Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines is featured in Escape from Corporate America, a new book by a reformed corporate ladder-climber, Pam Skillings:

"If your corporate career is leaving you stressed out, burned out, or just plain bummed out, you’re not alone.You don’t have to choose between paying the bills and enjoying a fulfilling career.” With humor and personal accounts, she offers a seven-step approach to breaking free: assess your job’s “suck” factor, identify your true calling, develop your escape plan, find jobs that don’t bite, be your own boss, follow your creative dreams, and overcome any obstacle.

Skillings, a career coach who made the leap in 2005, estimates that 80% of the working population fantasizes about leaving their jobs for something better. She admits that making the leap isn’t easy, but it is worthwhile:

It took me years of trial and error to escape corporate America. Once I left, I was amazed at how many people were dying to know how I did it and whether they could do it, too.

Skillings found a compatriot in Hines, who worked in trends and ideation for multinational food and chemical companies before joining Social Technologies in 2006 as director of custom projects. In Skillings’ book, he is quoted in chapter seven: “Swim in a Smaller Pond.”

“No offense against corporate places, but they are not always the most interesting,” says Hines. “A lot of the attraction of my current company was the ability to work for people who are really interesting. Who else would work as a professional futurist? You have to be a little nuts, and I like that.”

"You're about to be playing in an entirely new ballgame if you've been marketing exclusively to baby boomers – unless you have a timeless product or service," writes syndicated columnist Mildred Culp in a June 29 article, "Expand Your Marketing from Boomers to Gen Y."

The piece ran in the Dallas Morning News, among other papers, and Culp interviewed Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines about how to connect with Millennials via their interest in environmentalism and sustainability, community, social responsibility (including humanitarian issues), and the Internet.

Appealing to those things is essential, said Andy Hines, a futurist in the Houston office of Social Technologies LLC. Mr. Hines said that Gen Y's questions are geared toward obtaining tangible results, such as "How do we make the community a better place, the environment safer? What do we do to translate into people getting more food?"

His advice to business leaders: "Bring in a Gen Y intern to mentor you."

For more information on what appeals to Millennials, read a study that Hines and his team at Social Techonologies conducted last year for MTV on the "Future of Youth Happiness: What makes 12-24-year-olds happy?" Or, view the entire presentation.

On Thursday, July 3 the CBS Early Show featured a spot on the study Social Technologies' conducted this spring for Spike TV on "The Future of American Men."

At a very man-friendly bar called the Black Sheep Pub and Restaurant in Philadelphia, CBS Early Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez talked to five men who each represented one of the personas outlined in the study.

From the plaza of the GM building in New York City, she introduced the piece with this:

Let's talk about men. The guy network Spike TV teamed up with Social Technologies and discovered there are basically five different types of guys, as I've mentioned: young carefrees, worry warriors, good ol' boys, mac daddies, and above-average Joes. And lucky me, I got to spend time with each type earlier this week at the Black Sheep Bar in Philadelphia.

She then cut to the segment in which she interviewed each guy--as well as Chris Carbone, Social Technologies' Director of Programs and author of the study, and Kimberly Maxwell, the senior director of brand and consumer research for Spike TV. Some excerpts:

Click to read more ...

We recently finished some research for Spike TV, and unlike most of our work (which tends to be client-confidential), this is something we can actually share a bit. It was a project in support of Spike’s Guy’s State of the Union 2008—in which they take stock of the state of American guys.

Social Technologies handled the qualitative portion of the project. We mined our trendbase, did expert interviews, and created a set of hypotheses about the current and future state of American men. The polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland (PSB) tested the hypotheses through an online quantitative survey, and we worked in parallel doing focus groups in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Minneapolis to hear from guys in their own words.

Using a segmentation provided by PSB we created a set of composite personas to help bring the survey and focus group findings to life. We also used the personas as a way to talk about where these segments might be headed in the future.

Five types of American guys

The segmentation revealed 5 types of American guys aged 18-49:

1. Young Carefrees (23%)—friend-focused digital natives enjoying their post-college years
2. The Above Average Joes (29%)—modern guys, thriving in their role as fathers and husbands
3. The Good Ol’ Boys (13%)—traditional guys with traditional views; rugged, stoic, and pragmatic
4. The Mac Daddies (20%)—the alpha guys…intense, successful, and in love with their gadgets
5. The Worry Warriors (15%)—hard working, well-off…but totally stressed

See the public version of the Spike TV report here, with detailed descriptions of the segments and the personas we used to bring them to life.

We were pleased to see our Speed of Change Index covered in the new issue of Foreign Policy.

