Blog TEDGlobal
By Sam Martin - July 22, 2010
Six days after the curtains dropped on 2010’s TEDGlobal conference and I’m still sifting through the ideas heard and contacts made in Oxford. After a deep breathe, we now turn our attention to a special TED issue of design mind, one that will try to capture the spirit of the “And Now the Good News” theme, while also taking a deeper dive into some of the ideas we heard from the many interesting speakers.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Sam Martin - July 15, 2010
Jessica Jackley of Kiva.org, a micro-financing non-profit, just spoke at TED about finding ways to give and share with the poor. A couple of days ago Nik Marks, a statistician who measures happiness for the Happy Planet Index, showed us the five things that lead to well being — the last was to give. Over and over from the stage in Oxford this year, we’ve heard people say, essentially, “we who live in the West have enough; it’s time to give away our excesses.” Not only that, but by giving we can find more meaning, and more self actualization in life.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Sam Martin - July 13, 2010
Barrington Estate farmer Adrian Dolby
After the lurching football experience and the near-riots in Piccadilly Circus on Sunday night, I took the early train to Oxford to register for the conference, get my goodie bag, and get on a bus to Barrington Estates, one of England’s largest organic farms, with a group of about ten other TEDsters. There the wood pigeons, sky larks, hopping hares, rolling green pastures, and good conversation provided the right contrast to the panic in the streets of London.
Blog TEDGlobal
By Sam Martin - July 12, 2010
2009 TEDGlobal bag headed for TEDGlobal 2010.
For the past few weeks I've been thinking about the theme for the upcoming TEDGlobal conference — to which I'm headed as we speak, on the 5:48 First Great Western to Oxford. That theme is “And Now the Good News,” and I’m eager to hear what the good news is. I can tell you that sitting in coach on an American Airlines transatlantic flight is not good news. But the conference in Oxford won’t be about such trifles (though there has to be a designer attending willing to listen, probably for the umpteenth time, about this crucial and crumby traveling experience). No, this week will be an opportunity to take a step back and look at the world in a different way.
Interestingly, being optimistic, especially lately and especially among intellectuals, would be considered “looking at the world in a different way.” But the problem is that there just doesn’t seem to be much room for it these days (ref. BP oil spill, global financial grumbles, melting ice caps, politics, war, poverty, etcetera, etcetera). And I consider myself an optimist.
