Rotman magazine, the print and online quarterly of the Rotman School of Management, has just released its new (Winter) issue, devoted to the theme “Open.” Openness has been a buzzword for a while, ever since Henry Chesbrough wrote his seminal book on Open Innovation, but, to apply Gartner’s Hype-Cycle terminology, now it seems as if Openness has finally reached a plateau of productivity after going through years of troughs of disillusion.
Pre-conference TEDGlobal is in the books, the first session is near, and after days of wondering what the “stuff” in this year’s Stuff of Life theme could mean, I may have a start. Thinking about stuff automatically includes thinking about things. And indeed we are fond of our stuff: computers, cars, Saturday jeans, running shoes, and whatever other objects you value. But the stuff of life is not only objects (and besides, you can’t have a four-day conference only about things). The Stuff of Life is actually the stuff in life—inspiration and disappointment, marriage and divorce, life and death.
In Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, frog senior designer Michael McDaniel was inspired to create an emergency housing solution that can be quickly and easily deployed, efficient and cost effective. In light of the recent disasters in Haiti and Chile, it is even more apparent that there's a critical need for a reliable emergency housing system to help those in danger of being displaced. After five years developing an actual solution, McDaniel shared the lessons he has learned about how innovation can come from disaster at TEDxNola in New Orleans this past summer.
In partnership with frog, a TED Salon took place in London earlier this week at the Unicorn Theatre, a cozy venue near the Tate Modern on the south side of the Thames. It was the third such event together, and this time 250 local TEDsters attended to hear 15 speakers talk in two sessions about a variety of subjects on the theme of “Re-Framing.” Master of ceremonies and TED’s European director Bruno Giussani explained the theme this way: “When films shift camera angles, they shift a scene… they literally reframe; that’s what we’re trying to do tonight… to look at things from a different perspective.” It was also the occasion to debut the special TEDGlobal edition of design mind, which covered the 2010 Oxford conference and the theme “And Now the Good News.”
I was lucky enough to speak at the TED Salon in London last week. Like many of you, I've enjoyed learning about technology, education and design from some great minds through the online TED-talk library, and I was honored to be a part of the event.
Here's the video of the talk that I gave at TEDx Taipei back in July. There's a funny twist at the end of it, so watch to the end... Thanks to the TEDx Taipei team for a) a great event, b) a nice professional job with the videos.
Here are some photos I took at the TEDx Taipei event which occurred yesterday. It was a great event, super well organized, with excellent speakers all around. Congrats to Kevin, Jason and the whole team for putting on a terrific show. There were many people I didn't get photos of, this is just a small selection of what was on offer.
The event was held in a renovated space that is now an arts/culture center
