Aside from posting great coverage of the sessions and speakers at TEDGlobal 2007, the conference’s many bloggers offer a glimpse of conference life — the spark of meeting so many people with so much to share. DNA captures the thrill: “… today is my first day at the TED Global Conference being held here in […]
“We are all Africans. Welcome home.” — Paleontologist Zeray Alemseged, who discovered in Ethiopia the 3.3 million-year-old Salam, a 3-year-old hominid child, whose remains shed light on a key period in human evolution “We need to reframe the challenges facing Africa, from the challenge of soliciting charity to the challenge of creating wealth.” — Journalist/Social […]
“There’s nothing like a little controversy to get the party started. TEDGlobal hasn’t disappointed thus far.” —White African “I’m fascinated to see how the crowd – both regular attendees of the conference and first-timers – react to the program that Emeka Okafor has put together. (…) I suspect that the overall message of the event […]
We began session two looking back to … session one. Bono offered an unscheduled talk, taking on the anti-aid stance of journalist Andrew Mwenda, articulated earlier that day. (A bit of background: Bono’s moving 2005 TED Prize acceptance speech helped ignite within the TED Community a heightened interest in Africa, and led quite directly to […]
After an extraordinary welcoming fanfare by Malian chanteuse Rokia Traore, TEDGlobal 2007 (Africa: The Next Chapter) kicked off this afternoon with a session intended to shift your thinking about the continent. We hear so much about Africa’s problems — disease and poverty, conflict and corruption; here are the counterpoints that open our 4-day conversation here […]
As the TED Conference team departs for Tanzania and TEDGlobal 2007, the TED.com team is beginning the conversation online, with our latest theme: Africa: The Next Chapter. We start with an observation: That while we’re all familiar with Africa’s challenges — famine and disease, conflict and corruption — it’s less known that across the continent, […]
This week we’re posting three of the most-talked-about talks from TED2007 — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, John Doerr and Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ remarkable demo of Seadragon/Microsoft Photosynth. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister for Nigeria (and the first woman to hold that job), argues for investment — rather than aid — as the means to help […]
Jeff Hawkins brought us the indispensable Palm and Treo — now he’s turned his attention to the human brain, looking to our gray matter for clues to the next generation of powerful computers and software. To date, there hasn’t been an overarching theory of how the brain really works, Hawkins argues in this compelling talk […]
Rural villages worldwide are being deserted, as billions of people flock to cities, to live in teeming squatter camps and slums. And Stewart Brand says this is a good thing. Why? It’ll take you 3 minutes to find out. Music: Brian Eno, “Just Another Day on Earth,” from his 2005 album Another Day on Earth […]
Low-key and thoughtful, IDEO founder David Kelley seems the antithesis of the “design star” — and indeed, he says that product design, within the past two decades, has become much less about the design and more about the user who’ll be experiencing it. In this classic 2002 talk, he shares some video of products coming […]
What happens when a black man visits Aspen? Singer/songwriter Stew is about to let you know, with the arch humor and clever asides that characterize all his work (Hint: “It’s a winter wonderland in the belly of the beast.”) Stew is joined on stage by his partner/collaborator Heidi Rodewald (bass) and Jon Spurney (keyboard/guitar). (Recorded […]
Yes, it seems as though we just announced the 2007 wishes (and, in fact, we did), but it’s once again time to start the search for next year’s TED Prize winners. We’re looking for three more remarkable people that can tap into the energy of TED and do something extraordinary that will contribute to the […]
Stop wringing your hands over AIDS, cancer and the avian flu. Cardiovascular disease kills more people than everything else combined — and it’s mostly preventable. Dr. Dean Ornish explains how changing our eating habits will save lives. NEW: Read the transcript>>
In James Howard Kunstler‘s view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about. NEW: Read the transcript >>
Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for “thinking the improbable” by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe. (Filmed at TEDGlobal 2005, July 2005 in Oxford, UK. 22:00) [ted id=98] Watch Richard Dawkins’ talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find […]
Chris Anderson, the editor of WIRED, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous.