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Web 3.0 & Beyond: “There” is “Here” & the “Future” is “Now

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. It will be held at the J.J. Pickle Research Center of the University of Texas, at 6:00 p.m. The J.J. Pickle Research Campus (formerly the Balcones Research Center) is located in northwest Austin at the corner of Braker Lane and Burnet Road. A J.J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) map and building list is available for visitors to the PRC (http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/maps/prc/). Directions to the TACC can be found at: http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/general/visitor/.

Dr. Leslie Jarmon will speak on " Web 3.0 & Beyond: “There” is “Here” & the “Future” is “Now””

Building on earlier talks, including Jay Boisseau’s talk on super-computing and Kavita Patel’s talk on Web 2.0 and social networking, Dr. Jarmon’s talk features what she has dubbed Web 3.0, the world of 3-D virtual learning environments. Gartner, Inc., a technology-related research and consulting firm, estimates that by 2012, 80 percent of active Internet users, including Fortune 500 enterprises, will have a “second life” in some form of 3-D virtual world environment, and these virtual worlds are expected to have a large impact on teaching and learning in the very near future.

We will take a closer look at Second Life (SL), currently the most popular platform albeit an early iteration of the rapidly expanding development of 3-D virtual worlds. Massive user-constructed content and infinite scale in a 3-D space freed from many of the laws of physics are some of their special features. These features provide opportunities for engagement in social interactions with people from various fields across geographical distances, and they foster experiential learning. The sense of “social presence” is becoming more critical, and some of the powerful impacts of working in 3-D virtual worlds are only beginning to be identified. Role play, improvisation, and other action-based activities are already used in SL to foster experiential learning in training emergency personnel and nurses (e.g., Ann Meyers Medical Center), for interacting with reflexive architecture, and for learning to play virtual musical instruments with the avatar orchestra metaverse (AOM). The U.S. Federal government is already investing several billion research dollars through multiple agencies to develop and apply 3-D virtual worlds for a myriad of training and research purposes. We will focus on two on-going research and educational projects in Second Life: (1) the Educators Coop (www.educatorscoop.org), and (2) the Alley Flats Initiative. Guest experts within Second Life will also be joining us from their virtual work spaces.

Attendance is limited to 48. Because we must specify the number of people for dinner, you must register by Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at noon.

You can register and prepay at: www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm

Or, send a check to CenTexWFS, PO Box 26947, Austin, TX 78755-0947.

Price: $20 for members, $25 for non-members.

Dr. Leslie Jarmon is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin with the Office of Graduate Studies' Professional Development & Community Engagement Program, where she has designed and taught graduate courses since 1998. Her Graduate Studies courses include:

*Exploring Multicultural Communication: Communicating Across Disciplinary Cultures in Second Life
*Community Engagement: Project Management and Consulting Projects
*A Systematic Approach to Academic and Professional Writing

Dr. Jarmon is a leader in the university’s entry into 3-D virtual world environments, specifically Second Life (SL). Her avatar’s name is Bluewave Ogee, and she has presented at numerous conferences in or about Second Life, including Best Practices in Education in SL (May 2007), the American Sociological Association (August 2007), the New Media Consortium Symposium on Creativity (August 2007), and the American Educational Research Association (2008). Her current research focuses on 3-D virtual world environments as new sites for collaboration and the creation of communities of learners, on an international scale. She is a co-founder of the Educators Coop in Second Life, an experimental residential community of interdisciplinary educators, researchers, and librarians from around the world.

Dr. Jarmon is perhaps best known for creating the world's first multimedia digital dissertation to be accepted entirely on CD-ROM (“An Ecology of Embodied Interaction: Turn-Taking and Interactional Syntax in Face-to-Face Encounters.” - 1996, UT). After teaching as an Assistant Professor of Communication at Indiana University in Bloomington, Dr. Jarmon was invited back to join the faculty of the Graduate School at The University of Texas at Austin where she designed research models for collaboration with IT corporations sponsoring student research with the Science, Technology, and Society Program and with the McCombs School of Business Plus Program. She was the coordinator and chief designer for the first large-scale Civic Forum on the Societal Implications of Nanotechnology, and she was principal designer of the “nano scenario” civic engagement model. Dr. Jarmon was instrumental in creating research partnerships between The University of Texas, the World Congress on Information Technology 2006 (WCIT), and leading private sector information technology companies.

