Scott Smith (born 1967) is a futurist, strategist, and writer known for coining the phrase "flatpack futures."
Flatpack futures refers to "future technological systems which are imagined as readymade products that people will choose to adopt, rather than as the assembled work of countless different actors."
Smith argues that this conception of the way the future will play out is limiting and counterproductive.
Smith is the founder and managing partner of Changeist, a futures research and consulting company established in 2007 which has worked with
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
,
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
, and
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
to assist them in preparing for a complex future.
He was also co-developer and advisor for the Futures Institute at the
Duke University TIP program, and designed the Innovation & Future Thinking summer professional program at
IED Barcelona.
He is a frequent keynote speaker at Media Future Week, NEXT, and Lift conferences.
Smith began his technology forecasting career in 1995 as the Director of Digital Commerce at
Mecklermedia
Mecklermedia (formerly Internet.com LLC, Jupitermedia Inc., Mediabistro Inc. and WebMediaBrands Corporation) was a U.S.-based corporation. The original WebMediaBrands was established in 1994, and headquartered in New York. Founded by Alan M. ...
(as Jupiter Communications), one of the earliest Internet research companies, helping companies prepare for the online world.
He moved on to Director of Internet Business Strategies for Current Analysis in
Sterling, Virginia
Sterling, Virginia, refers most specifically to a census-designated place (CDP) in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population of the CDP as of the 2010 United States Census was 27,822. The CDP boundaries are confined to a relatively s ...
in 1997.
From 1999 through 2002 he was Director Networked Business Strategies Europe at the Yankee Group, and then worked as Director of Research Applications at Social Technologies (later Innovaro) until founding Changeist with Susan Cox-Smith in 2007.
Smith was a columnist for
Qz from 2012-2016, and wrote the Discontinuities column for Thesigers' ''Current Intelligence'' from 2011-2013.
Writing
* Embed: Mapping the Future of Work and Play: A case for “Embedding” Non-Ethnographers in the Field (with Andrew Greenman) ''Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings'' 2006(1) · September 2006.
* Ludic Foresight (with Suzanne Stein). 2011.
* The Singularity is Boring: An Open, Collaborative ‘Mock-up’ ''Journal of Futures Studies'', September 2012, 17(1): 151-158.
* Coda: Communicating Futures – An Uncommon Urge ''Journal of Futures Studies'', September 2012, 17(1): 159-160.
* How to Future (with
Madeline Ashby), 2020.
References
External links
Changeist website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Scott
1967 births
American_designers
American futurologists
Living people