This semester of BCM325 Future cultures I have been utilising my role as an executive within the UOW Digital Media Society. My digital artefact (which you can find here) looks into the short (1 year), medium (3 years) and long (5 years) future of the society. It consists of a future plan document which will be used to inform the 2022-2023 executives with the society’s current situation and our 5 year future plan.
To further the future progress of the UOWDMS through my digital artefact I have also created the UOW Digital Media Society Facebook group a central location for BCM students to network, get the latest on internship and job opportunities and know about upcoming events.
Weekly Lectures and Readings
The lecture content and weekly readings have led to exploring through my digital artefact the concept of futurists and the possible and probable future through Wendell Bell’s article Making People Responsible: The Possible, Probable and Preferable.
“Futurists encourage people to look beyond the familiar and to search for opportunities for themselves and their organisations. They also attempt to forcast the most probable futures given specific situations, set of circumstances, and particular alternative courses of action.
Wendell Bell
Futurists attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities and how examining the past and present can impact on the future. They analyse the current situation and circumstances to understand what has happened and how it may impact upon decision making. The UOW Digital Media Society has had to take into account the current covid-19 situation and has had to change our predictions on the possible and probable future due to having a mixture of on campus and online students.
As Moore 2022 states “Futurists seek to make the future better, not just preparing for the worse, but ensuring that we make the things happen are the things that we want to happen”. While their is a possibility that the future of the UOWDMS may not go according to my 5 year plan, the probable and possible future of the DMS is determined by the interaction we have with students and how they interact within society.
Public audience
I have ensured that my digital artefact is available to a public audience by having an open UOWDMS Facebook group and the future plan document being available to view on the UOWDMS website. Below are just a couple of posts available on the UOWDMS Facebook group.
Peer Pitch Feedback
During the pitch, I was able to gain some interesting feedback in regards to which direction I should take my digital artefact. Originally I had planned on looking into the future of Facebook but after the feedback, I have received i changed my idea to focus on the future of the DMS. By doing this I found it much easier to incorporate the subject material and to come to my own conclusions on the possible and probable future.
Conclusion
With new ideas and executives the UOW Digital Media Society will evolve in the future. My digital artefact is just the beginning stages of looking into the clubs future. I hope that a future executive will take my digtal artefact and recreate it just like i have with Harvey (2019) and Jasmyn (2020) future plans. It would be interesting to have someone else’s perspective on the society and what they think of its possible and probable futures.
Maddy Hawkins 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
LikeLike