One of my tasks if I am going to create a ‘futures’ course is to retell that particular story from the point-of-view of a noobie. I want to know my future. Sure. And I think we are each our own best soothsayers. I think we start with a question. Almost any question that you are passionately invested in answering can become a filter for futurity. For example: how can I become a better ancestor for my children, my family, and my neighborhood? And how can I adopt different stances to do it?

1. Start with your personal knowledge network to open up conversations about the future. You are the voice of your own course so speak aloud to that self in a call and response.
2. Assume that you already have a river of information and signals including emails, newsletters, RSS feeds, social media, communities and conversations.
3. Recongnize that this river is large and indeterminate; it is lots of atoms, yet it is also one whole thing, a gestalt.
4. What you need are accessible filters to harness the power of the flow. The most straightforward filter is a question, but not just any question. You want a question that is tied up with passion, what you are interested in yourself.

Over the next few posts I will begin to hone my question and demonstrate how to apply a personal knowledge network to make it bear the fruit of futurity.

(Sneak a futures peek: Sometimes creating (poetry and graphics like below are another filter.)