The world’s cities are on pace to balloon from 3.6 billion inhabitants today to more than 6 billion by midcentury. As a result, we face both a dire emergency and a tremendous opportunity. At their best, our modern cities are hubs of human connection, fountains of creativity and exemplars of green living. Yet at the […]
Kicking off the TED conference would be a daunting prospect for most, but Jennifer Granholm has tackled both nastier challenges and less friendly audiences in her time. After all, she is the former governor of Michigan, a state that, as the blurb to her book A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future puts it, was “synonymous with […]
[ted id=1677] In session 1 of TED2013, we are meeting many new robots. First, we watched the amazing clip above of a troupe of tiny humanoid Nao robots dancing intricate choreography in unison. (They were presented by Bruno Maisonnier of Aldebaran Robotics at TEDxConcorde and beamed straight to the TED stage.) Next, Rodney Brooks unveiled Baxter, […]
The TED2013 stage might make you want to climb. Inspired by a treehouse, the spectacular stage brings together huge, winding tree limbs and structures that evoke the Swiss Family Robinson. The stage features multiple levels which speakers can utilize for their talk. We’ve given up the red carpet this year, yes, but added a new […]
As we assembled TED2013’s lineup of speakers from around the world, talked with the TED brain trust, and listened to online conversations, one theme emerged: What is the future of work? Technology and new business practices are, in many ways, putting an end to the classic “good job,” the kind that millions of people once […]
Packed house, check. Excited buzz, check. It’s time for TED2013 Fellows talks! Session 1 Tunde Jegede, composer Nigerian-British composer and musician Tunde Jegede opens the session with his kora, the West African 21-string bridge harp. Sitting curled around the instrument, his fingers deftly pluck the strings, making a sound like rain dancing on water. Ryan […]
Amanda Palmer — performer, writer, former Dresden Dolls frontwoman — speaks at TED2013 on Wednesday morning. And to prep, she rendered her talk on paper in Sharpie. She writes on Tumblr, “It is about eight feet long. I am taking this as a good omen.” Back in Boston, the “Queen of Kickstarter” also held a prep […]
The day has finally arrived. TED2013, “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered,” kicked off today with attendees pouring into the Long Beach Performing Arts Center in California. At 1:15pm, the conference officially started with two sessions of talks from the TED Fellows, young innovators from across the globe with exciting work to share. And tonight, […]
Welcome to The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered. After a year of planning — including a 14-city worldwide talent search to find new ideas and untold stories — TED2013 begins today with two sessions of talks from the amazing TED Fellows. Tomorrow at 11am Pacific time, mainstage talks begin with Session 1: Progress Enigma. So […]
The Knight Foundation announced today a grant to TED — $985K to help TED leverage technology to turn TED.com into an action platform, one that allows members of the TED community to work on amplifying and measuring the impact of ideas as they ripple through society, producing technology tools and best practices for connected action. The grant is […]
By Courtney E. Martin and John Cary Editor’s note: designer John Cary and journalist Courtney E. Martin are the curatorial brains behind the show, “Public Interest Design: Places, Products, & Processes,” which opened at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco last October. The entire exhibit has been reinstalled at TED in Long Beach, and we invited the duo to give […]
When more than 300 people gathered on Sunday, February 24th, at the Merv Griffin estate for the fourth annual TEDx Workshop at TEDActive, TEDx Director Lara Stein took a look back at the program’s amazing 2012 milestones — the TEDxSummit gathering in Doha, over 5,000 TEDx events and 20+0 TEDx Talks on TED.com. She also […]
Today, TEDActive is teaming up with Skillshare, a platform that helps people learn anything from anyone, to create a free session of mini-lessons today — and you can watch live! TEDYou: Skillshare Edition Talks Monday, February 25, 1:30-3pm Pacific time (4:30-6pm Eastern) Watch a lineup of great 6-minute tutorial talks that can inspire you to […]
At TED2012, DIY neuroscientist and TED Senior Fellow Greg Gage shocked the TED audience when he cut the leg off a live cockroach onstage to demonstrate his Spiker Box – a device that allows anyone to see and hear spikes in the neural activity of insects. A year later, his company Backyard Brains is coming up with […]
Think quick: what was the best film of 2012? Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook or Zero Dark Thirty? This question will be decided tonight at the 85th annual Academy Awards. As you prepare your Oscars ballot and debate whether Seth MacFarlane will […]
A cosmologist from South Africa. A found-object artist from Kenya. A neuroscientist from Palestine. A crowd fitting this description (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg) can only mean one thing: TED Fellows. The new class of TED2013 Fellows, as well as 2012 and 2013 Senior Fellows, converged in Long Beach on Friday to start […]