As the magazine says,

How swiftly or slowly life changes in particular countries is the subject of the Speed of Change Index, which measures changes in urbanization, literacy, GDP per capita, civil liberties, and access to a telephone, TV, and the Internet in countries during the last 15 years.... The index reveals where citizens' needs are rapidly changing, new markets are opening, and the risk of instability runs high.

The magazine's graphic shows selected countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, but the index actually includes nearly every country on Earth, with the exception of some microstates.

Image: Social Technologies

Hot off the presses is the July-August issue of The Futurist magazine, featuring an article by Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines.

Entitled "Consumer Trends in Three Different 'Worlds," it is the first in a two-part series in which Hines looks at the big trends in demography, money, and consumerism that will shape the world in the next decade.

"Technology has changed the way families stay in touch, profoundly influencing not only how often we communicate, but also what we share with each other," writes Miami Herald reporter Ana Veciana-Suarez  in a May 24 article.

"But does more mean better?" she asks.

Some she interviewed said yes, such as Pam Haldeman, a professor of sociology at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles. "I didn't always feel this way, but now I think it's great," Haldeman said. "It certainly has increased interaction between family members, and we can reach far and wide to people who would've been lost to us a generation ago. It's a win-win situation."

Veciana-Suarez got a different reaction from Social Technologies futurist Kevin Osborn:

Kevin Osborn, author of several parenting books and a futurist for the research and consulting firm Social Technologies isn't as enthusiastic. While cellphones, webcams and computers allow us to correspond from faraway places and at unusual times, the information exchanged tends to be simplistic.

''Because we communicate more often it doesn't mean it's more meaningful communication,'' he says. ``Technology is great for people separated by long distances, but that same technology is used to avoid communication with people in the same room. Now you have Dad watching TV, Mom on the cellphone, Sister IMing on the computer and Brother playing video games -- all in the same house.''

Read the entire article.

Image: moriza (flickr)

"Want your shot at videogame fame?" asks Pioneer Press reporter Julio Ojeda-Zapata in a May 17 article entitled "Gamers of the World, Unite -- and take the stage for a night." "You don't have to be a hardcore 'Halo III' or 'World of Warcraft' wunderkind anymore. Average gamers can now aspire to stardom, too," he writes.

Ojeda-Zapata interviewed Social Technologies' Matthew Sollenberger about the fact that videogaming has recently been transformed by "casual" gaming options:

"[These are] typified by the family-friendly Wii along with music titles like 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Band' that nearly anyone could pick up and play. This means the latest videogame tournaments have grown less elitist and more accessible to players of all ages and skill levels."

Sollenberger explains: 

"It's an easy way to hang out and meet people in the same way people play pub trivia or join kickball leagues," said analyst Matthew Sollenberger, of the Washington, D.C.-based Social Technologies research and consulting company. The Wii and its ilk are "a social lubricant."

Read the entire article.

Image: MNgilen (Flickr)

Friendships centered around e-mail were the focus of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on May 13 by reporter Tim Barker.

Entitled, "Internet enables faceless friendships," the article describes two women who met online and talk daily via e-mail -- but have never actually met in person. He quotes one of the women as saying: "In some ways, [our friendship] is probably deeper because of the anonymity."

But not everyone has a great experience socializing virtually, warns Barker, who interviewed Social Technologies' Simeon Spearman about the security risks associated with online-only friendships.

Generally speaking, those cyber friends should be treated with more skepticism than the ones you meet in the real world, said Simeon Spearman, an analyst for Social Technologies, a futurist research and consulting firm based in Washington. If you do find someone you hit it off with, it never hurts to invest a little effort into confirming your new friend's honesty. "Get them to talk to you on the phone or in video chat," Spearman said. "I wouldn't recommend hiring a private investigator or anything like that."

Read the entire article.

Image: by Chaparral Kendra (Flickr)

"When I was writing this book, countless people asked me which job I thought was the coolest," explains author Alexandra Levit in her new book, How'd You Score That Gig? -- A Guide to the Coolest Jobs, and How To Get Them. "And while I certainly tried hard not to play favorites, I couldn't help being especially intrigued by this one."

She's talking about the job described starting on page 224: futurist. It's one of 65 gigs she lists in the eight-chapter book, which offers career advice based on seven personality types: adventurer, creator, data head, entrepreneur, investigator, networker, and nurturer.

A futurist, Levit says, is a job for an investigator -- "the ones always the asking the teacher questions, and the ones you wanted to get on your team for group projects because they were so darn smart and motivated."

She starts off the section with a quote from Social Technologies'  futurist Josh Calder.

 A futurist must be inquisitive and open to diverse viewpoints. If you think the world is black-and-white, you will not do very well understanding it, because it isn't. The future is not found in one ideology or one book. You need to be ready to listen, because getting more viewpoints will always improve your grasp of future possibilities. You should be optimistic on some level, so that you can help people prepare for and shape better futures, while not being blind to real problems.

