2021: Creating a Lexicon of Future
P is for Prototype
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A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype (a process sometimes called materialization) is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea. ~ Wikipedia
Walt Disney & EPCOT
Possibly the truest American example of a prototype community was proposed in Walt Disney’s 1960s original EPCOT concept. The term ‘EPCOT’ derived from Disney’s original project name — “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.”
It was his intent that EPCOT be a social and technological “community of the future,” continually prototyping community tech, thus always refreshing and renewing, and ‘learning forward’ into the evolving opportunities in the market. He intended EPCOT to stimulate bold new ideas for urban thriving which would be community prototyped through EPCOT thence to market. ~ Wikipedia
