A news magazine, either online or in print, dedicated to serious, in-depth journalism about predictable real-life events in the near future.

- Fashion, Design, and Technology showcases where someone might announce something.

- Plays that will open; artists premiering a new show.

- Supreme court decisions that will be published. (You don't know which way they'll go, but knowing what's being decided on is useful.)

- Court procedings in general.

- Movies, books about to be widely advertised (influences cultural climate)

- Scientific long-term studies. You might not know the data, but you can predict when they're over.

- Political races, appointments.

It would get read by investors, journalists, culturally hip types - to know where to go, what to pay attention to.

It wouldn't be just a calendar; it would write about preparations, background, chances, expectations - but where normal magazines would wait for the actual event to take place and then describe those events in the light of the background, this one would have that weird constraint of appearing before the actual interesting decision happens.
-- jutta, May 07 2006

http://eventful.com/ Shared calendaring. Not what this idea is about, but one possible means of publication. [jutta, May 07 2006]

google calendar http://calendar.google.com
make your own calendar, then share it with the world [neilp, May 07 2006]

we could do some of this with a common calendaring effort, where you could subscribe to those bits of reality you were most interested in.
-- neilp, May 07 2006


I know many magazines already have a calendar page or two devoted to what's coming up in their genre, usually trade shows and such. But I think you seem to be looking for information that might be included in an article, for instance, Discovery will list out a planned mission for a satelite- when it will get to this moon or that planet.

Perhaps a program that searches the magazines you're interested in for all dates and then blurbs what's printed on either side of the date in a calendar format with links to the actual article for further information.
-- NotTheSharpestSpoon, May 07 2006


roll up roll up - get your lovely reality check list..... latest edition predicts end of itself
-- xenzag, May 07 2006


Sounds like the "events" or "happenings" section of a newspaper.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, May 07 2006


This sounds, by and large, like a tabloid newspaper that publishes it's 'scoops' on flimsy evidence and allegations. Gossip magazines aside, I don't think there are any specific publications that are like this, but quite often, you find articles that are prophetic.
-- Jinbish, May 07 2006


Finally, a reality check that won't bounce.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 07 2006


I'm having a little trouble seeing how this topic isn't already covered in many specialist publications.

They might also deal with historical news, but a great many magazines and newspapers dedicated to investment, technology and the arts deal with what's going (or likely) to happen in the future.
-- DrCurry, May 07 2006


Merging this idea with Google Calendar, and allowing you to search for certain general locations, you might get a massive calendarised list of "what's going on" on any given day/week/month in the future. If you were able to filter out the trash you weren't interested in, this could be really helpful - a lone, single source for date and location sensitive information.

Having a magazine to write background and present supporting information would further improve the usability of such a service.
-- zen_tom, May 07 2006


[zen_tom], that's kind of how I imagined it. I've subscribed to calendars (in iCal, on Google Calendar) for live music in Sydney, club nights in Sydney, the cinema. If you know what to search for (that's the hard bit), then there's a lot of stuff out there. Properly geolocating it (Geonames does this automatically for RSS now, nice), would make this very handy.
-- neilp, May 08 2006


This Idea strikes me as a step forward for any of us that aspire to be "somewhere else" when an event attracts any larger-than-expected crowd. Compare to your experience on movie night when you go to theater B (new indie film) just because you know the vast crowd in line for tickets are predominantly bound to go to theater A (DVD Code). That is, you avoid the crowd unless you go to "the main event" just to have a handle on the obvious media blowout that is to coincide and to follow such a release.

A very intriguing Idea. Link current and near-future events to forums scheduled for after the events and link the events to dedicated reporting that is in turn ranked by audience or by other placement measures.
-- reensure, May 08 2006


Hey [reinsure] that's another interesting take - if for example people were to start recording which events they were considering going to (it's unlikely - I'm not that organised - but just assuming for the moment...) and you were able to Geolocate everything, you ought to be able to predict where places were going to get busy, what routes might get snarled up and which pubs you might still have a chance of getting to the bar.

You might even (still assuming people become organised enough to enter into the system what they were doing on any given night) be able to search for places that are going to be 'deathly quiet', 'reasonably busy', 'rocking' or 'sardines' and plan your day/evening accordingly.

Sorry [jutta], subverting your idea a little here, but with a feedback mechanism from the general populace, it could become something with all manner of uses.
-- zen_tom, May 08 2006


Oh, I like that egg-timer idea, is that a real thing?
-- zen_tom, May 08 2006


I like the event-based traffic planning idea, too. You should post that separately.
-- jutta, May 08 2006


// .. Again, how is this different from a newspaper
Newspapers do this, to the extent they research their readership's demographics (if you read it here first, it's news -- if you read it here second, it's opinion)

I do feel that the core of [jutta]'s idea can be accomplished by use of a public writing style that approximates the formal invitation, i.e., "The crowd delights to ragtime virtuosos Mingy & troupe, and spirits flow to be savored. Our annual Uptown charity auction strives toward its best year ever. This splendid evening of community spirit opened for bids at $15 per gate pass for the whole experience."

Okay, my writing falls flat. To accomplish this would require heavy editing and robust templates, and some Knight's move thinking.
-- reensure, May 08 2006



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