Our friend TED
I’ve been watching the progress of the TED conference (over the last 6 years or so. Unfortunately always from a far, having never had the finances to pull off a ticket (About £2000). I’ve always been impressed in the way it translates it’s ideals into real practices, something we tried with Submerge, and even though accomplished, never seemed to complete with the same grace. In fact the TED awards went on to inspire our own Industry Awards, and will continue to inspire any other awards to come.
They’ve been publishing online some of their output over the last 3 years, and now have a collection of some very inspirational talks. Most people will have seen the ‘Multi Touch’ display video, shot at TED festival last year, but this is just one of many great performances, talks and demonstrations.
The full collection can be seen either on their site or on YouTube. Below are a few of my favorites. (Each one’s 20 minutes, so you may want to bookmark this and come back, you won’t be disappointed)
Sir Ken Robinson making a greatly entertaining and moving speech about the importance of education, and how we need to start rethinking its application and purpose.
The former Director of MIT Media Lab (and writer of Being Digital, great book), Nicholas Negroponte talking about his One Laptop Per Child campaign.
Malcom Gladwell the author of ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink’ discusses an interesting turn by companies in understanding human needs. Interesting both philosophically and business wise.