TED Blog » TED2006

Premiering tonight: Tony Robbins’ TV series on NBC

tedstaff — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Tonight (Tuesday, July 27) on NBC TV stations, Tony Robbins debuts his first-ever TV series, Breakthrough with Tony Robbins. In the six-episode series, Robbins works with six people facing an extreme life challenge, inspiring them to become more resilient and find the inner resources to build better lives and relationships. Find more information on the Breakthrough mini-site, or watch the trailer above for a sample — or watch Tony Robbins’ TEDTalk to get a sense of his energetic, empowering style.

Start your own FabLab: $1,499

Emily McManus — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:00 +0000

At TED2006, Neil Gershenfeld gave a fun and fast-paced introduction to the FabLab — a miniature fabrication plant for making pretty much anything. Gershenfeld’s pioneering FabLab at MIT cost a cool million bucks, thankyouverymuch. He’s been spreading the idea of smaller FabLabs around the world — from urban Boston to the Takoradi Technical Institute in southwestern Ghana.

But since this talk was given in 2006, it’s also become more affordable to start a mini FabLab at home or school — like the starter kit described in this blog post:

This Christmas season,you could buy a loved one an HDTV, a low-end MacBook, or a suite of tools that enable them to create anything they can imagine.

There’s a 3D printer, a 2D plotter and a 3D mill (the Unimat 6-in-1 tool system). As blogger Joseph Flaherty says: “The educational applications of these tools are very exciting, and can help bridge the gap between Lego Mindstorms and having to wait for machine shops to provide parts for you.” Check out the blog for more details: “For the price of a TV you can start a FabLab” >>

Hypnotic music: Vishal Vaid on TED.com

Shanna Carpenter — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:32:23 +0000

Vishal Vaid and his band explore a traditional South Asian musical form in this mesmerizing improv performance. Sit back and let his music transport you. (Recorded at TED2006, in Monterey, California. Duration: 13:37)

Twitter URL: http://on.ted.com/2y

Watch Vishal Vaid’s performance on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 500+ TEDTalks.

Get TED delivered:
Subscribe to the TEDTalks video podcast via RSS >>
Subscribe to the iTunes video podcast
Subscribe to the iTunes audio podcast
Get updates via Twitter >>
Join our Facebook fan page >>

Subscribe to the TED Blog >>

Designing the classroom of the future on the Open Architecture Network

Emily McManus — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Via TEDPrize.org: 2006 TED Prize winner Cameron Sinclair recently wrote to update us on the amazing success of this year’s Open Architecture Challenge. The challenge was for teams of teachers, students, architects and designers to work together to design the classroom of the future for a school of their own choosing. Tens of thousands of participants and hundreds of schools from 45 countries submitted their designs.

The submission period ended on June 1 and will now go through a three step jury process. The winners will be announced in the fall.

Equally as exciting is the groundbreaking of the SIDAREC community center – the first winner of our OAN challenge – tomorrow in Kenya.

The Open Architecture Network is truly helping make innovative design more accessible.

Design for the minds of the future — a new contest!

Shanna Carpenter — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:51:45 +0000

Architecture for Humanity wants your ideas and designs for the classrooms of the future. Their 2009 Open Architecture Challenge invites students, teachers and architects to submit their designs for classrooms in the places that need them most. You don’t have to be a licensed architect, just submit the best possible plans and they’ll find you a team.

The plans must be site specific and the designer can partner with a school of their choice, but AFH offers three very deserving partners. Orient Global needs design solutions for classrooms in high-density, urban India. Modular Building Institute and Blazer Industries want to produce relocatable classrooms to get around traditional school district constraints. Finally, Building Tomorrow is asking for classrooms that would work in remote and rural areas of Uganda. Challenging scenarios all three, but bursting with possibilities.

