Project Media
 
Unknown File Type1. Video and Text: President's Address
Unknown File Type2. URL: White House website

Take the survey

Run a report

IMPORTANT NEWS:

The Opinionnaire® survey of President Obama's January 27, 2010 State of the Union Address to Congress and the American People is now available!  Our Forum Foundation has been presenting these  Opinionnaire® surveys since 1999 (beginning with President Clinton) --  thank you for your participation in this educational civics program with international reach.
                        

                        

Instructions:             
                            
  1. Familiarize yourself with the  issues
    • Click on the Project Media links  to the right. Watch the streaming videos (courtesy of the New York  Times -- THANK YOU!)  and experience the media-rich background  and analysis from both the NYTimes.com and the WhiteHouse.gov websites.  Think about what you are hearing and reading.
                            
  2. Talk  things over with your friends, parents, and peers
    • None of us are an island unto ourselves. Our opinions and  perceptions are influenced by events and other people around us. The  interesting thing about opinions is that there is never a wrong one.  Ultimately however, we alone are responsible for the decisions we make  based upon the opinions we have.
                            
  3. Sign  in with your anonymous code         
    • On the  right is a text box with the instructions, "Enter your survey key:" Type your  code in the box and click the "Sign In" button. Once your code is  accepted then a "Take The Survey" link will appear above these  instructions.
                               
      1. Are  you a World  Future Society member?
        • If you see the "Take The Survey" link above these instructions then you are already authenticated and you may begin. If you don't see it then use the  anonymous WFS code that is printed in the May-June 2010 issue of  The Futurist. Look  for the ad, and additional instructions, near the end of the  magazine.
                                
      2. Are you a  teacher, student, parent, or other adult?
        • If you  want a private code so you can receive a free private report with the  anonymous opinions of your students, parents, and other adults — send a  confidential email request to "FastForum AT mac.com" — a code will be prepared and sent to you as soon as  possible.

        • If you do not  want a free private report then you can use this anonymous general  public access code: "aiioaqeygoy".  It is not possible to use this code  and then request a private report. Choose wisely.
                            

    To  teachers/students/parents/other adults:
               
The philosophy behind our  project
Thank you for  participating in this important national educational project to help  build bonding and bridging “social capital” in America (ref. Bowling Alone by Robert  Putnam, 2000). This is a research project utilizing “symbolic dialogue”  and the Fast Forum® technique to provide American youth with a  “Psycho-Social Moratorium” (Erik Erikson), “which is so important (to  an adolescent), it is equal to the importance of a small child for  maternal care” (Robert Pranger, Political Scientist, The Eclipse of Citizenship,  University of Washington, 1968). This is a project that can provide a  social audit—of intangible youth human assets—to assist youth in  thinking about their future and that of the nation and world in a  process of “Psycho-Social Education.” It utilizes the dynamics of the  Socratic Method, one of history’s proven learning techniques. As youth struggle with questions about  real problems in their world using sustainable dialogue, they make  choices and achieve new insight and grow psychologically as they learn  and gain in emotional maturity.
It is the job of an elected  or duly appointed public official to articulate public issues and  enable citizens to consider solutions for the common good in acts of  civic engagement. Our jobs, as citizen’s engaged in civilization  building, is to respectfully listen to our officials and then  personally reflect, privately discuss, and then publicly respond with  our opinions and our actions.
           
                 
Trust your own  instincts; secondary insights will come later when you  reflect on the overall responses. We are trying to learn how to distill  individual knowledge into the collective wisdom that society needs to  govern itself and at the same time create a new social mechanism for  individuals to anonymously express their opinions peacefully. Most of the knowledge in the  world is in books and computer data banks.   But most of the wisdom  of the world, (taking that knowledge and applying it to  the human conditions in the world) is in the minds of people walking the  earth. We have to learn how to reach it, and we can, using symbolic  dialogue such as this Opinionnaire® to enhance human  understanding and peace in the world!                                 
           
This experimental online tool for distributed   dialogue (and its paper-based equivalent for non-computer environments)  has been developed by the Forum Foundation of Seattle, Washington.  For other examples of our work with government-based citizenship models please visit the King County government's website about the Countywide Community Forums at KingCounty.gov/auditor/CommunityForums.

                   
For information about how you can use  this tool for your own issues in a highly-scalable community dialogue  environment, please send your email inquires to: FastForum AT mac.com 

Visit our new blog at: SocialCapitalReview.org