Live-blog heroes Ethan Zuckerman and Bruno Giussani, veterans of TED and other conferences around the world, have worked together to share what they know in the six-page, illustrated guidebook “Tips for Conference Bloggers.” It’s full of ideas for how to prepare, manage your time and your gear, organize your fellow bloggers into a news-gathering team, […]
Al Gore (TED2006 speech) at last week’s Clinton Global Initiative: “The key to fighting global poverty is to have the wealthy nations and the developing nations join together to reduce global warming … What we need is a global Marshall plan to make the creation of jobs around the reduction of carbon the central principle […]
Last night at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, Bono (watch his 2005 TEDTalk) and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (watch her TEDTalks) accepted the Liberty Medal, honoring Bono and DATA for their work in Africa. One of the local papers put together a fascinating section to go along with the event: “Philadelphia’s Team Africa,” profiling 10 locals in diverse […]
Last spring, singer-songwriter Stew (whose playful, provocative performance was a highlight of TED2006) rewrote the book on musicals with “Passing Strange,” a groundbreaking show that won rave reviews during its limited, sold-out run. Developed with the Public Theater as part of an ongoing effort to bring non-traditional voices into musical theater, Passing Strange was non-traditional, […]
This week, the UN and the World Bank launched the Stolen Asset Recovery initiative, or StAR — a plan to help poor countries recover funds stolen by corrupt leaders and stashed overseas. According to Reuters: World Bank estimates that cross-border flow of global proceeds from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion is between $1 trillion […]
Wednesday night, Jill Sobule (watch her TEDTalk performance) and the modern string ensemble Ethel (watch their TEDTalk performance) paired up to play a charming set together in Central Park, a preview of the upcoming album from this partnership that began at TED2006. Backed by Ethel’s wall of sound, Jill’s sweet, funny, wise pop songs — […]
When she was awarded the 2006 TED Prize, filmmaker Jehane Noujaim expressed a wish: a global acceptance of diversity, mediated through the power of film. (Watch her speech.) The project is taking off, and its ambition level is spectacular. On May 10, 2008, Pangea Day, sites in New York City, Rio, London, Dharamsala, Cairo, Jerusalem, […]
A few days ago TED2005 speaker Craig Venter (watch his talk) announced that his lab has finished sequencing a single human’s genome — his own. At his old company, Celera, Venter worked on sequencing his genome and four other genomes all mixed together, creating an anonymous composite. He told Newsweek: What we got this time […]
2007 TED Prize winner EO Wilson wished to create the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth’s biodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life. On May 9th of this year, it was announced that a consortium of institutions were starting the work to make it happen. (Check out the video that Avenue A/Razorfish made […]
Making private space travel possible and accessible to everyone has been a recurring topic at recent TED conferences, discussed by speakers such as Burt Rutan at TED 2006 (watch his speech), Peter Diamandis at TEDGLOBAL 2005, Richard Branson at TED 2007 and others. This week the first images of the central terminal and hangar facility […]
This year at TED, TED Prize winner Bill Clinton wished for us to partner with his foundation, the Rwandan government, and Partners in Health to build a sustainable, high-quality rural health system for the whole country. The pilot clinic in the Rwandan district of Rwinkwavu has been a proven success and there is a lot […]
Update: OLPC has announced that, starting Nov. 12, it will begin selling the XO laptop to consumers through its Give 1 Get 1 program. From the site: For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be […]
Al Seckel writes: To all TEDsters, It is with the greatest of sadness that we have to inform you that our very dearest friend and fellow TEDster Dr. Paul MacCready passed away on 28th August. Everyone who is reading this knows what a great and tremendous man he was, and how he devoted his entire […]
At TEDGlobal2007, blogger Andriankoto Ratozamanana, of Harinjaka, gave a 3-minute talk on a developing environmental crisis: the “crazy slash and burn” of the Madagascar forest. (To grasp the size of the problem, see this NASA image of burning in Madagascar, taken from the Terra satellite.) This weekend, he emailed us to update the story: A […]
The information spread a few months ago: director Steven Spielberg is planning a movie (a theatrical documentary) about pioneering green architect William (Bill) McDonough, his work, and his “Cradle to Cradle” vision of absolute sustainability — which Bill detailed in a 2002 book (written with Michael Braungart) and explained at TED2005 (watch his speech) and […]
TEDsters have already heard this story — from speakers Iqbal Quadir, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ashraf Ghani, Jacqueline Novogratz, and several others at last June’s TEDGLOBAL in Tanzania: developing countries need investments more than aid. One of the world’s biggest charities has now acted upon this idea. CARE, writes the New York Times, is turning down some […]