During my visits and for some time to come I hope to be able to focus on a special little project of mine: regulatory future studies, or regulatory foresight. I think it is really a fascinating, and poorly understood area. Future studies tend to focus, naturally, on technology, ethics or science - but it is first when these solidify into law that we understand the societal implications fully. That is at least my working hypothesis right now.
Had a great visit this morning with the IBM institute for electronic government. Interesting institution, great research and one of the powerhouses when it comes to trying new technologies, as a matter of course. One of the people I met, Andy Kendzie, was also a communications director and we chatted about how new technologies and new technological concepts are recieved in the media. He suggested, and I am prone to agree, that the section of a newspaper where a technology shows up is indicative of where it is in its adoption cycle. One could almost sketch a path: science news - news - business news - culture feature, that would represent the adoption cycle of a technology. E-government, they maintained, in the US has reached business news. Most of the publicity they get is publicity about deals and contracts.
This is a sign of serious maturity in the e-government sector in the US. Again, I am struck by how important a diagnostic reporting - both where and how, obviously - can be in future studies methodology.