Her other interests focus particularly on technology and education and applications of low cost technologies in service to developing countries. In the past, Dr. Jarmon served as an inaugural National Research Fellow with the U.S. Corporation for National Service where she conducted research on private-public sector partnerships with the national Welfare-to-Work Program. Her research led to extensive use across the country of AmeriCorps-VISTA volunteers working with micro-lending organizations and other grassroots community economic development entities. She also served as the Regional Coordinator of the Micro-Enterprise Development Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean with the United States Peace Corps. Dr. Jarmon served two tours of duty as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica and Ecuador in the 1980s.

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit www.centexwfs.org.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit www.wfs.org.
Derek Woodgate, Presidentdwoodgate@futures-lab.com
512.472.2628
www.centexwfs.org

Defense, Media & the Budget

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold it's next monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 19, 2007. It will be held at the meeting room of Marie Callender's, 9503 Research Blvd. # 400., Austin, TX 78759 ( 512.349.7151 ) from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Laura Faulkner will speak on "Defense, the Media and Emotion: Identifying Future Shifts in Funding"

Attendance fee is $20 per person, for members, $25 for nonmembers, cash or checks only at the door. (Make checks payable to CenTexWFS.) Credit cards accepted online. The fee includes a meal but is charged for attendance.

The meeting room is at the back of the restaurant on the right.

Seating will be limited so please reserve your place and prepay at :

www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm

Agenda: Networking, Announcements, Meal, Speaker, Discussion

Defense budgets go up and down fairly predictably according to currentdefense circumstance. But within those fairly stable, predictablebudgets, the types and amounts of things funded vary wildly fromyear-to-year, and from beginning of fiscal year "planned" spending incontrast to and end-of-fiscal year “spend all the dollars we have leftover” spending. As a matter of fact, those end-of-fiscal year decisionsmay be the most telling of all: they are the gut instinct,non-thought- out, emotional decisions, often unconstrained by leadershipabove the sponsor-in-charge of disbursing those funds—few political stringsare attached to those funds. Dr. Faulkner examines the future of thesecycles through the lense of her expertise in human psychology, toward arecognition of what changes and what stays the same.

Laura Faulkner, Ph.D., fascination and passion is human behavior, asevidenced by more than 25 years of human sciences study, degrees insociology, anthropology and psychology, and a career in human-computerinteraction (HCI).Dr. Faulkner is currently a Senior Product Manager for AWARE Software,Inc., performing HCI applied research, and managing datamodeling/ontology,training, documentation and translation, related to software andrequirements engineering.

For the previous eleven years, Dr. Faulkner was with the Applied Research Laboratories (ARL:UT), The University of Texasat Austin (UT-Austin). As a Program Manager and Principal Investigator shecompleted multiple Department of Defense and industry projects, learningthe intriguing pathways of defense funding. Among other things, her workpioneered a team facilitation and collaboration initiative to stand up theInformation Operations Technology Alliance. Dr. Faulkner continues as aninvited instructor for UT-Austin's Software Quality Institute, and hasserved on the Human Systems committee of the international organization,the defense-centric Interservice/ Industry Simulation, Training, andEducation Conference.

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit http://www.centexwfs.org/.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit http://www.wfs.org/.

Look Before You Leap

Look Before You Leap: Mental Time Travel as a Strategic Viewing Method for Looking Ahead

Click on the links below for more information on this subject:

Audio recording of talk (mp3)
Copy of article (doc)
Slide show on integrity (pps)

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold it's next monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 19, 2007. It will be held at the meeting room of Marie Callender's, 9503 Research Blvd. # 400., Austin, TX 78759 (512.349.7151) from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Oliver Markley will speak on "Look Before You Leap: Mental Time Travel as a Strategic Viewing Method for Looking Ahead"

Attendance fee is $20 per person, for members, $25 for nonmembers, cash or checks only at the door. (Make checks payable to CenTexWFS.) Credit cards accepted online. The fee includes a meal but is charged for attendance. The meeting room is at the back of the restaurant on the right.

