27 July 2009

TEDsters trek to WOMAD

Immediately after TEDGlobal 2009, a group of TEDsters took off for WOMAD at Charlton Park -- the three-day world music festival founded by TED speaker Peter Gabriel (watch his talk from 2006). Sleeping in teepees, rocking all night ... the pictures tell the story. Above, twilight bubbles, photographed by TED's Lara Stein, director of the TEDx program.

Below, Peter Gabriel dropped by the TEDGlobal Internet Cafe tent. (Photo: Gary Shainberg)

At the Internet Cafe tent, Lara Stein hangs out with Cara Muñeca (in the pink wig). (Photo: Laura Galloway)

And of course: the music! Youssou N'Dour, Rokia Traoré (who played at TEDGlobal 2007), blues legend Solomon Burke ... Lara's picks: "Rachael Unthank and the Winterset was incredible! Hypnotic Brass Ensemble; Rokia, the Black Arm Band, Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan, Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra. And of course Peter Gabriel.... And many more. There were 4 stages with acts playing from 11am-12 midnight." (Photo: Laura Galloway)

Posted by Emily McManus | Permalink

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12 December 2008

Friday's hidden gem: Peter Gabriel talks about WITNESS

Each Friday recently, we've been featuring a TEDTalk that was posted early on in the TED.com experiment. Today's hidden gem is from rock star and activist Peter Gabriel, talking about WITNESS.org, a project that uses powerful user-created video and online media to fight for human rights.

He starts with a deeply moving personal story that may actually catch you off-guard. (Rives writes: "I play the first minute of this talk to my poetry students to teach them how to explain, charm, recollect and devastate.") His point: the power of a story, and the act of building a visceral, personal connection to that story, can move mountains. Watch for astonishing video from the WITNESS project -- shot by people from the most dangerous places and situations in our modern world.

Watch this talk >>

More: Over on BoingBoing.tv, Xeni Jardin has a fascinating interview this week with Grace Lile, a digital archivist from WITNESS.org.

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21 November 2008

TED's Chris Anderson honored by WITNESS

Update: Last night, WITNESS' 4th annual Focus for Change benefit honored TED's Chris Anderson. WITNESS was founded by Peter Gabriel to harness the power of video to fight injustice -- by putting cameras in the hands of oppressed people and helping them become firsthand witnesses. Watch Peter Gabriel's TEDTalk about his work with WITNESS -- a powerful, personal story. And watch Chris Anderson's own TEDTalk to understand his vision for TED.

Accepting the award on behalf of the TED community, Chris commented on some similarities between WITNESS and TED. Both sought ways to use technology as a force for good as the world gets ever more interconnected, he said:

"And we're both in the business of nurturing new kinds of heroes for the 21st century. You're turning technology-empowered story-tellers into heroic human rights activists. We're trying to create a new form of hero called, for want of a better word ... a teacher. One of the most thrilling aspects of the past couple years at TED has been giving a platform to people who have been doing amazing work all their lives, but who no one has really known about. Seeing their work and their ideas spreading to milllions of people around the globe courtesy of little 18-minute lectures captured on video and released on the Internet ... now that's exhilarating."

Image: Chris Anderson of TED accepts his award from WITNESS founder Peter Gabriel. Photo courtesy Tom Rielly.

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01 May 2008

Dick Clark on Jill Bolte Taylor

Among the many TEDTalks stars on this year's Time 100 list, Jill Bolte Taylor gets perhaps the coolest biographer: Dick Clark. He writes:

Through her writings and lectures, she has done perhaps more than anyone else to explain, both to the healthy and the stricken, what a stroke is.

Read the whole list >>

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01 January 2008

Web-based ways to make a difference

To help those of us making resolutions this week, here is a sampling of web tools for making a difference, inspired by TEDTalks speakers:

+ Share Ron Eglash's cool math tools, for studying math via breakdancing, Latin beats and cornrow braids
+ Dive into Richard Baraniuk's Connexions, a massive repository of open-source class materials
+ Visit Phil Borges' Bridges to Understanding site, which rounds up student films from all over the world
+ Browse Erin McKean's booklist "So You Want to Be a Lexicographer?"
+ Check out the beta of Gapminder World, powered by Hans Rosling's Trendalyzer software
+ Watch video and take action at The Hub, a platform for human rights media and action -- presented by Peter Gabriel's WITNESS
+ Discuss sustainable design and materials on the Cradle to Cradle forums, inspired by the work of William McDonough
+ Learn more about Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child
+ Catch up with Majora Carter's Sustainable South Bronx -- or make a specific gift to SSBx via Changing the Present
+ Calculate your personal CO2 production -- and start helping the planet -- at the website for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, produced by Jeff Skoll

TEDTalks is full of ideas for making change for oneself and for others -- many more than we can list here. Please share your suggestions for other TEDTalks-inspired change!

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13 November 2007

Peter Gabriel's "Hub"

Witness, the non-profit led by Peter Gabriel (watch his TED2006 talk) has launched "The Hub", an online platform allowing anyone to use camcorders, cell phones and cameras to upload, share, and discuss human rights-related footage, as well as organize advocacy campaigns. A few months ago, announcing the project, Peter had described it as "a sort of YouTube + Wikipedia for human rights" intended to make human right abuses "not forgotten nor discarded".

Posted by Bruno Giussani | Permalink

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14 June 2007

A taste of TED, or two

Watch here a new "taste of TED" video documentary shot at this year's conference, in March. In 7 minutes it gives a great sense of the atmosphere at TED and of the content of the conference. It is also available elsewhere on this site, and you can download it here (158 Mb).

Another documentary about TED, "The future we will create: Inside the world of TED", which was filmed at TED2006, is been shown this coming Saturday night at the Maui Film Festival. Producers Daphne Zuniga and Steven Latham got full access to the conference, and used it wisely to take the viewers behind the scenes -- on top of showing speakers ranging from Al Gore to Peter Gabriel. The full-feature documentary (74 minutes) had a premiere screening in New York a few weeks ago and later in Los Angeles. It has been released on Netflix (US only) last week.

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