TED!

[Jay Cross]

If you haven't seen the TED videos, you're in for a treat.

Last night I watched brain researcher Jill Bolt Taylor describe her "Stroke of Insight."


Oh my God....

[Anol Bhattacharya]

Jay - I watched it for 10 + times in last 6 months - but every time I got the same thrill!

[Jay Cross]

Anol, what other TED events have you found thrilling?

Sir Ken's presentation on creativity, for sure. The guy whose software assembled the interactive Notre Dame from Flickr photos.

TED's a great example of what can happen when you open something to the world. Richard Saul Wurman's original TED created great buzz but kept most presentations under wraps. I imagine it's getting tough to score a ticket these days.

[Anol Bhattacharya]

I simply adore MOST of the TED talks; they are pure, original, short (18 minutes each), and most importantly, thought provoking. Here goes few of them, I watched and liked recently.

Richard Baraniuk: Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning

What if Napster stocked textbooks? Engineering professor Richard Baraniuk (founder of Connexions) talks about his vision for Connexions, an open-source system that lets teachers share digital texts and course materials, modify them and give them to their students — all free, thanks to Creative Commons licensing. 
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Our cell phones, ourselves: Jan Chipchase

Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase investigates the ways we interact with technology - a quest that has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets. Along the way, he’s made some unexpected discoveries: about the ways illiterate people use their mobile phones, the new roles the mobile can play in global commerce, and the deep emotional bonds we share with our phones. And he’s got a surefire trick to keep you from misplacing your keys.
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Paul Bennett: Design is in the details

Showing a series of inspiring, unusual and playful products, British branding and design guru Paul Bennett (creative director at Ideo) explains that design doesn’t have to be about grand gestures, but can solve small, universal and overlooked problems. Ideo creative director Bennett shows how his firm works to reframe the everyday realities of its diverse clients to create results that truly make a difference. From hospital design that takes the patient’s-eye view (staring up at the ceiling) to toy storage that responds to how children see the world, the answer, he says, is very often to be found in the question.
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Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?

Psychologist Dan Gilbert (writer of Stumbling on Happiness) challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don’t go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness "synthetic happiness," and he says it’s "every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for."
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Go to TED.com and browse through the goldmine, if you don’t find anything that dazzles you, sue me!

[Norma gamble]

Hi Jay, haven't been on here for far too long ... things look dazzling on this soc network. Well done!
You are talking "gold"! TED is my virtual university! I love it!!! It is also one of my greatest gifts to others - and they always return to thank me profusely for introducing them to it!
If you want a treat, watch Isabel Allende. I agree with you on JIll BT's presentation as well as dear Sir Ken Robinson. I browse weekly! Could likely give Isabel Allende's speech word for word lol
What a treat! - Via positiva!