TEDBlog August, 2009 Archive
12 August 2009
Mobiles fight poverty: Iqbal Quadir on TED.com
While the media team is on holiday, we continue to bring you some of TED’s oldies but goodies. During the two week break, we will post noteworthy talks that contain ideas still worth spreading.
Today we travel back to 2005 for Iqbal Quadir’s talk on how mobiles fight poverty. Iqbal Quadir explains his digression from his New York investment-banking career to return to his native Bangladesh in order to catalyze the country’s development. Quadir looks to European history to determine the formula for evading poverty: the empowerment of citizens coupled with the devolution of authorities. Foreign aid has actually been detrimental to citizens of poor countries because aid disproportionately empowers the government, which becomes reliant on foreign governments’ charity rather than citizens’ tax revenues. One way to circumvent this scenario is with mobile phones. Connectivity leads to productivity; therefore an instrument of connectivity such as a mobile phone will bolster productivity and concurrently combat poverty.
In 1997 Quadir partnered with GrameenBank to create GrameenPhone. The company leveraged GrameenBank’s existing network to provide poor villagers with micro loans to purchase mobile phones and sell minutes to fellow villagers. Today GrameenPhone is the largest cellular network in the country and maintains nearly 30 million subscribers. GrameenPhone just announced a 10% year-over-year revenue growth for the second quarter of 2009, and has received approval from the Bangladeshi SEC on its IPO application. GrameenPhone significantly contributes to the national economy of Bangladesh as one of the country’s largest taxpayers and raises Bangladesh’s annual GNP more than foreign aid, exemplifying Quadir’s contention that the key to development is businesses, not aid.
In 2005, Quadir partnered with Dean Kamen to bring to Bangladesh electric generators that run on cow waste to continually output one kilowatt of electricity, which can light 70 energy-efficient light bulbs. Access to light bulbs at night translates into increased productivity for villagers. Furthermore, following the template of GreameenPhone, the energy machine empowers villagers as entrepreneurs who can sell electricity to fellow villagers. Quadir continues his mission to bring entrepreneurship and economic development to poor countries as the founder and director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, conceived in 2008. The center is a hatchery for 12 student fellows’ incipient ideas for world development. Quadir will guide the fellows in developing and implementing their ideas for bottom-up, technology-based entrepreneurship-for-profit businesses in the developing world.
For more on the use of mobile phones in developing countries, check out Jan Chipcase’s talk on TED.com.
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2J
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11 August 2009
Large Hadron Collider set to try again in November
Last week, CERN announced that the world’s largest particle accelerator will power up again in November. However this time it will run on 3.5 trillion electron volts per beam, about half its expected energy level. Last year, the LHC shut down because of a fault between two superconducting bending magnets but recent tests have confirmed that no further repairs are necessary.
For more on this upcoming event, check out CERN’s press release. And don’t forget to watch Brian Cox’s talk from TED U in 2009, where he explicitly details what went wrong last year:
11 August 2009
Fab Labs: Neil Gershenfeld on TED.com
Today, we continue our schedule of archive gems as the media team continues their brief but necessary respite from the tough job of running TED.com. Over this two week break we are hand-picking vintage talks that are just as captivating as the day they were given, and sometimes more so, in context of our rapidly changing world.
In this talk from 2005, Neil Gershenfeld, head of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, describes an outreach program his center had recently begun called Fab Labs. Gershenfeld maps the beginnings of these fabrication laboratories that enabled ordinary people to build things they never dreamt they could. At the time of the talk, Fab Labs had just started taking off internationally. Now, there are permanent labs in Amsterdam, in Barcelona, in Iceland, in Kenya, in Norway, in Cleveland, Ohio and there’s a Fab Foundation that links them all.
