TEDxNEWYORK 6/16/09 Dan Dennett (2009) & guest Robert Leslie

Today's discussion was pretty much pure content as opposed to verbal intercourse but here's a wrap up for you... First, Dennett's talk. It's fun (and short), watch it. Next, we had TED photographer Robert Leslie (his popular photograph, above, taken at TED in Monteray will lead you to one of his websites) as our guest for the hour. Robert Leslie came to be the TED photographer through his regular work with musicians and one in particular who pointed him towards TED Susheela Raman. Robert's photographs are enlightening, sometimes humorous and very comprehensive when it comes to TED- a little peak behind the curtain.

Robert blew past the celebrity and rock-n-roll photographs to give us a brief tour of the US post-election and more broadly, the development of one of China's new cities. And there will be more details on that shortly, but this blog needs posting and emails need replying. More soon--

I'm going to break in with a little new about Twitter for a moment, not because I want to tell a hundred random followers about my breakfast but because of its immediate relevance in the media at the moment.  Namely: what the heck is up with elections in Iran, explained here in painstaking statistical analysis by Nate Silver (he was also fastidious with his hyperlinks, so don't make a superficial pass at his page if you want real insight. 

First, the Twitter Apocalypse happened last Friday (can you say y2k in 140 char or less?), what that actually was, and yes, there's an explanation in quasi-layman's terms for you. I crowd-sourced the explanation using Tweeter (my Facebook/Twitter aggregate) and got an answer or two that helped me well enough. Here's that for you if you want it. 

Next, the reason it came to the fore today is because of the news from Iran being covered so quickly by text messages before an A/P reporter can get to their keyboard. (There's also a conference based on Twitter in town this week, but we didn't dive into that. Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, spoke at TED this year about what has become of it too. At any rate: Iran, Twitter, mainstream media, find out what's going on in short form, long form, quickly or slowly, the interwebs are shouting, as are the people.

TEDxNEWYORK 6/9/09 Seth Godin (2009)

Usually I try not to repeat what is stated in the video, because, um, the video it's right there, see? Subtitled and everything. Of course if you want to go contribute to the TED open translation project, feel free to pitch in your multi-lingual talents if you have 'em. I will pull out a few of Seth's quotes from this talk that are worth highlighting.

Firstly, Godin is an excellent public speaker- more of a didactic storyteller than a lecturer. His tips on giving a compelling presentation can be found on his blog. He's also a great thinker, this year he presents a vein of thought on what "tribes" are in the modern world and how we can function with them.

With the death of the "tv-industrial complex", Godin wasn't just talking about advertising, but of a shift from medium to message, and how to communicate a compelling idea. Our conversation hovered around advertising (hey, we were sitting on the creative floor of Grey), but not only.

The role of the media was to populate the world with images that become cultural points of reference. The idea of spreading ideas through tribes is that instead of having to shout loudly to the whole world, you can reach out to communities and seed ideas there. Then the tribes will carry forth the messages that they care about.

A problem, or as some of us call them, opportunity, is that things like TV used to be a closed circle... but if we leave a gap then there's room for the audience to join in, be part of the mystery or creation of a story.

chel

TEDxNEWYORK 6/2/09 Shai Agassi (2009)

Today's TED Tuesday selection probably had something to do with GreyNY's own Don McKinney sharing on a panel with Shai at WBSCC last week (see prior posts). Also, Shai's insight is highly relevant to... the everywhere, right now. Don's additional insightful adds to our conversation came from working in the ad world in Detriot for several years as well. Oh and GM is in the news today (sorry I really couldn't decide which news source to use for that announcement).

Of course it's not just the Associated Press that's all a-buzz over GM- the blogosphere is all a-twittering. (Can we use twittering by its Merriam-Webster definition anymore?) So instead of quoting co-workers, and myself here with our frustrated, inflammatory comments, we'll let some of writers of the day take the stand (and thanks Huffington Post for being the repository of such great thoughts):

TEDster Cameron Sinclair's editorial asks What If GM Were Run Like A Non-profit? His article provides some great additional information too, so follow his links....

A surprisingly insightful criticism that a problem with the heads of American automobile manufacturers didn't spend sleepless nights trying to improve their product but focused their energy on lobby government to avoid mandating seatbelts and airbags. The source surprised me.

And of course, it wouldn't be a TED Tuesday if I didn't leave the conversation with an addition to my reading list. At the top: Internal Combustion, by Edwin Black. (That web page could be sexier, but of course Mr. Black wasn't writing a website, he was writing a book.) (Go ahead, buy it green.)

But let's bring this back around- it's too easy to trail off on the line of thinking "what were the big three thinking?!" Instead let's go back to the top of this post, the solution-oriented Shai Agassi who is thinking, hard, and coming up with some pretty damn viable solutions. Rock on with those electrons.

-chel