DAY 13 W 9 OCT                                  AW V. 1.0, 073013

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FIELD TREK

“Innovation is not what innovators create but what people adopt”      

– Michael Schrage, MIT Media Lab Fellow,  Author, Serious Play

DRIVING QUESTIONS  

1. Who are we interviewing/observing?

2. What are we learning about them?

3. What do we notice about/strikes me as distinctive about the location/environment/neighborhood?

3. How can my trek findings serve as data points for salient  patterns that might inform future persona profiles and scenario narratives?

4. What is the most effective way to represent our TREK findings?

SCHEDULE

4:30-7:20pm:  TEAMS CONDUCT FIELD TREK IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS USING TOOLS SELECTED FROM THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES, MODELS, TEMPLATES, FRAMEWORKS & REFERENCES:

Up to now, this class has pursued the following activities : 1. FORESIGHT: we have explored possible ways to think about NORMATIVE SCENARIOS for LIFE2050 broadly and generally through discussion from our own personal points of view as well as surveying scenarios from planners, economists, political scientists and futurists who create future strategic scenarios for public, private and civil organizations. We have familiarized ourselves with PLANPGH, the comprehensive plan for metropolitan Pittsburgh to horizon year 2035. Class teams have identified three pathways toward desired futures to explore as their design lab project;  i.e.: LEARNPGH, SHAREPGH and OPPORTUNITYPGH.

FARSIGHT: We have begun to look laterally at “the edges” of design to adjacent fields in order to discern EARLY SIGNALS/FUTURE SIGNS of FORCES OF CHANGE that are likely to shape the future and suggest opportunities to proactively DEXIGN THE FUTURE.

INSIGHT & FORESIGHT: Now it is time to try to step away from our own personal biases and preconceptions and begin to envision the future from the perspective and the lived experience of the people who are going to live in the future. To do that, we need people to design for, with and by – people who are going to inhabit and experience the future, specifically LIFE2050 in PGH3.0 – people who are not us and not today’s planners, futurists, scholars and experts. A way designers do this is through PERSONA-BASED SCENARIOS – narratives of the future (sometimes called “future fictions”) told through the lived experience of PERSONAS – composite characters usually comprised of characteristics drawn from informed imagination and present day observed study subjects.

We conduct EXPEDITIONARY TREKS to observe and interview real people today in their accustomed situations. Here our purpose is not to gather projectable statistical data. Rather it is to uncover what interests, influences and motivates peoples’ attitudes, behavior and lifestyle today and how they express their concerns, dilemmas and hopes for the future. These serve as data points of reference for attributes and salient  patterns that might inform future persona profiles and scenario narratives for our FUTURE PERSONA cast of characters.

Following are some of the Collective Invention templates and frameworks we will refer to in creating a gallery of FUTURE PERSONAS.

This PERSONAS TOOLKIT was prepared for a workshop at INDEX, Denmark.:

1. Build Persona Profiles  CI_Personas_toolkit#2   Pp. 1 -7 show a template for building a PERSONA MANDALA or profile. You can substitute content relevant to your own field of focus.

2. Conduct Field Research CI_Personas_toolkit#2  Pp. 8 – 12 show templates for an EXPEDITION TREK to observe and interview subjects in the field. Following pages are example templates for PORTRAIT CARDS to be filled in to build out the PERSONA MANDALA.

3. The Family of You 2050  Collective Invention FamilyofYou Booklet    Each team will create a family of six personas, two each for each team member. These personas should be as differential from one another along as many dimensions as possible – DEMOGRAPHIC, PSYCHOGRAPHIC,  and SOCIOGRAPHIC, GEOGRAPHIC and IDEOGRAPHIC  (see p. 8 Glossary of Terms in CI_Personas_toolkit#2

Here is an example of how to think of positioning your personas along differential dimensions in order to ensure that they represent as wide a range of attitudinal, emotional and behavioral motivators and influencers as possible: CSCP Personas dimensionsV1.0

Here is an overview paper by Arnold Wasserman on the subject of  Scenarios & Personas:    SCENARIOS & PERSONAS

