Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - September 23, 2009
TED Curator Chris Anderson – who had 844,821…wait 844,833 followers the last time we looked – tweeted about it yesterday, and we’re thrilled that the word is now out about the new special TEDGlobal edition of our design mind magazine, “The Substance of Things Not Seen."
We officially unveiled the new issue on Monday with an intimate TED Salon ("More Substance of Things Not Seen") with 120 TEDsters and friends at the Unicorn Theater in London. Hosted by Bruno Giussani, TED’s European director, and Sam Martin, editor-in-chief of design mind, the evening featured three TED Talks.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - September 21, 2009
Yep, today is the big day, and we’re thrilled to present our most ambitious and heftiest design mind magazine so far – and a very special one indeed. The new issue is devoted exclusively to the TEDGlobal 2009 conference (the twin conference of the annual TED conference in Long Beach) that took place this past July in Oxford, England, with the theme “The Substance of Things Not Seen.”
It is the first time a publication was invited to fully cover a TED conference: In collaboration with the TEDGlobal speakers and attendees, frog’s designers, technologists, and writers produced art, essays, and interviews that translate the conference’s theme into a rich magazine, trying to make visible “The Substance of Things Not Seen.”
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 28, 2009
The last speaker at TEDGlobal, Franciscan monk Brother Paulus Terwitte, described how at the previous night’s party he was having a conversation with another TED attendee that was suddenly interrupted when the other person’s cell phone rang, upon which he excused himself and left. Brother Paulus waited for a few minutes, “but he never came back.”
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 27, 2009
The frog team just returned from the TEDGlobal 2009 conference in Oxford, UK, and it was an exhaustively inspiring week. TED is like a boot camp for ideas: You’re seriously sleep-deprived, constantly over-stimulated, and both humbled and mesmerized by remarkable attendees who all share a belief that “the glass is half-full” (even in the UK…).
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 23, 2009
One of the main themes at TEDGlobal this year has been a lively debate between optimistic and pessimistic voices on the social potential (or doom) of the web. This outlook has been somewhat more somber than I expected at a TED conference, perhaps – as some attendees suspected – due to the cultural differences between Long Beach and Oxford. There is definitely a palpable sense of enlightened skepticism at the conference, a distinctly European tone that serves as welcome counterweight to the Californian brand of optimism that TED is often associated with (just read this amusingly British commentary in the Times of London).
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 23, 2009
There were three African speakers today on the TED stage who I thought carried the most touching, moving, and important stories to Oxford. Emmanuel Jal (pictured above) was a Sudanese soldier from age six to thirteen before being smuggled across the border into Kenya by an English aid worker, essentially saving his life. He then found music and began unraveling the deceit and rage of his childhood. His spoken word about the atrocities he witnessed struck a deep nerve with the crowd. Then he got up and danced — along with the entire auditorium.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 23, 2009
"I rarely agree with what clients ask me to do." – Ross Lovegrove @ TED
It's all about finding out what the real problem is to solve and pushing beyond the initial thoughts clients can bring to you. Very often, we uncover better and/or different solutions as part of our design process. It takes trust, but design can (and in my opinion should) be an evolution of ideas and not a prepackaged solution. Always challenge assumptions. Even your own.
- Curt Collinsworth
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 23, 2009
Many designers I know are inspired by the promise of wireless power. Eric Giler just gave an interesting demonstration at TED and made good on the promise of Nicola Tesla - safe and easy wireless power transfer. This wasn't done via induction but by magnetic fields from at least a distance of about a meter or more. Tesla was shooting for beaming his 'round the world but this is a good start.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 22, 2009
My favorite TEDGlobal speaker so far has been Alain de Botton, the philosopher for the knowledge worker.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Various frogs - July 22, 2009
He was the much buzzed-about surprise guest at TEDGlobal yesterday, and for someone who is often accused of lacking any charisma, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was surprisingly charismatic. The big global issues are obviously his most comfortable domain, and he delivered an engaging speech on the collective social power (and responsibility) of the inter-connected "global village."
