Following discussions with a number of members, I’ve created a Slack workspace for use by members and supporters of London Futurists.

The workspace address is https://londonfuturists.slack.com.

To join this workspace, you’ll need an invite. For the time being, anyone who clicks on this link will be able to create a Slack account (if you don’t already have one) and to join the London Futurists workspace.

(The latest sign-up link posted will expire on Sept 28th.)

The goal of this Slack workspace is to enable and encourage valuable conversations about London Futurists events and projects.

If you’ve used Slack before, you’ll know that a workspace contains a number of channels. Currently new members will be auto-joined to the following channels:

• #general – for workspace-wide communication and announcements
• #intros – users can introduce themselves here
• #advice – for Q&A about Slack
• #meta – how should this Slack workspace be administered and operated?

Depending on your interest, you can also join the following channels:

• #ai – the future of AI (artificial intelligence)
• #collabtech – the future of collabtech (tech that enables better collaboration)
• #energy – energy solutions for a sustainable abundance
• #health – the future of health (and longevity)
• #ubia – conversations about universal basic income and alternatives
• #values – what values should be upheld, to ensure a better future?
• #transpolitica – the future of politics, including the future of democracy
• #transport – the future of transport

If you decide you’re relatively less interested in a given channel, you can leave it.

In the #meta channel, I’ve suggested the following principles of operation:

1. The goal of this Slack workspace is to enable and encourage valuable conversations about London Futurists events and projects.
2. Members of London Futurists should feel welcomed and inspired to contribute to these conversations.
3. Our conversations here will, ideally, be open and tolerant, respectful of diverse opinion, willing to build bridges, and grounded as far as possible in data. Due acknowledgement should be given to sources.
4. Conversations here should avoid being repetitive, derogatory, or divisive.
5. Postings that merely link to news stories will be discouraged. There are already plenty of locations on the Internet for sharing news stories. However, links to news articles are welcome if the article contributes to the specific matter under discussion in a particular channel or thread. In this case, posters should explain why the article is relevant.
6. To keep the overall conversation structured and manageable, the creation of new channels will be restricted to administrators.
7. Substantive analysis ought ideally to be published in a separate document or webpage (for example, in H+Pedia), with a link being provided in the conversation.

If you are in general agreement with these principles, and if you support the overall mission of London Futurists – serious analysis of radical scenarios for the next 3-40 years – then you’ll be very welcome to join the workspace.

Note: new channels will be added from time to time, as the need becomes clear, and as we gain collective experience of how best to use Slack. The proposed principles of operation will surely evolve too. After all, this is an experiment. The future is open. It’s up to us – all of us – how to shape it.