Seating will be limited so please reserve your place and prepay at :

www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm

Agenda: Networking, Announcements, Meal, Speaker, Discussion

Mental Time Travel uses guided imagination in the "theatre of the mind" to intuitively visualize and explore contingent future patterns. It is a practical approach for wise choosing, and represents a clear way to improve conventional scenario forecasting, strategic planning and marketing research methods — especially when dealing with Just in Time (JiT) business environments. It is also very useful for individuals wanting to "look before they leap." This presentation will briefly cover how the method came about and how it has been used with audiences ranging from Fortune 50 level clients to elementary school children; but the main focus will be an experiential demonstration involving everyone, with ample time for Q&A/discussion.

Oliver Markley, Ph.D., is professor emeritus and formerly chair of the graduate program in Studies of the Future at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. His career began as a design engineer but quickly shifted to social psychology and futures research, eventually specializing in visioning methods. Before UHCL, he was a principal investigator and consultant at the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) where he led the "Changing Images of Man" project with Willis Harman, Joseph Campbell, Duane Elgin and others. Dr. Markley currently maintains a part-time research and consulting practice, Inward Bound. He is co-author of four books and many research reports, the most recent being a paper on Mental Time Travel—posted online at http://inwardboundvisioning.com/Docs/mentaltimetravel.htm—which was published this year by the international journal, Futures. His current focus is an experimental social action initiative in which "imaginal" visioning would be coupled with political activism to uplift the level of integrity in the body politic of the worlds in which we live: personal, societal and planetary. He also teaches best practices for intentional manifestation.

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit http://www.centexwfs.org/.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit http://www.wfs.org/.

Paul Schumann
President

E-Mail
512.632.6586

Web 2.0

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, January 15, 2008. It will be held at the meeting room of Marie Callender's, 9503 Research Blvd. #400, Austin, TX 78759 (512.349.7151) at 6:00 p.m. Kavita Patel will speak on "Web 2.0”

Web 2.0 – Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn - they are not just fads but the beginning of a revolution of people, power and institutions…. Learn more from Kavita Patel who will speak about how technology and people meet.

Kavita Patel has pioneered how people use the internet to interact with other people and information. With a decade of entrepreneurial experience focused on online communities Kavita is a recognized expert and is passionate about advancing how people use technology to connect to others and the rest of the world.

Currently, Kavita directs social media strategy and technical implementation for Pluck. At Pluck, the leading provider of social media technology, content, and services to online media, marketers, and retailers, Kavita created a community platform that allows Pluck’s customers to engage millions of people and power billions of interactions every month. Pluck’s BlogBurst is the world’s largest blog syndication network with over 4,000 of today’s bloggers. Every day without realizing it millions of people in many nations use Pluck's technology to access media from the world's most recognized digital destinations such as - USAToday, Better Homes and Gardens, CBC, Circuit City, Cox, The Economist, FOX News, Gannett, Scotts, Austin-American Statesman, Houston Chronicle and The Washington Post.

Previously, Kavita was the third member of the founding engineering team for Netspend which in 6 months, transformed a suggestion into a real-time credit card transaction processing system. Netspend is now the leader in pre-paid card solutions and Capital One recently offered $700 million for Netspend.

In 1998 Kavita joined one of the pioneering dotcoms of the 1990’s - Excite.com one of the most recognized brands of the Internet. At that time 3 out of 5 people using the internet went to an Excite property. She was part of the first team to create some of the most popular early community tools on the web – message boards, photo albums and online chat at high volume and scale serving millions of users. These community products generated 1/3 of Excite’s traffic while search generated the other 2/3 and was an indicator of how important community interaction online would become.

While at the University of Texas at Austin she interned with Praxsys, developer of the first e-commerce store for Dell. Kavita graduated from UT Austin in 1997 with a BA in Geography & Computer Science allowing her to combine her love of connecting technology, people, places and ideas.

You can reach Kavita Patel at kavita@pluck.com or visit www.pluck.com for more information about Pluck.

Seating is limited so please reserve your place at:

www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm . (You can also prepay at this link via credit card.)

Price: $20 for members, $25 for non-members, payable at the door (cash or check only). Note: The price is for a meal, but must be paid for attendance even if you choose not to eat a meal.