Levit writes:

As a futurist for Washington-based firm Social Technologies ... Josh spends his days trying to discover what is changing in the world and what that means for the future. "I devote part of each day to learning: looking at that day's flow of scan hits to see what they might hint about the future," Josh says. .... "I feel that it is a privilege to know a little bit about the future--with only the slight downside that we sometimes have to wait a while for things we know are coming."

Buy the book.

In the April issue of CASE Currents, a publication by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, reporter John Pulley interviewed Social Technologies' analyst Gail Siegel about the future of virtual education.

The article, entitled "Now You See Them, Now You Do: Students in the Virtual Classroom Still Become Real Alumni," Pulley focuses on the fact that university and college development officers are now recognizing the philanthropic potential of alumni who have completed online programs. He writes:

"They realize, as well, that the educational experiences of those graduates are substantially different from the experiences of traditional students at brick-and-mortar campuses. Therefore, they are seeing to recast nostalgia-themed appeals that try to pull at the heartstrings connecting alumni with their alma maters."

Click to read more ...

"Television today is in a state of flux," writes TelevisionWeek correspondent Allison J. Waldman in the May 11 issue of the magazine. "New technologies, multiple platforms, decreasing audience share for the major networks, emerging digital interactivity—how will the industry adapt to the changes and make them television viable and thriving in the decade ahead?"

For a glimpse of the future, Walden interviewed Social Technologies' futurist Christopher Kent. Here's a bit of what he had to say:

TelevisionWeek: Where is TV going to be in the next 15 years?

Christopher Kent: Your question of where really hits on it, because the really big thing in the next 15 years is going to be moving away from the traditional television set itself, with programming being in a number of different places. We’re already starting to see this a bit today with iPods and Apple TV, but the emergence of mobile TV on any number of platforms—be it your phone, a media player, even in your car—the where is the big thing with mobile standards now being finalized. It was in Europe last year, and the U.S. is still working on it. The future of television is going to be mobile. It’s going to be less sitting in front of the TV and more taking your TV with you.

Read the entire article.

Image: (c) 2008 JupiterImages Corp.

In a May 8 BusinessWeek article entitled "The Slump: It's a Guy Thing," Social Technologies' Andy Hines was interviewed by reporter Peter Coy about the fact that women and men are "operating in two different economies."

Writes Coy:

From last November through this April, American women aged 20 and up gained nearly 300,000 jobs, according to the household survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). At the same time, American men lost nearly 700,000 jobs. You might even say American men are in recession, and American women are not. What's going on?

The trouble, Coy suggests, is that male-dominated sectors such as manufacturing and construction are in decline, while women are better-prepared for new kinds of work, with higher rates of college graduation.

Some analysts even argue that men are less suited than women to the knowledge economy, which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate. "Men have tended to do better in the hierarchies, following orders and relying on positional power," says Andy Hines, a futurist at the Washington (D.C.) consulting firm Social Technologies, who previously worked for Kellogg (K) and Dow Chemical (DOW).

Read the entire article.  

A brief on the Future of Advanced Manufacturing by Social Technologies' analyst Matthew Sollenberger was published in the March issue of The Machinist, an Indian publication.

In it, Sollenberger provides a technology overview and describes state-of-the-art technologies (including simulations and modeling, mass customization, and advanced robotics), the drivers of manufacturing innovation (sustainability, consumer sophistication, global competition), and the challenges ahead (bioengineering, integrative processes, and nanomaterials).

The material is part of a series of 12 reports by Social Technologies' Technology Foresight team, entitled "Top 12 Innovations to 2025."

Read Sollenberger's article here, and review the entire Top 12 Innovations series here. 

iParenting.com reporter Kelly Burgess recently interviewed Social Technologies' Andy Hines about the study he conducted for MTV on the future of youth happiness. She wrote:

 When asked what they want for their children's futures, parents often say, "I just want my child to be happy." Noble words, but beyond wanting our children to be happy, what do we do to help them find their way to happiness? Happiness is a difficult concept to define.

A study called Future of Youth Happiness: What Makes 12- to 24-Year-Olds Happy? may help both teens and parents define and set goals. The study was commissioned by MTV and the Associated Press and conducted by the research firm Social Technologies. Surveying a total of 1,200 12- to 24-year-olds from a variety of socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, the goal was to determine if teens are happy, what makes them happy and what they are doing to ensure future happiness.

Andy Hines, director of custom projects for Social Technologies, says they discovered that teens pursue happiness with three goals in mind: the pleasure of the moment, relationships with family and friends and the long-term search for meaning and purpose – in other words, friends, family and faith.

Read the entire article.