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Houston Solar Tour Program Guide
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News
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Sep 21 2009, 3:53 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 21 2009, 3:53 PM EDT
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Oops looks the file is too large to post here. You can find it online at www.houstonsolartour.org.
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6th Annual Houston Solar Tour & Social Sat., Oct. 3, 2009
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News
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Sep 21 2009, 3:43 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Sep 21 2009, 3:43 PM EDT
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Just wanted to let you all know about a project I've been working on for the last several months. I am on the advisory board of the Houston Solar Tour, providing PR strategy and media relations for this year's tour. Please see the news release I posted for details. I am also posting a PDF of the program.
Houstonians can get up close and personal with active solar energy systems in some 20 homes and businesses featured in this year's tour. The self-guided, open-house tour is FREE and winds through several Houston neighborhoods, as well as the communities of Bellaire, West University, the Woodlands, and Spring, Texas.
In conjunction with National Energy Awareness Month, the 2009 Houston Solar Tour is affiliated with a national initiative of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) www.ases.org. Houston is among some 3,000 neighborhoods in 48 states hosting similar open-house tours on the same day across the U.S.
The whole thing gets started at Discovery Green, downtown with a fun, Solar Social kickoff from 9 - 11 a.m. on Oct. 3. At 11:00 everyone takes off to check out the tour sites that interest them. PV installers, energy companies, non-profits and school groups will offer exhibits and information to the public about solar and other renewable energy solutions at the Social. Information about the tour sites also will be available. The Solar Social is free to the public. Metro will provide a special bus service to a selection of tour sites from Discovery Green starting at 11:15 a.m.
In 2008, the City of Houston was recognized by the Department of Energy as one of 12 U.S. cities to be designated as a Solar America City.
Curious about solar technology? Come and check it out!
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Questions From Prospective Students
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Discussion Forum
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Sep 20 2009, 6:54 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Jun 26 2008, 6:04 PM EDT
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If anyone has any questions for professors, students or alumni, please post them here.
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Last Reply:
RE: Questions From Prospective Students
By: ,
Sep 20 2009, 6:54 PM EDT
Thanks for your interest in futures studies at UH.
Let me try to answer these questions as best I can --
1. What jobs do the part time students get upon graduation?
**The best list of jobs is under the Alumni page on this website.
2. Percent of graduates that have jobs after 3, 6, 9 months after graduating?
**Wow, can't really tell you that.
**For one thing, most students in the program already have jobs, and they are using futures studies to give them skills to do those jobs better.
**Some though do begin jobs as professional futurists. Hard to tell the exact numbers. It's a sparse field so not like MBA or engineering or education where there are many jobs and lots of churn. The jobs people do get are usually quite interesting and exciting, gut I'd be reluctant to hazard a guess on the exact percents.
3. Anyone have pay range for graduates for the last three years? Job locations? The typical stuff you would find on a MBA recruiting page.
**And that's even more specific so can't even approach that question.
**This is a unique degree, not like an MBA at all where there are hundreds of thousands produced each year.
4. Any recommendations on future consultancies to investigate that recruit graduates of the program?
**The one that recruited the most also suffered the most during the recession. You can tell some of the others at the Alumni page as well.
If you have any further questions, let's talk!...
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PhD - a big priority!
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PhD tracks
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Aug 4 2009, 8:17 AM EDT by
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Thread started: May 2 2009, 11:52 AM EDT
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We are all obviously aware how important PhD is for standing within academia, and it is arguably the positioning within the academic community that can help with the positioning outside, through creating new programmes in universities worldwide and establishing a stronger research base for futures studies.
As for the tracks, Futures Studies is a divergent field, and I do not really envision many specialised departments in universities worldwide, making it likely that future PhDs would need to integrate within existing faculties. I would therefore see three major PhD tracks;
- critical futures, for sociology and politics departments
- technology, for engineering departments
- business & economics, for business schools
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Last Reply:
RE: PhD - a big priority!
By: ,
Aug 4 2009, 8:17 AM EDT
future-oriented PhDs could easily integrate with Psychology departments;
in addition Leadership/Org sciences
did a WFS 09 workshop on 'how to start a new career as a futures educator' see http://www.jaygary.com/career.pdf
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Bonus to Take away 10
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How do we communicate the future to our clients
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May 13 2009, 3:16 PM EDT by
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Thread started: May 13 2009, 3:16 PM EDT
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This book wasn't mentioned at the session, but while researching others it look interesting given the amount of interest in cognition sciences.
