IT Tools for Technology Foresight

Authors

  • Chirca Ovidiu Effective Decisions
  • Constantin-Bala Zamfirescu Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS222008200

Keywords:

group decision support, foresight studies

Abstract

The challenges of broadband society amplify the need of foresight research for designing science and technology policies. The success of a foresight study depends on bringing together different stakeholders, building consensus among divergent views and committing the policy makers to relevant action plan. The paper argues the use of advanced collaborative tools to support vision-creation activities. In particular, a special emphasize will be given to Group Support Systems (GSS) - a collection of software tools successfully used in the last two decades for strategic planning in industry. In addition to overcoming the temporal and spatial limitations of conventional meetings, GSS gives the possibility to have anonymous inputs that avoid individual inhibition and groupthink. The insights are drawn from our experience of using GSS technology in the FISTERA project - “Future Prospects in Romania: Scenarios for the Development of the Knowledge Society in Romania”. For designing the scenarios we carried out an expert survey biased towards a structured brainstorming coupled with rating. The preliminary results identified the most relevant drivers (trends, issues and events) and clusters of views considered to be critical to the knowledge society development in Romania.

Author Biography

Constantin-Bala Zamfirescu, Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu

Received a DPhil (PhD) in Automation from "Politehnica" University of Bucharest and a MSc in Computer Science from the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu. He worked as invited researcher in Austria, Spain and Belgium where he participated in various EU R&D projects. Since 1997 he is associated with the Computer Science Department from the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, where he teaches "Industrial Informatics", "Multi-agent systems" and "Manufacturing Control" courses. He is member of the IFAC TC on LSS and EU COST 298 Action. In 2003 he founded the Effective Decisions, a high-tech research and consulting company that offers independent services to both industry and government.

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Published

2008-05-26

How to Cite

Ovidiu, C., & Zamfirescu, C.-B. (2008). IT Tools for Technology Foresight. Observatorio (OBS*), 2(2). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS222008200

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2008)

Section

Articles

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