Agenda: Networking, Announcements, Meal, Speaker, Discussion

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit www.centexwfs.org.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit www.wfs.org.
Paul Schumann, Presidentpaul.schumann@centexwfs.org
512.302.1935www.centexwfs.org

Supercomputing: Transforming Science and Enriching Society

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, November 20, 2007. It will be held at the J.J. Pickle Research Center of the University of Texas, at 6:00 p.m. The J.J. Pickle Research Campus (formerly the Balcones Research Center) is located in northwest Austin at the corner of Braker Lane and Burnet Road. A J.J. Pickle Research Campus map and building list is available for visitors to the PRC (http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/maps/prc/). Directions to the TACC can be found at: http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/general/visitor/.

Dr. Jay Boisseau will speak on " Supercomputing: Transforming Science and Enriching Society”

You are invited to a participatory talk led by Dr. Jay Boisseau, director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin. A dynamic and engaging speaker, Boisseau will explain what supercomputing is, why it is fundamental for science discovery, and how it is increasingly important for society, business, homeland security, entertainment, healthcare, and other industries. In addition, Boisseau will share initial results and future plans for Ranger, an unprecedented computational resource, which will be the most powerful supercomputer in the world when it is deployed at the end of the year.

Read “The Beast in the Background” by Avrel Seale, Alcalde, March-April 2007 for more information about the project. (http://www.texasexes.org/alcalde/feature.asp?p=1951)

Attendance is limited to 48. To attend you must prepay by Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at noon.

You can prepay at: www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm

Or, send a check to CenTexWFS, PO Box 26947, Austin, TX 78755-0947.

Price: $20 for members, $25 for non-members.

John ("Jay") R. Boisseau graduated with a bachelors degree in astronomy and physics from the University of Virginia in 1986 while also working as a computer consultant. He continued to work in Charlottesville for an additional year as a scientific programmer, and then entered the graduate program in astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin. After obtaining his masters degree in 1990, Boisseau initiated his dissertation research on modeling the dynamics of Type Ia supernovae using Cray supercomputers. This work stimulated his interest in high performance computing, and led him to join the staff of the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center as a programmer analyst in 1994 while continuing his supernova modeling research. At ARSC, Boisseau helped develop and lead several projects and activities in the relatively new center while supporting a growing scientific user community.

Boisseau completed his dissertation and joined the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) in 1996 to advance his career in high performance computing. At SDSC, Dr. Boisseau became an Associate Director and created the Scientific Computing Department, with groups specializing in applications optimization, performance modeling, parallel tools development, grid portals development, and user support.

He led several major SDSC projects for the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) and also led SDSC's participation in the Department of Defense (DoD) Programming Environments and Training (PET) program. He also founded the IBM Scientific Computing User Group while at SDSC.

In June 2001, Boisseau returned to Austin to become the director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin. Under his direction, TACC has grown in size and stature to become one of the leading academic advanced computing centers in the US.

Boisseau initiated a strong and growing research and development program at TACC while enhancing the computational resources to provide world-class capabilities, culminating in the recent award to TACC of the largest NSF award in UT Austin history: $59 million to acquire one of the most powerful computing system in the world in 2007 and to support US open research for four years. TACC participates as a resource provider and a technology developer in the NSF TeraGrid, with Boisseau serving as the UT Austin PI and a member of the Executive Steering Committee. Boisseau also leads UT Austin's involvement in the High Performance Computing Across Texas (HiPCAT) consortium and is beginning to work with other institutions in the UT System to enhance their research programs by leveraging TACC's advanced computing systems and expertise.

Boisseau's professional activities include performance characteristics of high-end computing systems and microprocessors, and the development of grid technologies and portals for computational science. His newest interest is the application of HPC and grid technologies to computational biology and biomedicine.

For more information about TACC, visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/.

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit http://www.centexwfs.org/.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit http://www.wfs.org/.

