Futurism
on the other Side of Chasm-Second Edition*Sam Ghandchi
Futurism
on the other Side of Chasm-Second Edition*
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/1413-futurism-chasm-english.htm
آینده نگری در آنسوی دره-ویرایش دوم
http://www.ghandchi.com/1413-futurism-chasm.htm
http://isdmovement.com/2022/1122/111022/111022-Sam-Ghandchi-The-other-side-of-the-chasm.htm
Eight months ago in September of 2016, Iranian Secular Democratic Party was formed (1). Need to remind ourselves that Modern Futurism has been discussed widely since the end of World War II (2), but if we want to use the simile of Geoffrey A. Moore which is explained below, perhaps many years from now, the date of formation of Iranian Secular Democratic Party will be remembered as the time when Futurism for Iranians passed a wide chasm.
In 1991, Geoffrey A. Moore wrote an
interesting book called "Crossing the Chasm."
The book was about marketing for new technology startup companies. His main
discussion was that there is a huge chasm between those he called visionaries
(3) who first adopt a new innovation and those he called
pragmatists who adopt new products. It meant that he saw the discontinuity in
these transforming new innovations making it necessary to have a strategic view
of the whole product and a need to position it for what he called crossing the
chasm. In other words, on the other side of the
chasm those who have the potential for adopting the new innovations are not like
the visionaries who are enthusiastic about new things who
always chase them, rather, they are pragmatists and turn
to new innovations to fulfill specific needs,
when they see such solutions to respond to their particular needs and this is
why the marketing professional should pay attention to
the whole product concept and its positioning as to what specific needs it
fulfills, and not to try to show his or her customer that
the new innovation is interesting, or novel,
or to be the last word, to
attract clients, because basically that
is not the reason for adoption of a new solution by pragmatists, on
the other side of the chasm.
If we get into more details, we will see that for visionaries,
long discussions about whether a new innovation is more
important than the other, or whether in the past or future,
what other alternatives have been or could be, are
interesting issues, and many countless
hours of such discussions are needed to get them excited about a new innovation,
to get attracted to, and to adopt it. Whereas for the
pragmatists, all that matters is whether the
product fulfills specific needs,
and the
solution achieves its goals.
First group do not disappear, but those wasting time responding to them, and not
recognizing on time,
that it is no longer important to spend time on
first side of the chasm, are
the ones who will fail in advancing the new innovations
to success, because of, not
working on building strategies for the second
side of the chasm. This is why Geoffrey Moore's book became
the secret of success for many who were empowered to recognize the right time to
cross the chasm for their new innovations and no longer wasted their energy on
the first side of the chasm.
Futurism, especially in Iran, has
crossed the chasm with the founding of Iranian Secular Democratic Party (4)
and the attention should now be
focused on pragmatists of the second side of the chasm and not on the visionaries
of the first side. Most of the discussion topics of
Iranian futurist web sites and publications are of no use for the success of
futurism in Iran and are wasting their time, and even
those of the visionary group of the first side of the chasm are tired of the
repetitious articles
that are suitable for enthusiasts
of first side of the chasm. This is why, more and more
futurist sites are losing their visitors.
For example, it is not important to prove,
in our time, that we should build national economy
with
a global perspective and such discussions are waste of time. The
question is about the forms a global strategy will take,
and what it will bring us, good or bad, for specific needs. For futurism, the central issue is now the
second side of the chasm and not the side
it focused its efforts during the last half century. Planning for the
second side of the
chasm is like the work that was done
in Singapore, Taiwan,
Japan or South Korea, half a
century ago, when they focused their attention on a strategy with
emphasis on global markets although at that time even 20% of their
economy was not there in practice.
To summarize, it is time for futurist publications and media to seriously look at what they are offering and to target the pragmatists on other side of the chasm who want to know how the present economic, social and political needs can be fulfilled by the futurists' programs, otherwise, it will not be long before they will even lose, the current diminishing number of visitors they still have.
Hoping for a democratic and secular futurist republic in Iran,
http://www.ghandchi.com/index2.html
May 2, 2017
*The first edition of this article was published ten years ago in April of 2007.
Footnotes:
1. A Few Words about Iranian Secular Democratic Party-Futurist
http://www.ghandchi.com/1408-iranian-secular-democratic-party-futurist-english.htm
چند کلمه درباره حزب سکولار دموکرات ایرانیان-آینده نگر
http://www.ghandchi.com/1408-iranian-secular-democratic-party-futurist.htm
2. Modern Futurism
http://www.ghandchi.com/347-FuturismEng.htm
آینده نگری مدرن
http://www.ghandchi.com/347-Futurism.htm
3. Futurist Visions
ویزیون یا دیدگاه های آینده نگر
http://www.ghandchi.com/fut.htm
4. Discussion about Iranian Secular Democratic Party (futurist) and discourse of
secular democracy and futurism
بحثهای مربوط به حزب سکولار دموکرات ایرانیان (آینده نگر)، و گفتمان های جنبش
سکولار دموکراسی و آینده نگری
http://www.ghandchi.com/futuristparty/index.html
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FUTURIST IRAN: Futurism vs Terrorism
http://www.ghandchi.com/500-FuturistIranEng.htm
ایران آینده نگر: آینده نگری در برابر تروریسم
http://www.ghandchi.com/500-FuturistIran.htm
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