The way we work is changing forever.
Let’s create a future that is sustainable and equitable for everyone.
People from around the world joined together with creative technologists, social inventors, policy experts, and thought leaders for a two-day event in Palo Alto, California on Nov 30-Dec 1, 2016, where we teased out the thorny challenges of the evolving on-demand economy and prototyped real solutions. Others followed around the globe.
The agenda of the event mixed cultural provocations with focused collaboration to generate tangible results and insights: platform prototypes, replicable design models, new financial tools, data management frameworks, software hacks, and more. Mentors from diverse backgrounds were available to advise and guide the work of the self-organized teams. IFTF plans to continue sharing outcomes of the Positive Platforms Design Jam with our expansive network and the media to provoke further conversations, iterations, and action.
Learn more about Positive Platforms in the IFTF report: “10 Strategies for a Workable Future.”
Why a Positive Platforms Design Jam?
A host of technologies—from automation to digital platforms for coordination of tasks — are reinventing not just what people do to earn a living but at a much deeper level how we organize to create value. The landscape of labor economics is in upheaval. In the process, new platforms, algorithms, and attitudes are undermining many established institutions, regulatory regimes, and work practices, challenging some of the basic tenets of the social safety net established in the 20th century. But what of the workers? How can we ensure dignified and sustainable livelihoods for everyone?
Solutions won’t come from any one agency, discipline, or company. It will take collaboration, broad public engagement, smart policy, and an openness to reinventing old economic models. And while we can’t put the technologies enabling on-demand platforms back in the box, the algorithms we embed in them, the platform design choices we make, the policy and regulatory solutions we create can be shaped by all of us. It is one of the more urgent tasks that we face today.
Special Guests
Satellite Jams
Not everyone was able travel to the first Positive Platforms Jam at IFTF’s headquarters in Silicon Valley, but everyone could be empowered to participate in these urgent discussions and activities. In December 2016, people from around the world attended a Satellite Jam in these locations:
- Helsinki, Finland
- Milan, Italy
- Recife, Brazil
- Barcelona, Spain
- Denver, CO, U.S.
- Dublin, Ireland
- Naples, Italy
- Rome, Italy
Presented By
Marina Gorbis | Executive Director, Institute for the Future
Devin Fidler | Research Director, Institute for the Future
In Collaboration With
Simone Cicero, Creator of Platform Design Toolkit
For More Information
- Positive Platforms Design Jam: Carol Neuschul | cneuschul@iftf.org
- Workable Futures Initiative: Jean Hagan | jhagan@iftf.org
IFTF Workable Futures Initiative 
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