BONUS: Essential Sternberg: Essays on Intelligence, Psychology, and Education ...
by James C. Kaufman, Elena L. Grigorenko, Robert Sternberg - Psychology - 2008 - 400 pages
A handy compendium of many of Sternberg's most important, influential articles from 30-year career.
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Take Away 10, part 3
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How do we communicate the future to our clients
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May 13 2009, 3:14 PM EDT by
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Thread started: May 13 2009, 3:14 PM EDT
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8. Draper Kaufman, making “systems” accessible with visuals
Taught system’s theory to 10th graders accomplishing 30% retention. Retintion increased to 80-85% after Kaufman hired a cartoonist to illustrate lessons.
WORKS by Draper Kauffman, include:
a. Systems One: An Introduction to Systems Thinking Jun 1980 (4)
b. Introduction to Systems Thinking Sep 1981
c. Futurism and Future Studies (Developments in classroom instruction) Jun 1980
d. . Human Systems (Future Systems Series, No 2) Sept 1981
e. The human environment: An introduction to environmental systems 1978
f. Teaching the Future: A Guide to Future-Oriented Education ([Education futures ; no. 4]) Jun ‘76
9. “MacKenzie” Research
a. MacKenzie Company, Illinois, associated with Agriculture, and emerged with GIS tools http://www.mackenzie.com/MacWeb/
b. Fraser Mackenzie Limited, provides equity research, investment banking, and private equity financing services. Specializes in acquisitions, mergers, restructuring with biomed, energy, and semiconductor clients. Featured in Business week.
c. Wood Mackenzie providing consulting services and research product to energy, metals, & mining industries for over 30 years.
d. David McKenzie, Senior Economist of Development Research Group, Finance and Private Sector Development Unit. B. Com/B.A. University of Auckland, New Zealand 1997. Ph.D. Economics, Yale, 2001. Assistant professor Economics, Stanford 2000-2004. Joined World Bank , July 2005. Interests: international migration, microenterprises, poverty traps, responses of households to aggregate shocks, and development of econometric methods with data from developing countries.
10. Social Networking Tools. Below are some handy summaries of tools pulled directly from the web.
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Take Away 10, part 2
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How do we communicate the future to our clients
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May 13 2009, 3:12 PM EDT by
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Thread started: May 13 2009, 3:12 PM EDT
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Here are items 5-7 mentioned at that Saturday morning work session.
5. (?) Lakoff of Berkley “a book on decisions made with internal stories (ex. strict father vs. nurturing parent). Was this comment referring to works by the Progressive Theorist, George Lakoff? Three of his books are listed below.
a. Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought
By George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, 1999, Basic Books, ISBN 0465056741,9780465056743
Or the more recent
b. Thinking Points: communicating our American values and vision:a progressive's handbook (2006)
Or earlier
c. Don’t Think of an Elephant! (2004) On effective framing of national political discussions
6. (?) “IOR” or “RI” mentioned in connection to Lakoff
Was it a reference to
Institute of Operational Risk , http://www.ior-institute.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
Or (more likely since it came up with Lakoff)
Rockridge Institute, http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/ which closed in April 2008
7. Gap Minder, website http://www.gapminder.org/about-gapminder/
a) An operating foundation, that provides services sometimes as collaborative projects with universities, UN organizations, public agencies or NGOs. It was founded by Ola Rosling, Anna rosling Ronnlund and Hans Rosling in 2005 to continue development of Trendalyzer software that converts statistics into animated, interactive graphics. Trendalyzer was acquired by Google in March 2006, and the development team joined Google/California in April 2007.
b) Gapminder World is the current version of Trendalyzer. It displays time series statistics for all countries, via a web-service.
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Take away 10
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How do we communicate the future to our clients
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May 13 2009, 3:10 PM EDT by
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Thread started: May 13 2009, 3:10 PM EDT
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At the Communication Session (Celebrating the FUTURE!, UH-Central, Saturday, May 2, 1009, AM.) at least 10 “resources” were recommended by participants. This included books, blogs, organizations, an entire category of tools, and even companies.
Attached is the list that was generated, with details (and in some cases—pending questions) added.
Look it over, and see what you think. To stay within limits it will be posted in 3 sections.
Happily, I must admit the list included some futurists—both old and new.