Paul Schumann, President
paul.schumann@centexwfs.org
512.632.6586
http://www.centexwfs.org/

Contracts with the Future

Time also demands its compromises, as we try to balance the demands of the present and the future. Short-termism is an ugly word for a tough dilemma. Businesses are accused of it, governments are plagued by it, none of us can escape it in our own lives. We all live with the knowledge that the things which we want most, and which are best for us - health, affection, long life - require us to give up immediate delights or to do things we'd rather not do. Personal short-termism damages our health. We know, in other words, that this sort of personal compromise is one way of dealing with the paradox that most of the things we enjoy are bad for us.

The dilemma is this - to what extent should you short-change or compromise the present in order to benefit the future? All investment involves taking something today to improve tomorrow: It only makes sense to do that if you believe in, or want, what tomorrow may bring. It is always another compromise. To what extent are we prepared to curb our bad environmental habits to ensure a cleaner, safer world for our grandchildren, a world which we may not live long enough to enjoy? To what extent will we curb our own behavior if others do not do likewise? Will the tragedy of the commons be played out on a global scale or will we adjust our short-term behavior for a greater common cause, to make life better for people we shall never meet? We will only do it, I believe, if we can look beyond the grave, if we can accept that there are some things that are more important than ourselves, and longer lasting.

At a more personal level, young dual-career couples struggle with this issue of common cause and compromise as they try to decide whether or when to start a family. The sacrifices in the present will be considerable, a loss of income, a change of life-style, an altered relationship. The commitment of both of them to a new future is critical, if they are to make the necessary compromises to start another family. It is, however, an impossible decision to make if they want to preserve their present while growing that future. They have to start by understanding that compromise is essential to most progress, but that voluntary compromise is only possible if there is a common cause, a cause greater than oneself, and a trust in the other. When compromise goes out of fashion among the young, so do babies.

In a business, to increase a dividend is to reduce the sums available for new capital spending. If the shareholders are not interested in the future of the company because they can sell their shares tomorrow, they will want to see dividends, not retained profits, in the accounts. The managers, on the other hand, with their own futures linked to that of the business, will want to invest as much as they can in that future. There can often be a conflict of priorities.

If there is no common cause, no agreement on the longer-term goal, the more pressing priority, or the most powerful party, will win out. If we think that we need shareholders more than managers, as we seem to, the shareholders will win. Compromise will be enforced, not voluntary - a British contract rather than a Chinese one. Only if the shareholders are also locked into the future of the business, as shareholders more often are in Japan and Germany, will they have common cause with the managers and be prepared to forego some present gains for future profits. As long, that is, as that common cause seems a worthwhile one. In the end, for the long term to prevail over the short term, we must want what the long term promises. Where there is no vision, there you find short-termism, for then there is no reason to compromise today for an unknown tomorrow.

The concept of stock options, common in Britain and America, is an attempt to make common cause between senior managers and the shareholders. The thinking is that they will tie the managers' compensation more closely to the longer-term performance of the company. It does, but it is because the managers can only make use of those options after a period of years or if the share price goes higher than the price of the options. If all shareholders were treated this way, they would look at the company a little differently. It would significantly alter the balance between the present and the future and so make compromise easier.

From The Age of Paradox, Charles Handy, Harvard Business School Press, 1995

CenTexWFS Presents Dr. Ben Streetman on "Leadership"

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, October 16, 2007. It will be held at the meeting room of Marie Callender's, 9503 Research Blvd. #400, Austin, TX 78759 (512.349.7151) at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Ben Streetman will speak on " Leadership”

Dr. Streetman became Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering in September 1996.

Dean Streetman is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, and holds the Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering. His primary area of scholarship is semiconductor materials and devices. After receiving the Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin (1966) he was on the faculty (1966-1982) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He returned to The University of Texas at Austin in 1982.

Dr. Streetman founded the Microelectronics Research Center in 1984 and was Director until August 31, 1996, when he was appointed as Dean. His teaching and research have been recognized by the Cockrell School of Engineering, which honored him as a Distinguished Graduate and with the General Dynamics Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching. He has also received the Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship for 1996-97, in recognition of his teaching of undergraduates. He was awarded the Education Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest professional engineering society with more than 300,000 members worldwide. In 1998 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Streetman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Electrochemical Society. He was awarded the AT&T Foundation Award of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and has received the Frederick Emmons Terman Medal of the ASEE, and the Heinrich Welker medal. Dr. Streetman has served on the Science and Technology Advisory Council for ALCOA and the Research Advisory Committee for United Technologies Corp. He serves on the National Academy of Science Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable, and on several other panels and committees in industry and government. He has served on the Board of Directors for National Instruments, Global Marine, and Zix Corporation. He is the author of the book Solid State Electronic Devices which is used throughout the world in four languages, and has published more than 290 technical articles. Thirty-four students of Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics have received their doctorates under his direction.

