Over the past couple of weeks, MIT Visiting Artist Tomas Saraceno has been setting the design world ablaze with his innovative playground titled “On Space Time Foam.” Currently on display in Milan, visitors (both young and old) can explore a large hangar-like area by climbing around a plastic-bag like maze.
Here’s a video of what its like. You can’t see the smiles on the faces of the people climbing around, but several of the pictures I’ve seen show them pretty big.
(above) TED curator and CEO, Chris Anderson addresses an eager crowd at the TED Talent Search in Amsterdam (photo credit: James Duncan Davidson)
TED continues to impress me with how they are constantly innovating to make themselves, particularly their TEDTalks interesting, accessible, and most importantly, relevant. They simply won’t let anyone forget about them. At once ubiquitous, yet growing, and evolving in new ways and markets, they won’t stoop to regular advertising; rather they have expanded viewership through developing new packaging, forging strong partnerships, relying on their high quality product (or TEDTalks) and a constant innovation engine that revs hard to keep them fresh.
If you think about it, its pretty amazing what they have accomplished in the past ten years!!
(Need something to contrast it to?? Try TEDMED, a sister conference created by the same parent and sold at the same time that TED was, but to a different group of people. Never heard of them?? You aren’t the only one…)
Somewhere around circa 2001, TED was sold by Founder Richard Saul Wurman to British Publishing genius Chris Anderson (or atleast his non-profit called the Sapling Foundation), and from there its growth finally became more publicly visible. Since then, we’ve seen all kinds of things develop from the new group – first changing the way conferences are done by delivering consistent, high quality user experiences in a specific format. The content was filmed, packaged and published online at TED.com, a website that in and of itself keeps evolving to be better and better, and is the real heart of the organization (and some might argue, the real engine behind its success).
Offshoots soon developed over time, each of which has had their own set of iterations…like (not in order) the TEDBookClub, TEDBooks, the TEDPrize (which has also had a few iterations), the TEDFellows program, and TEDx…all of this, while they expanded to have another permanent regular TEDGlobal Conference, and the rare move to the Developing World, first to TEDAfrica in 2007 and TEDIndia in 2009. Themed mini-conferences began as well – TEDYouth and TEDWomen, which quickly were embraced and adopted by the TEDx movement.
And then to reach an even greater audience, TED.com started their Open Translation Project, that brought greater international involvement, and made the talks relevant to increasing masses of people from outside the English speaking world.
Soon we could see online curated bits all over the place — on TV, and even on Netflix. And they even remade their content to be teacher-friendly, so that a whole new demographic could start viewing and learning from TEDTalks — children — in a new initiative called TED-ED.
Most recently, TED has paired up with the Huffington Post to create curated weekend content called TEDWeekends. The talks are still the same, but the hope is to reach an even greater audience through a different packaging mechanism. Similar to the Netflix TED packs, TEDWeekends features several TEDtalks under a single enticing topic, with a narrative running through it that ties them together. Its just a new way to increase viewership. Viewership on the talks keep increasing; their twitter and blog followers also keep going up.
Their outreach team is brilliant! Even as TEDx has (some might argue) washed down the TED brand, you can’t seem to get away from them. Check out the various TED products and keep your eye on the organization. They are definitely a model for organizations struggling to stay relevant and fresh.
Source: www.kairossociety.org
Enterprising university students should consider applying for the Kairos50 Summit. DEADLINE: 16 DEC 2012
According to the Kairos Society, the Karios 50 Summit is done as follows:
“We search dorm rooms everywhere to find the cutting-edge companies that college students are creating worldwide. We don’t just look for projects, we look for innovative ventures that are tackling today’s biggest global challenges. The end result is the Kairos 50, an annual compilation of the fifty most innovative student-run businesses in the world. At the Kairos Global Summit, we bring these companies to the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange and unveil their technologies. With the newfound support of peers, business and political leaders, media, and investors, K50 winners can accelerate their company’s growth to become global market leaders.”
Here’s a nice video about the Karios Society:
New York City is challenging the world to help update their payphone infrastructure. Have ideas?? (source: Reinvent PayPhones)
Public utilities are desperately in need of help. Its the biggest Tragedy of the Commons. Everyone uses them (generally), and they take immense amounts of capital to develop and maintain. With technology moving so rapidly, how do you update them when they get defunct? Or what do you do with the old pieces?