Books, Blogs and other resources
1. The Back of a Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam, book
(how to make maximum impact with simplistic, systemic drawings)
2. Stuart Candy, skeptical futurist, blog. http://futuryst.blogspot.com/
Multimedia and experiential futurist at Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies in Honolulu. Currently involved with Coral Cross, an alternate reality game about flu pandemic . Started Found Futures, a public art initiative to make scenarios experientially available. Gamemastered Supersturct, the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game.
3. Presentation Zen, blog by Garr Reynold’s on professional presentation design http://www.presentationzen.com/
4. TEDTalks http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/5
Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conferences started in 1984 bringing people together from the three fields. The scope has broadened to bringing people from every discipline and culture who “seek a deeper understanding of the world, and… a better future for us all” to talk about their lives in 18 minutes or less. The best talks are available, free, via website.
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Was the ceremony taped?
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May 1st - Program Events
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May 7 2009, 6:03 PM EDT by
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Thread started: May 1 2009, 6:37 PM EDT
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Hi... I was wondering if the ceremony was taped - of such great interest - unfortunately the live broadcast didn't seem to work well enough on this end to follow virtually...it would be a fantastic testament to the program to have it online for future reference! :-)
Congratulations for organizing the event, and best wishes for a wonderful celebration and retreat! :-)
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RE: Was the ceremony taped?
By: ,
May 7 2009, 6:03 PM EDT
Yes, the 7 minute video is up at YouTube.Here is a link of the YouTube video I created for the 35th anniversary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2jxMKrr29Q Thanks Everyone! Mark Niles :)
And the live video will be uploaded shortly! thanks everyone!!!!!! it was wonderful! kay
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Innovation focus as direction for growth
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State of FS and Directions for growth
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May 2 2009, 11:38 AM EDT by
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Thread started: May 2 2009, 11:38 AM EDT
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What follows is my very idiosyncratic view regarding the applications of futures studies;
1. As idea of soothsaying
2. As idea of progress
3. As a supplement to strategy
4. As a supplement to market research
5. As a supplement to innovation
So, in my view, most receptive environment for futures studies at this moment are venture capitalist firms and their surrounding ecosystem.
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Fundraising
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Fund raising for the program
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May 2 2009, 11:33 AM EDT by
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Thread started: May 2 2009, 11:33 AM EDT
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It seems to me that there are plenty of wealthy innovators with a soft spot for future studies. I am aware that Sillicone Valley is supporting Singularity university, and James Martin is supporting Oxford's James Martin institute - I am sure there are plenty of untaped potential benefactors out there.
I am also aware that big bang fundraising strategy is hard, and step by step approach might be preferred - perhaps to create a set of unpaid internships for our UH students, and use the evolving relationship to build connections with big corporates?
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Airport pickup
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Celebrating the FUTURE!
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Apr 27 2009, 6:29 AM EDT by
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Thread started: Apr 27 2009, 6:29 AM EDT
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Have seen that Gail Siegel volunteered for pickup.
How is it organised? I will arrive on Thursday, May 30th from Frankfurt with LH at 13:55
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Ideas or whatever
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Celebrating the FUTURE!
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Feb 28 2009, 12:49 PM EST by
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Thread started: Feb 28 2009, 12:49 PM EST
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If you need answers or have concerns, please, inform us by posting a thread. see ya in MAY! kay
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seandaken |
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Posting all courses?
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Courses
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Feb 20 2009, 9:42 PM EST by
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Thread started: Feb 18 2009, 8:03 PM EST
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It would be great if we could get information for all the courses, their descriptions, a sample syllabus, and other relevant information. Thoughts?
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Last Reply:
RE: Posting all courses?
By: ,
Feb 20 2009, 9:42 PM EST
Sean, I have attached a zipped file containing all but the Energy syllabi below. enjoy:) kay
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JamesCumming |
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Google and Nasa begin new school for Futurists headed by Ray Kurzweil
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Discussion Forum
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Feb 6 2009, 9:25 AM EST by
JamesCumming |
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Thread started: Feb 6 2009, 9:25 AM EST
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GOOGLE AND NASA BACK NEW SCHOOL FOR FUTURISTS
By David Gelles in San FranciscoPublished: February 3 2009 05:02 | Last updated:
February 3 2009 05:02
Google and Nasa are throwing their weight behind a new school for futurists in
Silicon Valley to prepare scientists for an era when machines become cleverer
than people.
The new institution, known as “Singularity University”, is to be headed by Ray
Kurzweil, whose predictions about the exponential pace of technological change
have made him a controversial figure in technology circles.
