The Latin Mottos
Universitas Magistrorum et Scholarium
History speaks of an "invisible college" where learned people came together for intellectual stimulation and mutual support in an effort to improve the world. Benjamin Franklin belonged to such a group.
In Joseph T. Shipley's Dictionary of Word Origins (Rowman & Allanheld, 1967), the entry for the word "college" mentions a Latin phrase: universitas magistrorum et scholarium. The word "university" comes from this phrase, which originally meant, "the body of the whole of the masters and students."
Once upon a time, a university consisted of masters and students who gathered in one location under sponsorship of the church and the wealthy. Today, thanks to world-wide telecommunications, everyone on the planet may belong to such a group. We can all be members of the body of the whole, each teaching and learning from the other, each contributing our own unique perspectives, strengths and talents across distance and time, each of us the master, each the student. At FutureU we see the real university of the future as a single, global partnership of "masters" and "students," teachers and learners, brought together by technology and held together by their shared love of learning and their motivation to collaborate for a better world, at the level of individual, organization, society or planet.
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Ducunt Fata Volentem, Nolentem Trahunt
Seneca said it first. William Bridges quotes him in Job Shift (Addison-Wesley, 1994). It means, "The Fates guide those who go willingly. Those who do not, they drag."
Things change. If we resist, we may find ourselves dragged into the future without preparation or purpose. But if we embrace the possibilities and make informed choices, great things may happen.
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The Image
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The image records the journey of a system in chaos. The original photograph was taken by Mario Markus and Benno Hess at the Max-Planck Institute in Dortmund, Germany. A simple non-linear equation went through millions of iterations. The result of each iteration was plotted as a point in three-dimensional computer phase space. As the system evolved in a totally random fashion, over time the system took on a shape. Margaret Wheatley calls it the "Three-Winged Bird: A Chaotic Strange Attractor." She says there is "order inherent in chaotic systems, order that is only visible over time and history."
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What it is
The three-winged image in the middle of our logo was adapted from a photograph reproduced in Meg Wheatley's Leadership and the New Science (Berrett-Koehler, Second Edition, 1999). The original image was a computer-generated, full-color photograph made using an algorithm from chaos theory. Our graphics department converted the image to a line drawing, then rotated and reversed it to distinguish it from the original.
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What it Means to FutureU
We created FutureU to help people and organizations develop high level skill in learning and collaboration. We apply the rapidly evolving technologies of our time to enhance learning and collaboration and to help individuals and organizations navigate change, find meaning in it, and make great things happen from it.
The three-winged pattern illustrates the order inherent in any chaotic system, an order that only becomes apparent over time. There's no way to know what will come from the new technologies and the new models for learning and collaboration that we explore together today. But this we do know: Whatever pattern emerges will be of our own making. Let's make something wonderful together!
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