From Cameron Sinclair: Register by May 4, and enter by June 1. The winning team receives $5,000, AND the selected school receives $50,000 to renovate their spaces to become more sustainable. Runners-up get $1K/$10K. If you have any questions on how to enter, feel free to email me or visit the site for more details.
Cheers,
Cameron

The competition is hosted through the Open Architecture Network that was born from Cameron Sinclair‘s 2006 TED Prize wish. To discover more about the organization and humanitarian design watch his 2006 TEDTalk:

Time to get your XO laptop, and to give one

bgiussani — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:43:59 +0000

Since Nicholas Negroponte presented his idea for a “100-dollar-laptop” at TED2006, the project has been going through many ups and downs, enthusiasms and criticisms, and had occupied a lot of media space.

The XO laptop is now here. The cost at this stage is nearly double, but the machine is awesome. Mass production started earlier this month in a Quanta manufacturing plant near Shanghai, and while a few countries such as Uruguay and Mongolia will buy them bulk and distribute them in schools, you — but only if you live in the US and Canada — can also buy one until November 26. Actually, two: you can get one if you donate another one to a child in a developing nation. Smart idea. Total cost: $399 plus shipping, with $200 considered a tax-deductible donation. Go to the Give One Get One site. Twelve days to go. Expectations are that the first release of 25’000 will sell out pretty fast.

Peter Gabriel's "Hub"

bgiussani — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:27:34 +0000

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”.

TEDsters talk about Al Gore's impact

Emily McManus — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:24:49 +0000

As congratulations for Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, pour in from the TED community, we asked people who saw Gore’s TED2006 presentations to talk about the impact his talks had on them. This is the first in a series, to be posted throughout the day.

Al Gore’s talk at TED 2006 was a turning point in my life. — David S. Rose

I was actually crying for most of it; I could not believe I didn’t know that our world was in jeopardy, I couldn’t believe how much had already gone wrong without me knowing about it. — Will Shipley

Al Gore’s talk at TED opened my eyes to what I needed to do for my grandchildren’s generation, and I now consider the impact we have on our earth in every venture we undertake. — Howard L. Morgan

Gore’s TED presentation on the climate crisis was at once riveting and inspiring — his passion was so evident — it prompted me to share the talk with our children, and our eldest, Charlie, now 11, has become a one-man global warming marketing machine. Charlie has created his own PowerPoint presentation, which he shares with virtually everyone he meets. — Jeff Levy

Al Gore was the first to complement our work on Stormblade at his breakfast meeting, which was hugely encouraging and that really spurred me on to persevere, as a result of which we eventually got funding to continue the project which will in the end play a huge role in reducing global carbon emissions. — Viktor A. Jovanovic

Al Gore’s passion for spreading the word about man-made climate change is a signal that humanity still has a chance. – Ann Willoughby

No one instance in my previous 53 years has clarified my thinking and simultaneously called me both to action and to an appreciation of the momentous importance of an issue like the TED night two years ago when Al Gore gave his Inconvenient Truth presentation. — Jeff Studley

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize

tedstaff — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:31:48 +0000

This morning, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” Gore will be sharing his prize money with the Palo Alto-based Alliance for Climate Protection.

At TED2006, Gore delivered to a rapt audience the seminal slide show that would later that year form the core of his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth. He followed it up with a second talk at the end of the conference showing ways of turning climate concern into action.

Throughout the day we’ll be offering tributes to the impact of that speech on those present at TED2006 — and the way the impact has spread throughout the world.

Speaker updates: Craig Venter, Jeff Han

bgiussani — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:20:31 +0000

Updates from TED speakers:

After a whirlwind of media speculation over the weekend following a story by The Guardian, biologist Craig Venter (watch his TED2005 speech) will announce today at the annual meeting of his institute in San Diego that his team has built a synthetic chromosome, using lab chemicals. “A giant leap forward in the development of designer genomes”, writes the newspaper.
Mr Venter’s autobiography, “A Life Decoded: My Genome, My Life” is scheduled to be published in two weeks.

At TED2006 computer scientist Jeff Han demonstrated his prototype of a revolutionary multitouch screen (watch video). At TED2007 he brought along a larger, wall-size version that TEDsters could try out. The interactive media wall, built by Han’s company Perceptive Pixel, will be sold by Nieman Marcus in the US. Price tag: $100,000 USD.