Where is this course heading? The final deliverable of each LIFE2050 LAB will be a presentation of Persona-Based Scenarios for LIFE2050 in PGH3.0. Here are some examples of how we use personas to create PERSONA-BASED FUTURE SCENARIOS. The final deliverables of this course should be some combination of features from these examples – plus any other methods, techniques. media, platforms, frameworks or tools you choose to add – that best support the NORMATIVE FUTURE SCENARIO vision you want to portray:  Collective Invention FamilyofYou_Booklet    –Collective Invention FamilyofYou Booklet  Collective Invention WBCSD LIFESTYLE 2050 CHARRETTE WORKBOOK     – Collective Invention LIFE 2050 Online Overview  http://life2050.collectiveinvention.com                                            – Collective Invention 2012 Retrospective  http://bit.ly/13HCrBn  http://bit.ly/1c5xFQN http://bit.ly/16GV2yS     http://bit.ly/1hloERp   

REFERENCE & RESOURCES  For further exploration:

– Can Science Explain Why We Tell Stories? http://nyr.kr/17H3zj3 

– Future Fiction: What is its history and meaning? From GALLONCZ SCIENCE FICTION: The difference between fictions of THE NEAR FUTURE  http://bit.ly/17aWVgx   and fictions of THE FAR FUTURE  http://bit.ly/1geYeDl

– Top 10 Future Technologies That Exist Today video:  http://bit.ly/18YAy1c

STUDENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES: Measurable or Observable Knowledge, Skills, Attributes, Ability to Apply, Interpret, Create, Design, Explain, etc. TBD

OTHER REFERENCES & SOURCES TBD

ASSIGNMENT 13: PREPARE DRY RUN LIFE250 PGH3.0 FUTURE PERSONA SCENARIOS v. 1.0 PRESENTATIONS

PRESENTATIONS TO CONTAIN THE FOLLOWING CONTENT COMPONENTS AS A MINIMUM. Remember that this is v. 1.0. It is better to develop all the items to some level of rough sketch in parallel rather than develop one or two items while ignoring the others. You will have an opportunity for two more iterations before the end of the semester. In preparing this material, do not forget the work you have already done on you team blog sites. Bring that forward and repurpose it to build out the following content components. The same goes for the wealth of material in assignments, links and references from previous days that might help inform and enrich the FORESIGHT, INSIGHT, FARSIGHT AND TOPSIGHT of the following content components:

1.  FAMILY OF YOU 2050: Six FUTURE PERSONA PROFILES

2.  A SCENARIO NARRATIVE v. 1.0 FOR EACH PERSONA: Look at Collective Invention PERSONA SCENARIOS as reference. 

3.  FORCES OF CHANGE PATHWAYS: Each narrative should reflect three or more FORCES OF CHANGE PATHWAYS relevant to your FOCUS FIELD of LEARN, SHARE, OPPORTUNITY. Look back at pathway examples in future strategic scenarios from WBCSD and other international organizations. In particular, remember to look back at the GREEN DENMARK scenarios 2050 GREEN DENMARK SCENARIOS  and at all the reference materials under Assignment 8-B on DAY 8.

4. 2050 BENCHMARK GOALS: Each narrative reflects three or more 2050 BENCHMARK GOALS relevant to your FOCUS FIELD. Look back at pathway examples in future strategic scenarios from WBCSD and other international organizations as well as PLAN PGH, EAST LIBERTY PLAN, etc. In particular, remember to look back at the GREEN DENMARK scenarios 2050 GREEN DENMARK SCENARIOS  and at all the reference materials under Assignment 8-B on DAY 8.

5.  EARLY SIGNALS/FUTURE SIGNS: Each narrative reflects three or more EARLY SIGNALS/FUTURE SIGNS for FORCES OF CHANGE PATHWAYS relevant to your FOCUS FIELD; I.E.: LEARN, SHARE, OPPORTUNITY.

6.  LIFE2050PGH3.0: Represent all the above as an experience in a web site or blog or other platform branded as LIFE2050PGH3.0 (or a better title if you can come up with one.)  Assume you are A LAB IN THE IDEATE NETWORK authoring this site. Assume your audiences are some combination of the following…you choose your target audiences and have a rationale for why your choice will best amplify, accelerate and scale progress toward your PATHWAY BENCHMARK GOALS; e.g:  – Citizens of Pittsburgh in general ?   – Residents of your target neighborhoods?     – PGH metroregion planners, elected officials, administrators, businesses,?  – Venture entrepreneurs, investors, developers, start-ups, incubators, accelerators, collaborators across CMU, PITT, PGH, developing neighborhoods?  – Academic institutions; i.e.: CMU, PITT, CREATE LAB, etc?  – K-12 educatlon system; i.e:  administrators, teachers, students, parents?  – Civil associations; i.e.:  philanthropies, charities, social organizations, international organizations?      – Other metro regions?    – The nation?

 NOTES