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Writing the Future is a vanity exercise. A piece of ephemera only of interest to the eccentric, whimsical, or those with far too much time on their hands. I don’t agree; and having come up with the idea originally, I’m not sure you’d expect me to.

When Richard Taunt invited me to do this, I should have given him a warning. That my least favourite forms of fiction are science fiction and fantasy. That when it comes to the future, I am right there with the American baseball star Yogi Berra – to whom is often attributed the famous quote: "Never make predictions, especially about the future."​

One of the things that really excited me about joining Kaleidoscope was the chance to be in at the beginning of a new organisation. Well, almost. I was a second-wave recruit. I missed the intoxicating early days and the heroic attempts to capture the essence of the emerging company on a huge sheet of brown wrapping paper known as the Fish.

Artificial Intelligence is opening up new frontiers, whether in health care, business or (only slightly alarmingly) warfare, promising a new generation of ethical conundrums. The quandaries caused by driverless cars may require grappling with sooner than most. ​

Dear Sceptical - I too was there once! Confused and uneasy about networking. To be honest, I hated the word networking (and still do!). It seems so cold, impersonal, and it really should only be used for computers talking to computers.

Dear Introverts - I am wondering how you are? I know that you have been asked to join a few networks but I note that you haven’t been able to come yet.  Wondering if it might be because you struggle a bit with them? 

“Networks are all the rage,” says Richard Taunt in his excellent new blog. Reading it got me thinking about the different sorts of networks that we experience through our lives and how they help us deal with the challenges we face, both in work and out of it.

We spend our lives accepting things because they’re ‘just the way it is’. But how often does our blithe acceptance hide practices that are woefully inefficient? Initiatives such as the Atlas of Variation, or Getting It Right First Time, are attempts to use data to expose such misplaced faith.

'Network' is a term frequently used in health and care, but what do we mean? What is the difference between a network and a club? Or a network and a market? Do you know if you are running a network or a committee? And do you know which one is best for you?

When I talk to people about what Healthwatch is, the fact that we’re a network is the first thing they need to know. The way we gather, amplify and share people’s voices to drive improvement in health and social care only makes sense in that light.