Websites About the Future
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One use of social change research is to use the data, research and theory to understand the future. These are a few sites relating to understanding the future.

Organizations

The Institute for the Future (IF) at Anne Arundel Community College seeks to be the local information and training source for information on the future.  
http://www.aacc.edu/future/default.cfm  
       They have a list of other futures organizations  http://www.aacc.edu/future/organizations.cfm   some of which are listed below.


The Institute for the Future (IFTF) 
http://www.iftf.org/   is an independent nonprofit research group. We work with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future.  (My link checker says this link doesn't work, but it does.)


The Centre for Future Studies   http://www.futurestudies.co.uk/home.htm  


Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.   http://www.cifs.dk/


The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future.   http://www.bu.edu/pardee/    for the study of longer range future. They have some interesting lectures (as videos).

The RAND Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition   http://www.rand.org/international_programs/pardee/futures.html   "The RAND Pardee Center pursues ambitious objectives: to improve our ability to think about the longer-range future--from 35 to as far as 200 years ahead--and to develop new methods of analyzing potential long-range, global effects of today's policy options in order to design sound policies that are sensitive to those effects."

Both of the above were made possible by funding from, well, Frederick S. Pardee. Strange coincidence, isn't it?


Future of Humanity Institute   http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/   "The Future of Humanity Institute aims to become humanity's best effort at understanding and evaluating its own long-term prospects."


Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies (HRCFS)   http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/   "It serves as a futures research arm for public agencies, private groups, and individuals who require assistance in locating future-oriented information or experts."


World Future Society   http://www.wfs.org/    The World Future Society is an association of people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future. The Society strives to serve as a neutral clearinghouse for ideas about the future.



Some Forecasts


The UN also has a population prospects database   http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/index.htm   where you can select forecasts for world, regions, etc.


Ten Trends Reshaping the Global Landscape   http://www.worldtrendsresearch.com/major-trends.php   by Van Wishard, World Trends Research


The Director of National Intelligence  http://www.dni.gov/   has these
    Global Trends   http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-intelligence-council-global-trends   has sets of global trends population reports




Research or essays on Forecasting


Shaping the Next One Hundred Years: New Methods for Quantitative, Long-Term Policy Analysis. Robert J. Lempert, Steven Popper, and Steven C. Bankes.  
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1626.html   From Rand, "New analytic methods, enabled by modern computers, transform our ability to reason about the future. The authors here demonstrate a quantitative approach to long-term policy analysis (LTPA)."


Nico Keilman   http://folk.uio.no/keilman/   has some publications about population forecasting.


Revisiting Useful Approaches to Data-Rich Macroeconomic Forecasting   http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr327.html   May 2008  Number 327, Revised October 2008, Jan J. J. Groen and George Kapetanios. Revised September 2009



Principals of forecasting (more shorter term)


Forecasting: principles and practice   http://otexts.com/fpp/   An online textbook by Rob J Hyndman and George Athanasopoulos. Both are faculty at Monash University.


Forecasting Principles   http://www.academia.edu/1053702/Forecasting_Principles   by Kesten Green, Andreas Graefe and J. Scott Armstrong. Working paper. This was a chapter in In: Lovric, M. (2011). International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science, Berlin: Springer, pp. 527-534.






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last updated and checked 11/23/13