Tomorrow

Problem:  The world is changing rapidly through advances in technology, bringing with it a new economic order. There is a widening gap in equitable access to quality learning environments, tools and knowledge for the creative application of disruptive technologies for social change, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation within under-resourced communities.

Solution: "Tomorrow," a new institution that is first in a new paradigm of distributed, social activist museums. Tomorrow will be anchored in a physical space in Boston, while also offering distributed digital/physical/mobile hybrid learning experiences/environments using entire physical space of the city as a gameboard for highly engaging knowledge experiences--transcending the walls of traditional museums--exploring/creating what "tomorrow" will bring. Nothing like this exists in America.  

We will deliver equitable access to learning environments that explore the creative application of GPTs- artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, VR/AR/XR, mobile, ioT, and 3D printing. 

If scaled globally, Tomorrow will expand the possibilities for marginalized youth.

We will solve the problem of equitable access to quality learning environments: tools, knowledge, and networks for the creative application of disruptive technologies for social change, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation within under-resourced communities.

Globally, more than one-third of the population suffers in extreme poverty. In Massachusetts, 10 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. The World Economic Forum predicts automation will supplant 85 million jobs by 2025--just the beginning of the rapid workforce changes about to hit our world's most vulnerable populations. COVID-19, starkly exposed youth education inequalities and the inability of public institutions to transform quickly to ensure access.

Public schools/libraries/museums don't offer equitable access to learning environments exploring emerging GPTs (blockchain/AI/XR/robotics/IoT/etc) and/or entrepreneurship focused on creative application for disruptive commerce and social change. There are no equitable learning environments focused on the future and designing for new order. Currently less than 10% of youth in America aged 7-14 can write code. 

While society's wealthiest and most educated will be able to successfully co-exist in the greatest workforce shift in over a century, this paradigm threatens to leave behind a vast portion of our youth due to lack of equitable access to high quality learning environments. 

Tomorrow will be the first institution of its kind in the world with a laser-focus on the events and technologies that are changing our world. Headquartered in Boston, "Tomorrow" will be the first new major educational institution in the city in the last 50 years, providing equitable access to high quality, highly engaging learning environments and experiences focused on the future. 

The key to "Tomorrow" is its distributive model. While "Tomorrow" will offer visitor experiences, its power and reach lies in bringing projects, installations, interactive experiences and exhibits, access to learning environments and mind-blowing examples of technology and the world to youth, regardless of where they live. Imagine drones arrayed in a QR code in the sky above a Brazilian favela; the metaverse overlaid onto a city street in India; or a display of non-fungible tokens in Baltimore. In essence, there are no walls to "Tomorrow," making it as accessible as the creative mind can dream - providing digital/physical/mobile/hybrid learning experiences at street and mobile level, co-created in partnership with communities, businesses, and innovators.

Its distributive model makes "Tomorrow" is near limitless in scope, geographic area, and funding sources.      

Our solution serves youth lacking equitable access to high quality learning environments and experiences focused on the future.  

Imagine a young family today growing up in a traditionally working-class town in Massachusetts, of which there are hundreds. The parents are not buying Bitcoin. They are not lawyers. They are not derivatives-trading hedge fund managers.

The children do not attend Russian math. Or cello lessons. Or summer camp. They don't create with technology, they aren't regularly exposed to tech innovations across industries and the arts, they don't play with mixed realities and robots, or dabble in systems thinking and design, or have access to no-cost makerspaces and equipment. 

These are hard working families, many of them first-generation Americans. But they will also be first in another unfortunate distinction: They will be first to be washed over by the accelerating wave of technology and workforce displacement. 

They have very limited access to equitable learning environments preparing them for the future with tangible skills, networks, or frameworks. They have limited access to libraries, due to transportation and the hours open, and, even if they had greater access, their public library offers no meaningful support/scaffolding for entrepreneurship, for the creative application of knowledge, no equitable learning environments, no extensive circulating technology and equipment with mentorship, and no interactive/immersive/or experiential learning areas in which to experiment at any time to build tangible skills. These environments are quiet, fee and fine based, focused primarily on book storage and retrieval, inherently biased in their organization, with service models and programs primarily focused content in a book format, serving children under the age of eight and their families and/or retirees. They also have very limited access to museums , almost all of which primarily focus on delivering passive learning environments in set locations with limited to no scaffolding or direct engagement.

Because of our distributive model, "Tomorrow" will be co-created with and within Boston's diverse communities and as such will be far more accessible to youth and community engagement and interaction than, say, a visit to a traditional fine arts museum or today's library stuck in a 1950s model. We can bring the world of "Tomorrow" to youth to create and explore, with exhibits, learning environments, and learning experiences that are designed for consumption in public spaces at street and/or mobile level. 

Tomorrow addresses the widening educational gap exposed by COVID-19, and the changing world that awaits by providing equitable access to quality hybrid learning environments and experiences to youth, embedded in communities and overlaid on distributed physical spaces to create considerable interaction and social/peer/community discussion. Using a distributive model we will increase the engagement of learners in remote, hybrid, mobile, and physical environments.  

By exploring complex ideas in resonant ways to young audiences, we will help them define, create, prepare their own place in the world of tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a concept built upon two things: the first-hand experience of seeing the dangers of ignoring the changes of the future, and the stark realities exposed by COVID-19 that revealed our ill-prepared world and lack of equitable access to learning environments.

