Institute for the Future
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The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is a Palo Alto, California–based think tank established in 1968, as a spin-off from the RAND Corporation, to help organizations plan for the long-term future.
IFTF was founded by Paul Baran, an early Internet pioneer and co-developer of packet switching, futurist Theodore Jay Gordon, and Delphi method co-inventor Olaf Helmer. After a year in Middletown, Connecticut, the Institute relocated to Silicon Valley, where it has been ever since. During the presidency of Roy Amara (1969–1991), the Institute conducted some of the earliest studies of the impact of the ARPANET on scientific research, and was notable for its research on groupware. The Institute attracted several notable researchers in this period, including astrophysicist and computer scientist Jacques Vallee, sociologist Bob Johansen, and its most consistently mediagenic figure, technology forecaster Paul Saffo.
Today, the Institute maintains research programs on the futures of technology, health, and organizations. It publishes a variety of reports and maps, as well as a blog on emerging technologies.
Currently, the Institute offers three programs to its clients: the Ten Year Forecast, Technology Horizons and Health Horizons. The clients of the three programs are primarily Fortune 500 companies. When the Institute was founded in 1968, the founders had envisioned working with governments, but over the years most of Institute clients have increasingly been large companies.
The Institute's executive director is Marina Gorbis.
