How did we get to where we are now?

What is really at stake?

How do we make informed decisions about where we want to be in the future?

... decisions informed by deep and broad understanding of long-term trends as well as local sensitivity

... decisions informed by ''human'' sensitivity.

Stanford Strategy Center is a project to build an architecture for the conversations at the heart of such forward thinking ... great conversations about difficult and important issues, in a collegial environment rich in artifacts and knowledge drawn from the Humanities and Arts, enhanced by a long term historical perspective.

Founders: Douglass Carmichael (Stanford MediaX), Michael Shanks (SHL), Tom Burns (Oslo Sustainability Initiative).

 An Eighteenth Century Salon

Stanford Strategy Center is an initiative to create an environment designed to enhance discussion, strategic planning and collaborative decision making around matters of common and pressing human and international concern. We start from the experience that strategic conversations in major organizations tend to be narrow in focus and unhistorical in framing. Our initiative has two key aspects: - to bring together in conversations those whose professional focus is on key issues and those whose humanistic study might provide valuable knowledge - from history, philosophy, literature, archaeology. - to provide a rich surround of supporting images and artifacts - a room, real and virtual, that provides participatory access to an archive of discussions set in context of themes, trends and narratives drawn particularly from the Humanities and Arts.

We are developing principles and practices for open, extended and iterative conversation that will inform more effective action in and around matters such as environmental change, energy issues, new media and technologies, the global market, sustainable planning and design, local democratic agency.

Our proposition is that the Arts and Humanities can provide fresh insight into matters of common concern when they are brought together with project focused experts. For example, a review of Stanford Humanities faculty statements of interest on departmental websites indicates that over one half express an interest in issues that pertain directly to public policy. This is as true in philosophy as in history and economics. The writings by many Humanities faculty show a deep understanding of issues that are in public debate, but for the most part these faculty are not connected to policy discussions. Policy suffers as a result. We want to use the Humanities and Arts to refresh and jump the level of public discussion to new kinds of significance, to help meet the complexities for governance and sound social and strategic thinking in these deeply challenged times.

We are using of a range of analog and digital tools to develop a room with a memory. Even the room itself will be a composite of real and virtual: we have experience of the tremendous potential of online 3D worlds for facilitating internationally distributed encounter and discussion and will be establishing a strategy room in online Second Life as well as experimenting with Stanford's own digital world currently in development in our computer science department. Visualization is a key component. We have begun using large printouts of time lines and concept maps, charts, high resolution and interactive displays enabling navigation through such diagrams and environments — deep visual maps of both past conversations and also broad analytic context for addressing questions such as How did we get here? Where are we now? What are the scenarios going forward? Open participation is a key component. As well as online 3D environments, we will be using participatory and social software to share the conversations, opening them up to the civic world of the digital commons.