This rest of this article can be found at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b162dfc-f168-11dd-8790-0000779fd2ac,_i_email=y.html
"FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of The Financial Times.
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2009
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Futurists questions on Linked In
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Discussion Forum
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Jan 12 2009, 4:49 PM EST by
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Thread started: Jan 12 2009, 4:49 PM EST
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Hello! I don't know how many of you use the LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) networking site, but I came across this that might be of interest. This blogger had some questions related to futurists, and based on some of the responses, it seems like there is a lot of misconception as to what futurists are -- an opportunity to open a dialog if anyone is interested.
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/397821-32957300?goback=%2Ehom%23commentID_1273873%23commentID_1273892
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/397824-32957300?goback=%2Ehom%23commentID_1273873%23commentID_1273892
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seandaken |
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Advanced Strategies for Futures Planning in Consumer...
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Courses
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Jan 2 2009, 1:08 PM EST by
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Thread started: Dec 26 2008, 5:13 PM EST
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The syllabus doesn't provide much information on how the course is structured or what the assignments are like. Does anyone have any information on what to expect? Looking at the readings, this feels like a blend between Intro to FS and Social Change. I know it's required, but I'm concerned that it will be redundant. Thoughts?
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Last Reply:
RE: Advanced Strategies for Futures Planning in Consumer...
By: ,
Jan 2 2009, 1:08 PM EST
"The syllabus doesn't provide much information on how the course is structured or what the assignments are like. Does anyone have any information on what to expect? Looking at the readings, this feels like a blend between Intro to FS and Social Change. I know it's required, but I'm concerned that it will be redundant. Thoughts?" Thanks for your concern, Sean, but that course is quite different from any other. Not sure what syllabus you were looking at, but it quite a bit different. My agenda this weekend is to get syllabi or at least reading lists out to all students. This syllabus is a little different because the course is team-taught by me and one of the Consumer Sciences faculty so it's more complicated to do it together. But I can assure you that it is an entirely different course. So get back to me if what you see from what I send out still seems redundant...
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seandaken |
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Social Change?
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Courses
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Jan 1 2009, 7:29 PM EST by
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Thread started: Dec 26 2008, 4:40 PM EST
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Have any of the new students in the program noticed that Social Change isn't on the default/baseline Degree Plan (either as required or as an elective)?
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RE: Social Change?
By: ,
Jan 1 2009, 7:29 PM EST
Sorry, Sean, I can't help you with this one. I would run it by Dr. Bishop. kay
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seandaken |
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Systems Thinking for Spring 2009?
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Courses
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Jan 1 2009, 7:18 PM EST by
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Thread started: Dec 26 2008, 4:38 PM EST
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I think this might be a mistake... I don't see that course listed in PeopleSoft.
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Last Reply:
RE: Systems Thinking for Spring 2009?
By: ,
Jan 1 2009, 7:18 PM EST
Sean, just in case you are still looking! here are the course numbers for the spring courses. kay
HDCS 6331 - Adv Str/Ftr Pln/Consc & Retail---strategies
HDCS 6332 - Consumer Issues and Futr Appl--systems
TECH 6319 - Proseminar in Futures Studies
TECH 6371 - World Futures
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Please answer this survey about Integral Futures
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Discussion Forum
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Oct 19 2008, 3:45 PM EDT by
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Thread started: Oct 19 2008, 2:17 AM EDT
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Hello, my name is Terry Collins. I am a student at the University of Houston, in the Futures program http://houstonfutures.wetpaint.com , who is doing a thesis on Integral Futures for my master’s option. Integral theory is used as a map or framework to explore the interior and exterior of both the individual and the collective of whatever being investigated. Integral Futures is a holistic and all-inclusive approach which can be used to explore all aspects of Futures. Integral Futures has been addressed in the literature primarily in an abstract, scholarly fashion but has also evolved into some possibilities of what the practical applications might look like in practice. My thesis title is: The current status of Integral Theory in Futures applications practices and my topic thread would be to go beyond the scholarly exploration and survey how Integral Futures is being used in actual Futures practices by practitioners which explain why I am contacting you my fellow futurists. The ultimate goal is to publish my thesis in a Futures publication and to help promote this form of practice in the Futures field. Please help me in my quest by answering the following: <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=3uHCKi9I8wqFkz2Suo0w6g_3d_3d">Click Here to take survey</a>
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