Seating is limited so please reserve your place at:

www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm . (You can also prepay at this link via credit card.)

Price: $20 for members, $25 for non-members, payable at the door (cash or check only). Note: The price is for a meal, but must be paid for attendance even if you choose not to eat a meal.

Agenda: Networking, Announcements, Meal, Speaker, Discussion

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit www.centexwfs.org.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit www.wfs.org.
Paul Schumann, Presidentpaul.schumann@centexwfs.org
512.302.1935www.centexwfs.org

The Transformation of Periatric Health Care in Central Texas

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society & Dell Children’s Medical Center present “The Transformation of Pediatric Health Care in Central Texas”. The event will be held on Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at the Auditorium in the Pat Hayes Education and Conference Center of the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, 4900 Mueller Blvd., Austin, TX 78723, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. For directions and parking:

http://www.dellchildrens.net/maps_directions_and_parking/

Enter from Mueller Blvd. towards the Main Entrance. The Pat Hayes Education and Conference Center is on the left and immediately in front there is free surface parking.

Dr. Bob Bonar, President and CEO of Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, will be the host of a most interesting evening which will include his remarks about the hospital, a tour of this incredible facility, and dinner.

You cannot attend if you do not register here,

www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm,

by Wednesday, September 12, 2007.

From its specially designed entrances, to the wonderful children’s amphitheater, to the every detail, it is evident that the design process used in developing every aspect of the project was framed with the future in mind. And in how this would impact the future of Central Texas by helping improve how our young ones are cared for. The evening will offer a rare glimpse into a new facility that "will serve as a beacon of opportunity for a shift in the way healthcare projects will be approached."

This is a one-of-a-kind medical center from the ground up, to keep kids inspired, energized and engaged throughout treatment. Amidst the pediatric medical “know-how” and technology, Dell Children’s brings together the healing powers of nature, art and family. This total healing environment includes seven courtyards that represent the seven ecosystems of our 46-county service area, healing gardens, a towering waterfall, windows placed for optimal natural lighting, family lounges, a sibling clubhouse, a family resource center, and a collection of healing art, sculpture and photography unmatched in any medical facility. What’s more, the entire complex is constructed with “green building” principles, and stands committed to sustainable site planning, water, energy, and materials conservation in addition to indoor environmental quality.

Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is on track to becoming the first hospital in the world to achieve Platinum Status under the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) program sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Dr. Bob Bonar started his career in healthcare during the 1970’s as a hospital based street and flight paramedic. He earned an M.A. in Education Administration and an M.S. in Healthcare Administration and went on to become Director of Emergency and Trauma Services at West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown. He left the clinical provider realm and went into health management, serving as administrator of Children’s Hospital of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City; administrator of the Children’s Hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he also earned a doctorate in health administration and policy. Bob served as president and chief executive officer of Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia and is currently president and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Austin, in Austin Texas. He has been a member of the board of directors of NACHRI as well as the Child Health Corporation of America and served on various committees with both of those organizations as well as state advisory committees, faculty positions, and teaching roles.

Please visit the Children’s Medical Center Foundation of Central Texas (http://www.childrensaustin.org ) site. This foundation serves as the fundraising arm for Seton Family of Hospitals’ new Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas and offers exciting volunteer and fundraising events opportunities. As the hospital is providing the meeting at no cost, please consider donating at least what you would have spent attending one of our regular meetings. Any donations made through CenTexWFS for this meeting will be donated to the foundation. Donations will be accepted online or by check made out to and mailed to CenTexWFS. No money will be accepted at the meeting:

www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm

CenTexWFS
PO Box 26947
Austin, TX 78755-0947

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit www.CenTexWFS.org.


Paul Schumann, President: paul.schumann@centexwfs.org, 512.632.6586