The Fab Lab project has not only seen a geographical expansion since Gershenfeld’s TEDTalk, but has also increased in scope. Recently, the Fab Academy was established as a distributed, global campus that will offer technical education to people who would not otherwise have access to this type of opportunity. The Academy’s first courses will soon begin, in Fall 2009, and faculty will give instruction via videoconference from all over the world. Ideas like this are, no doubt, born at the now annual International Fab Lab Forums. Just next week, beginning Sunday, August 16, Fab Labs will hold FAB5: The Fifth International Fab Lab Forum and Symposium on Digital Fabrication in Pune, India. As with past forums, Fab Labs has partnered with the region’s leading educational facilities for technology and engineering and will also bring fab-labbers from around the world to Pune for tutorials and projects, and to begin research plans. This little, slightly crazy, idea to build a lab where anyone could build anything certainly has gone places.
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2I
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10 August 2009
The birth of Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales on TED.com
For the next two weeks, while TED’s media team takes a much needed vacation, we will not be posting a new TEDTalk daily. However, to sate the appetites of our loyal viewers, we will be highlighting some of the choicest gems from our online archives. Over the next couple of weeks, expect to see talks you never knew existed, but you’ve always wanted to see.
We begin the week with Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia. Wikipedia began in 2001, and what started as a tiny and dubiously optimistic site is now a household name. At its inception, and for years to follow, this constantly changing encyclopedia written entirely by volunteers was a radical and inconceivable venture. Today, it’s quite possibly the largest reference website there is, attracting around 65 million visitors monthly. Wikipedia is available in Dutch, Esperanto, Hebrew, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic and Hungarian — in fact, in 250 languages in all. Through the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia has started a virtual movement that incorporates Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikinews, Wikiquote, and Wikispecies.
In this talk from 2005, let co-founder Jimmy Wales take you back to a time when Wikipedia was just gaining true momentum with the general public. Recall the debates that took place in the mass media and mini-scandals that were created around the site. As Wales delves into the organizational mechanics of creating content through tens of thousands of volunteers, the talk also becomes a valuable reminder of the huge efforts that go on behind the scenes. Remind yourself of the work and initiative that goes into the site so many of us consult first to answer all the little questions that pop into our heads, to settle debates among friends, and maybe even to find a community of like-minded individuals who want to write the never-ending encyclopedia, together.
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2H
Watch Jimmy Wale’s talk on TED.com where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 475+ TEDTalks.
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08 August 2009
The week in comments
The reception for this past wave of talks from TED Global 2009 centers around the theme of accountability. People seemed especially moved by Emmanuel Jal’s music on his life as a war child and Michael Pritchard’s revolutionary water filter. We even got a TEDGlobal speaker sparking a discussion on one of these highlighted talks (in addition to his own). Here are the motivated comments:
On Emmanuel Jal’s talk: The music of a war child:
I’m on a soap box today and this link is on it! — Angie via Facebook
What a beautiful way to stir us out of complacency and to turn hard times to good ends. Wonderful, Inspiring, Moving & Worthwhile! — Tom
This is a moving talk. It calls for great courage to renounce hatred and violence despite growing amidst them and being a victim of these. Hats off! The call for education to counteract exploitation is a message worth spreading. — Srini
On Janine Benyus’ talk: Biomimicry in action:
This presentation warms my heart.. it seems there might be a future for us on this planet after all. — ehhhhhhhhhh via YouTube
fantastic talk. I hope that people like Janine Benyus are ushering in a way of living on the earth that will be the salvation of at least a few human beings. — Billie via Facebook
On Michael Pritchard’s talk: Turning filthy water drinkable:
Fabulous!! Is anyone thirsty? TED Michael Pritchard Invents Water Filter… — tokendesigners via twitter
lets see how fast world’s governments act to get this technology and help their people…….. Now they don’t have any excuses….. — Syed via Facebook
On Willard Wigan’s talk: Hold your breath for micro-sculpture:
I’m often amazed by the people I encounter on TED. Willard’s talent and perhaps even more, his sheer patience is simply astonishing. He is truly an artist. “Don’t sweat the small things”, has never really had a place in my lexicon and Willard just put’s a fork, I mean pin in it. :-) — Eric via YouTube
Do anyone of you TEDsters or any one out there in the TED community know of any surgeons. We need to hook Willard up with them. Surgeons are constantly battling with sewing together very small arteries, veins, ligaments etc and these are very difficult to do. They are also constantly cutting things at the micro level. Willard’s talents could be imparted to any types of surgeons, eye, heart, key-hole, transplant etc etc. … — Michael Pritchard
Don’t forget that you can influence our next interview by asking Sir Ken Robinson absolutely anything on Reddit. So go grab a Reddit account and start voting for questions or posing one of your own.
