Selected articles
This page is a resource for my occasional articles, mostly about futures or the creative/digital economy. The most recent articles are at the top.
June 2009: Roads Less Travelled (with Wendy Schultz)
Another article in the Journal of Futures Studies, this time co-written with Wendy Schultz, which reports on a small research project to find out whether different scenarios methods generate significantly different outcomes. The twist was that we used the same base data – from the project we worked on for the Carnegie UK Trust on the future of civil society – and applied four different scenarios methods to it. As far as we can tell – and Wendy Schultz is immersed in this literature – it is the first time anyone’s used a common feedstock to test this hypothesis. The paper is below (opens in pdf); the answer to the question is ‘yes’.
Curry-Schultz-RoadsLessTravelled-jfs0609
April 2009: Using Scenarios Well
The Journal of Futures Studies published a ‘Scenario Symposium” on why and how scenarios were used, in response to a sceptical article by the veteran futurist Gragam Molitor. My contribution, which is available below, argues that scenarios are a way of managing uncertainty, in a way that makes it comprehensible and possible to act on. The whole Symposium is in the February 2009 edition of the Journal.
curry_usingscenarioswell_jfs0209
December 2008: Learning from longer-term futures
A short article which reviews some learning from a series of longer term (30+ years) scenarios projects, on a common sustainability theme, in terms of methods and questions emerging. A version was first published in Henleymail in December.
August 2008: Seeing in Multiple Horizons.
A long article written with Tony Hodgson laying out the ‘Three Horizons‘ approach to strategic futures work. Published in the Journal of Futures Studies.
Seeing in Multiple Horizons, Journal of Futures Studies
June 2007: South West Creative Summit
I gave a keynote presentation to the South West Regional Development Agency’s ‘Creative Summit‘ on the theme of the future of creative consumption. An article which develops the argument I made at the event can be downloaded (in pdf) below:
Four stories about the creative economy
September 2006 : presentation and paper for CASE, the Campaign for Science and Engineering
CaSE ran an event in the autumn which was designed to share ideas about how to improve innovation in science and technology areas. I was asked to give a presentation from the point of view of media and creative industries. I also contributed a chapter based on something I’d written for an (unpublished) book a few years ago. The original of The Next Wave was part-funded by a combination of Foresight and Arts Council England. This (below) is the chapter on creative innovation, in pdf. It’s quite long (around 20 pages) and quite fat (440KB) but people who have read it say it’s engaging.
The Next Wave : Innovation (Curry)
July 2006 : ‘Architectures of the Future’; (chapter on cities and funding diversity) for Camelot-sponsored book
Camelot funded a book to create a discussion about the role of the National Lottery in public life, obviously as part of their bid to retain the licence when it is re-awarded later this year. It was published for them by Premium Publishing, which specialises in such books. My chapter argued that lottery funding had created diversity in spending on city regeneration and development which created new types of urban behaviour. I’ve revised it slightly from the published version. A pdf copy can be downloaded below:
The Architecture of the Future (Curry, 2006)
‘Britain 2025′, in The House magazine, 2005
I wrote something at the end of 2005 which I thought was brief on the trends which could affect Britain over the next 20 years for the House of Commons magazine The House. They cut it; good for attention span, bad for comprehension. This is the longer version.
2004, Scenarios about the future of obesity
In 2004, I wrote with my colleague Rachel Kelnar a set of scenarios on the future of obesity, and how it would affect the food production and retail companies. It took some time to get them right, and we thought we’d missed the boat, because the public health agenda on obesity was already advancing quite fast. It turned out that the commercial companies were still catching up with this sharp shift in their external environment. The scensrios have stood the test of time over the past three years. PDF, 784KB.
Curry-Kelnar, Obesity Scenarios, Henley Centre 2004
2000: Learning the lessons of Videoway
In the late 1990s I was invited to write a paper on my experience of running Videotron’s interactive television service for a special edition of Information Society. The paper became an exploration of why companies run trial services. Unfortunately I don’t have the rights to publish it here. “Learning the Lessons of Videoway: the corporate economy of new media trials” can be found in Information Society 16(4).
This is what the abstract has to say:
Why do organisations commit resources to new media trials and pilot projects when the results are uncertain and returns are haphazard? This article, written by a practitioner responsible for launching and managing an early interactive television project in the UK, uses his experience as a prism through which to address this wider question.
At one level, the article is a first-hand case study of a specific corporate innovation in new media in a particular location. In exploring some broader questions, the author relates the instability of such projects to the complex and unpredictable interplay of users, organisations, and economics which their development requires, and links this to notions of competition around the concept of the ‘technological frame’. Finally, the author explores the role of such projects in helping organisations create the capabilities to manage innovation in turbulent conditions by building relationships outside of the organisation.
1997: paper on Videotron’s interactive advertising trial
We ran the first substantial trial of interactive advertising in the UK on the Videotron cable television system in the summer of 1996. This paper is a good description of the system, the trial and some of the research – and is reasonably candid.
Marketing Week conference paper on interactive TV trial
1995: keynote address on ‘The Creative Virus’
A presentation on the nature of creativity and creative teams, given at Brighton’s ‘Making Waves’ seminar in October 1995. It ranges quite widely – across music, radio, and film, and I think the ideas stand up to inspection more than a decade later.
2 August, 2007 at 8:33 pm
[...] and as well as sending a copy to the organisers, I’ve posted a copy to a newly created selected articles ‘resources’ page on the [...]
6 April, 2008 at 11:02 am
[...] restrictions would tighten – because of public pressure. (The full paper can be found on my Selected Articles [...]
8 June, 2008 at 10:24 pm
[...] television in the 1990s. It seems to stand up pretty well a decade on, so I have posted it to my selected articles page (scroll to the bottom of the [...]