New forum to discuss future-oriented technology
A forum for analysing future-oriented technology has been launched by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). The objectives of the Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA) Forum will be to: - provide an open space for dialogue between different but overlapping communities, such as foresight, technology assessment, future studies, technological forecasting, evaluation, quality management, with a view to promoting mutual understanding; - to nurture the FTA community's ability to organise itself; - to identify needs within the FTA community and to enable mutual support between its members. The FTA will start by discussing issues raised at an international seminar on FTA that took place in September 2006: building capacity; customer-client relations and corporate foresight; evaluation, monitoring and quality control; preparedness to address global problems; and building community links. Users are welcome to propose new issues for future rounds of discussion.