07 August 2009
The music of a war child: Emmanuel Jal on TED.com
For five years, young Emmanuel Jal fought as a child soldier in the Sudan. Rescued by an aid worker, he’s become an international hip-hop star and an activist for kids in war zones. In words and lyrics, he tells the story of his amazing life. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 18:03)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2G
Watch Emmanuel Jal’s talk at TEDGlobal 2009 on TED.com where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 475+ TEDTalks.
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07 August 2009
Is CYXYMU the first "digital refugee"?
TED Fellow, journalist and expert on political aspects of the Internet Evgeny Morozov, who spoke at TEDGlobal 2009 on web censorship, cyber-activism and the fallacy if “iPod liberalism,” has a fascinating and thoughtful blog post about yesterday’s social networking outages.
Responding to reports that the DDoS attack that downed sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Livejournal targeted one man, Morozov writes,
CYXYMY is not a crusading investigative journalist who produces breaking stories that challenge the regime; he’s more of a pundit who has very articulate and predictably Kremlin-bashing views on the regional conflicts. His blog is also somewhat of a news hub: he has done an amazing job of keeping his followers in the loop as to what happens in Abkhazia and Georgia, the two regions that are not exactly in the center of media attention (even in Russia). [...]
Thus, I think that the attackers’ real goal was humiliation, not censorship [...] A secondary goal was to generate awe-inducing headlines about Russia’s cyberpower all over the Web; there is no better way to do it these days than to make Twitter inaccessible for a few hours.
Morozov’s whole article is worth a close read.
More TEDTalks about the powers — and weaknesses — of social media:
+ Clay Shirky on how social media can make history
+ Evan Williams on listening to Twitter’s users
06 August 2009
TED and Reddit ask Sir Ken Robinson absolutely anything!
TED and Reddit are teaming up to give you the opportunity to ask creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson absolutely anything! Sir Ken, whose 2006 talk on rethinking education remains one of the most-watched in the TEDTalks series, has agreed to answer the TED and Reddit communities’ questions on any topic. If you have a burning question you’d like Sir Ken to answer, please follow these steps:
1. Join Reddit (click “register” at top right)
2. Post your question in Reddit’s comments
3. Take a moment to upvote the questions you like most
Sir Ken will answer the 10 most-upvoted comments as of Monday, August 10th, 7pm Eastern time. We’ll post his responses here on the TED Blog the following day!
Watch Sir Ken’s TEDTalk here:
About Sir Ken Robinson
Sir Ken is a creativity expert. He challenges the way we’re educating our children, and champions a radical rethinking of our school systems to better cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. His latest book, The Element, looks at how we find our creative passion.
About TED and Reddit
TED and Reddit’s relationship started not long after TEDTalks began appearing on Reddit’s front page. TED is currently a featured channel on the newly-launched RedditTV. And this joint “Ask Anything” feature is only the first of many!
More: See what happened when TED asked Gever Tulley, Philip Zimbardo and Seth Godin absolutely anything.
06 August 2009
Biomimicry in action: Janine Benyus on TED.com
Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you’ll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Here she reveals dozens of new products that take their cue from nature with spectacular results. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 17:42)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2E
Watch Janine Benyus’ talk at TEDGlobal 2009 on TED.com where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 475+ TEDTalks.
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05 August 2009
A radical idea unveiled: Charter Cities: Paul Romer on TED.com
How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it’s trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: “charter cities,” city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?) (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009 in Oxford, UK. Duration: 18:30)
Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2B
Watch Paul Romer’s talk at TEDGlobal 2009 on TED.com where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 475+ TEDTalks.
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