introduce this project to a potential sponsor/
  collaborator/user/contributor is available at
  http//mp.cim3.net/file/project/mp-sofi-sd/proposa
  l/SOFI-Concept_letter_template.doc
• MP-SOFI-SD Project Documents are accessible
  from http//mp.cim3.net/file/project/mp-sofi-sd/h
  ome.html

16
Q A and Discussion