Friday, November 30, 2012

TED with and without the x

being inspired...
I love TED talks! It is amazingly cool to see very interesting people casually talk about what they are up to. And I especially love the sciency talks, where you get instant insights into cutting edge research, without having to be emerged into that particular community and without having to deal with the technical talk. However, I also appreciate the enormous breath of different speakers. You get to hear about stuff you never even knew exited.

I can't even say what my favorite TED talks are, because there are so many I like. If I would have to pick, I would choose these talks:
The "categories" I enjoy the most are science/technology, inspiration and activism. Lately however, I find the problem to be the overwhelming number of talks. That's why I like the newly introduced playlists. Recently TED scored 1 billion views.

Adding the x

TED grants licenses to third parties to organize independent TEDx events internationally. As of October 2012, more than 19'900 talks have been given at more than 5'088 TEDx events in more than 137 countries (source). This really gets the community thing going and inspires a distributed and global effort to share "ideas worth spreading".

TEDxZurich 2012

In 2010 the first TEDx event was launched in Zurich. On the 25th of October 2012, the third edition was organized. It was a fun and eventful day and my favorite talks can be categorized as follows.

Inspiration:
Inspiration and activism:
Science and technology:
Activism:
Aesthetics:
Inspiration:

Finally, this is the talk I gave about complex systems, economic networks and the study, The Network of Global Corporate Control:



More information can be found here:
Thanks @gklain, Ronald Slabbers, @lazyhotstepper and @kompostnyc for the help:)

Sometimes TED is accused of being an elitist thing. Indeed, when I applied to attend TEDXZurich 2010 I was rejected;) Now, on the one hand, there are only so many seats to fill and of course in Zurich the demand is way too big, forcing a selection process. On the other hand, it was a real pleasure to meet the really nice TEDxZurich crew. I experienced them as being modest and highly dedicated people, who really enjoy organizing this even, without seeking the spotlight or giving the event an air of superiority...


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Update:
The guys from TED.com picked up the talk and featured it: