This document discusses making a case to senior management for funding to explore innovative technologies. It provides guidance on identifying implications, risks, and risk management strategies for new technologies. It also presents an action brief statement template to convince management of a technology's potential benefits. The document concludes with an exercise where attendees in groups prepare a short presentation making a case for funding to investigate one technology.

1. Preparing for the Future: Technological
Challenges and Beyond
F1: Making The Case
Brian Kelly
Independent researcher/consultant at
UK Web Focus Ltd.
Tony Hirst
Senior lecturer at The Open University
Contact Details
Brian Kelly Tony Hirst
Email: ukwebfocus@gmail.com Email: tony.hirst@gmail.com
Twitter: @briankelly Twitter: @psychemedia
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.com/ Blog: http://blog.ouseful.info/
Slides and further information available at
http://ukwebfocus.com/events/ili-2015-preparing-for-the-future/
UK Web Focus Event hashtag: #ili2015fut

2. F: Making The Case
Important to You – But What Are
The Next Steps?
You have identified technologies / technology-
related areas which you feel will be important in
your area of work.
Next steps:
• Identify the implications of the technologies
• Assess the associated risks
• Make a case to senior management for further
related work
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3. F: Making The Case
Planning: Risk Assessment
The Need to Explicitly Address Risks
From “Risks and Opportunities Framework for
Exploiting the Social Web” by Kelly & Oppenheim:
• Summarise risks
• Summary risks of not adopting technology
• Summarise strategies for minimising (or
accepting) risks
• Document biases and prejudices
• Provide evidence base
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Can you innovate without taking risks?

4. F: Making The Case
Planning: Action Brief Statement
Technology Will Not Defeat Us: Next Steps
Having identified future developments of relevance to
the organisation, you will now need to convince senior
management of the potential.
From the Hyperlinked Library MOOC
Planning template from assignment 2:
Action Brief Statement:
Convince ______ that by _______ they will ________
which will ________ because _______.
4Acknowledgements to Michael Stephens and Kyle Jones
This tool was used in a number of Planning for Future workshops
(with voting and prizes)

5. F: Making The Case
Group Exercise
You have an opportunity make a case to a senior
management need which has funding to explore
innovative technologies.
In your groups:
• Select one of the technologies identified previously
• Identify possible scenarios which may influence
take-up, positively and negatively
• Identify possible risks and risk management
approaches
• Prepare a case for funding investigation of your
selected area
• Give a presentation of < 5 minutes
Note only one submission can be funded! 5
GroupExercise

6. F: Making The Case
Questions?
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