Gaming the future of government

On January 22-23, the Institute for the Future will host Connected Citizens, a 24-hour collective forecasting game to “to rethink and reprogram government services for a complex and connected world.”

IFTF Research Director Jake Dunagan shares the vision behind it and how you can participate.

What's the objective behind Connected Citizens?

The goal of Connected Citizens is to bring together people from around the world to rapidly generate as many forecasts, ideas and comments about civic technology and citizen engagement as possible in a 24-hour period.

How will it work?

Using our Foresight Engine, a platform we’ve developed to facilitate collective forecasting, players can come to www.connected-citizens.org at noon pacific time on January 22, watch a scenario video we created to spark conversation and begin playing forecasting cards. Cards are limited to 140 characters, but the conversations are threaded together, and can grow to dozens of cards. Game mechanisms allow players to accrue points based on number of responses and special awards given by our game guides.

What are its longer-term goals?

The long term goals of Connected Citizens are associated with ongoing initiative at IFTF called the Governance Futures Lab. The Lab will explore new governance structures and processes, and bring together a community of social inventors to tackle the biggest challenges of governance in the 21st century. Also, all the data from Connected Citizens will be available, and we encourage others to use, analyze, or visualize it as they see fit.

How can people connect with you to learn more?

People can visit www.connected-citizens.org and register now for the game, and follow our blog at www.blog.connected-citizens.org for more information and updates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qv8Xn7PUcI4