Creating an institution like this requires identifying a multitude of partners, from scientists working on the latest artificial intelligence, to community partners across neighborhoods, to board members, to creative disruptors, to businesses and entrepreneurs, to museum experts to guide a planning phase, to major institutional and private donors. We seek strategic support and initial funding to amplify our concept's framework and these key partners to begin raising major donations for Tomorrow's launch.     

"Tomorrow" is the only museum with a distributive business/operational model and social impact goals focused on providing equitable access to learning environments with a future focus, supporting entrepreneurship, the creative application of tech, and sustainable societal structural change to address inequalities. 

Rather than trying to transform from inside existing knowledge institutions the inherent bias, strong structural challenges, and political barriers to access to equitable learning environments for youth within under-resourced communities, we will instead build a new distributed institution with community co-creation and social activism in its DNA, focused on delivering equitable access to learning experiences/environments/exhibitions across communities--a physical/digital/mobile/hybrid--employing a stand-alone sustainable business model for social impact.

In short, "Tomorrow" will:

- Provide distributed events and exhibitions built and run in communities across the city, rather than at a single destination location, thereby heightening engagement, access, and public discourse across the geographic area.

- Focus on General Purpose Technology and their applications, and what that might mean for the future, thus providing a robust discussion and equitable learning opportunities not found in any real way at any other institutions anywhere else.

- Always stay true to our mantra that "we are enablers, not gatekeepers."

We will not serve any community during the initial start-up, planning and fundraising stage (one year).

After that we expect to serve all 53,000 students in the city of Boston (first year of operation).

Within five years we anticipate serving 2 million people.

We will measure progress toward impact through direct youth and community partner feedback, through earned media and digital platform analysis, as well as by the numbers of people we engage, the number of events held and their attendance, and the acceleration of partnerships with community groups, private and institutional funders, and geographic diversity as we expand offerings without borders.

2 full-time, 2 contractors

Our team has over 15 years experience working on transformational change of public sector knowledge institutions in conjunction with diverse community partners, entrepreneurs, and businesses to enable equitable access to quality highly engaging learning environments for youth in marginalized communities, with a particular focus on supporting creative use of technologies, tools, and digital literacies to provide a path to broader future opportunities for youth. 

We have a deep understanding of the social, political, and structural barriers in place which prevent sustainable changes to equitable access to quality learning environments and experiences for under-resourced communities and youth. We were active participants in the of/by/for/all global change network which brings together social innovators and thought leaders in the GLAM industries (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) who are focused on action, activism, and implementing necessary structural changes to make knowledge and cultural institutions more inclusive, equitable, and relevant to the communities they serve. We have extensive experience co-creating with those we serve, valuing all input, ideas, and agendas, within an highly iterative creative processes to deliver excellent products and experiences. 

Our leadership team is comprised of unique minds, with disparate and varied life, community, global, and transformational experiences which have led them to be passionate about creating and sustaining equitable access to learning environments and experiences for youth within marginalized and/or under-resourced communities. We actively seek deeply kind and thoughtful partners and team members who push the team's thinking, perspectives, and ideas in new directions and expand the range of possibilities for meaningful impact within communities served. 

We wish to establish partnerships and a board for Tomorrow with tech leaders across a multitude of fields. These leaders can help provide us with mentoring and strategic advice, particularly navigating social and political disruptions which will come with challenging and changing existing access structures.

We wish to gain a deeper understanding of knowledge networks and how to leverage them to create stable, sustainable structures.

Last, we believe that a partnership with Solve will help us gain access more quickly to additional funding in grants and investments through other sources.

We seek help with:

• Human capital to create a superb Board of Directors for Tomorrow
• Our business model to assist with strategy for scaling social impact model and revenue structures over time
• Financial and fundraising efforts, specifically pitching to a diverse group of investors representing various facets of society, including business, the arts, education and nonprofit leaders.

We would like to partner with the MIT faculty on effective mapping and utilization of social/information networks across the city of Boston for social/economic/learning environment change.

We wish to work partner with Solve Team members and/or MIT faculty for entrepreneurship mentoring for youth on the creative application of tech, turning ideas into viable businesses or catalysts for social justice and change.

Tomorrow is solely rooted in the concept of equitable education. Our sole goal is to bridge the widening societal gap caused by technology.

We have experience working with refugees through one of the nation's nine authorized resettlement agencies. In addition, we have lived in and worked in countries with refugees and displacement issues.

We would use this prize to work with refugee resettlement agencies to explore how blockchain can accelerate resettlement, a laborious process that can take years. 

Refugees suffer from a widespread misunderstanding of their journeys and stories. We will explore how technology can amplify their voices through the creative application of AI and VR for educational purposes that better tell their stories. 

We will curate knowledge experiences around topics of specific interest to women. We will create pathways to careers and technology for people who are traditionally under-represented, including trans-gender individuals.  

Tomorrow will facilitate this very discussion of AI and humanity. Our concept is rooted in the practical and ethical questions of co-existing with and sharing in the technological changes now taking place. 

Diverse teams of experts will help guard against inherent racial bias by guaranteeing a multitude of voices.

We have deep experience at the frontlines of what happens when technology butts heads with tradition. Our experience working in the public library system reinforced our belief that conversations about AI and humanity are often difficult for people to have freely and openly.

Tomorrow will empower the people who will change the world, particularly with our emphasis on reaching younger audiences.