Well, New York City ain’t about to give up on their public telephones. In the fast-paced age of mobile phones, what do you do about existing public telephone infrastructure?? Unlike other cities, they are still being used. The huge daily influx of migrants and travelers coming through there, plus the economically challenged communities of NYC still use them. But is there something else that can be done to make them relevant to the majority??
So here’s the challenge:
“Have ideas on how New York City can reinvent payphones to create a safer, healthier, more sustainable, accessible and informed city? Submit your prototype by February 18th and you could help to shape the City’s future.”
Wanna enter?? Go here!
I LOVE it when governments are innovative!
Whenever you stick your neck out and do something differently, you are going to have people pissed off at you…sometimes pretty badly. Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of the same. Change is always disruptive and hard, and sometimes, the more effective or efficient you are, the more disruptive it is (this is true of both change for the good or bad). The insults, consequently, are proportionally bad and hard. Its taken me some time to learn how to deal with insults, and I’m constantly seeking new ways to understand the art of dealing with them.
Today’s lesson is from Steve Jobs, ironically a great insulter himself, who shows us the art of turning an “ouch” into an enthused ovation.
1. Show your insulter and the audience some respect (if they deserve it). In this case, it took guts to stand up and question a respected figure. Steve did not put him down in any way, nor did he turn the audience against him. There was no laughing at him or belligerence or defensiveness. It was respectful throughout.
2. Pause and take your time. Steve takes his time answering. This is good for several reasons. It allows you to calm yourself down, collect your thoughts and answer in a coherent and controlled manner. Essentially, it takes power away from the insulter and gives it back to you.
3. Separate out the personal/emotional and focus on the core problem the insulter has. While the question started out and ended personally (“you don’t know what you are talking about” and “maybe you can tell us what you’ve been doing for seven years!!”), it became very pointed and clear what specifically the insulter had a problem with was Java, and probably the fact that he didn’t understand Steve’s methods and direction. Steve honed into this and focused his response on that.
4. Use humor without making it personal. After pausing, Steve starts in a light-hearted manner and keeps infusing humor where he can. Humor always diffuses tension. It was never, however, personal. Again, it sets the whole group at ease, including the insulter.
5. If your insulter is right, say so. This goes back to point #1, of showing respect. The audience isn’t stupid either and they know that the insulter had a point. Steve gains everyone’s respect by admitting that he was right in parts.
6. Turn the insult into an opportunity to sell/explain your point-of-view: Often insults get the most attention…audience members who have may have tuned out, tune back in. You could’ve heard a pin-drop in that pause between insult and response. Steve, a genius at captivating an audience, capitalized on that opportunity. In this case, he talks about how he starts with the audience in mind, not the technology, and how that dictates his entire philosophy and helps ultimately sell apple products. He then tells stories and keeps the audience engaged. Essentially, he turned an insult into a powerful 5 min story-telling session that showcased the hardworking team at Apple.
7. Apologize, if there is reason to. Steve does this multiple times, and he is clear what is both sorry for, and what he isn’t.
8. Summarize and finish strong. In the last 10 seconds, Steve sums it up very quickly, ensuring his last words leave the audience in his court…i.e. “support my team who are kicking some serious butt.”
Interestingly, I googled “the art of taking an insult”, and the top search results all linked to “the art of giving an insult.” It should say something about our priorities!! 🙂
Other points of view: Zen and the Art of Dealing with Insults
Hello World!
My name is Pragnya. Over the years, I have worked in a number of areas and sectors around the world, that have collectively created a powerful arsenal of knowledge effective for organizational improvement. I am particularly good at enriching organizational value chains by infusing interdisciplinary thinking and innovation into processes and products. My methods are often unconventional, but effective.
While my interests originally focused on innovation and entrepreneurship in the water, sanitation, public health, and energy sectors, particularly in the developing world, my desire to learn and transplant knowledge between sectors has caused my interests to expand.
I believe in learning constantly. This blog is a collection of my lessons, thoughts, and ideas. Previously, I used to blog here (on a blogger platform). It is only sporadically updated.