I was pleased to be invited
to today's TEDxBoston. I have heard a lot about TED (Technology,
Entertainment, design) but not attended before. The TED Conference provides general guidance
for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. This one honored “local innovators who have the passion,
curiosity, and tenacity to change the
world with their revolutionary ideas.” They wanted us to unplug from our
technology but I want to take notes so I can remember what happen and share it
with you. I did, however, unplug any competing technology. I only recognized
one person in their highlighted presenters, Larry Lessing, so looked forward to
seeing a lot of new faces and hearing new ideas. These are live notes, only slightly edited, so please excuse
typos, etc.
I
went to the simulcast room so I could use my laptop to take notes. The intro
talked about how this is a local event just using the TED branding and format. The session Economic Growth through Crowd Sourcing Dave McLaughlin is listed as the first event, a topic of interest for me lately, but it started with some drummers,
the Marcos Santos Group, to get us stoked up. Crowd sourcing is an obvious
starting point for an event like this. Meanwhile the drummers are good. Next
there was a quote from John Adams, one of our local revolutionaries, and revolutionary ideas is the theme of the day.
The introucers discussed the diversity of the audience including eight dozen CEOs and high
school students. I am humbled to be here. Dave McLaughlin began with a discussion of horizontal relationships between vertical grouping for
cross-fertilization of ideas. Boston has
invested to seed these cross-fertilizations for local economic growth through
Boston World Partnerships. For
example, what is essential infrastructure is being rethought. Horizontal
relationships have become the new connectors.
Susan Avery from Woods Hole
next discussed our global ocean and its role in how the world functions. The ocean has only been systematically
studied for 150 years. Now since WW2, technology has evolved rapidly to further
this exploration. The hydro-thermal vents are one new discovery that are places
where life forms emerge and were life likely started on this planet. This study
is very important as human impact on the ocean has greatly expanded.
We have entered a new
geological era with humans as the dominant impact on the globe. For one thing
the ocean is becoming more acidic because of our carbon emissions. This can greatly impact sea life such as
shell fish. We view the ocean as a
limitless resource but it is not. The fish at the top of the food chain have
decreased by 90 percent since WW2.
The ocean is also used as a garbage dump but there are limits here also.
There is a lot of plastic in the Pacific that ends up in fish. If we eat these
fish we eat our own garbage. She also addressed the oil spill in the Gulf. Each
spill is unique so the result is not predictable.
Seth Priebatsch covered the efforts
toward Building the Game Layer on Top of the World. It is already happening but the market is cluttered. Game dynamics are
already in play but many are poorly designed such as credit card promotions.
Seth said we can build better applications of games using game dynamics. He
said this is important as we have been building the social layer but that is
done. He said Facebook has won this one. How it is time for building the game
layer. It said the game layer will be more important than the social layer so
it is time to think about it in a open way.
He showed four game
dynamics. First, there is the appointment dynamic. People have to do things at
a set time and place. Happy hour
is one example. Farmville has more
participants than Twitter and you have to return to water your virtual plants
at a certain time. Second is
influence and status. People want
to be cool and status is a great motivator. School is a poorly designed status game. We could better use
game dynamics to improve participation in school. Third is the progression
dynamic. You have to go through certain granular steps. His firm is working
with businesses on applications of these dynamics to create loyalty, engagement,
and revenue. Fourth, there
is communal discovery. Everyone works together to solve problems. Digg had a leader
board but it was too successful and had to be taken down. He closed with the
concept that game dynamics is the next frontier.
Mary Gunn discussed two
problems and one solution. Her
organization, Generations, Inc. pairs older adults with kids in prompting
literacy. It helps both sides and she offers results. I can believe this. A group next covered the digital
fabrication of homes so you could design homes in an automated way. Then the
specs are sent to a factory to produce the materials in a more cost effective
manner using compressed wood chips. This also produces less waste, uses smaller trees, and get
homes up quicker. You can more easily do curves.
Before the first break John
Harthorne discussed starting a startup renaissance. John said that our economic
crisis can drive innovation. He started Mass Challenge to run a one million
dollar global competition on innovation. The finalists get funds, advice, and
free office space nearby at Fan Pier. He said why Boston for this? Boston is number one on many innovation
measures: more investment per capita, more VC firms per capita, more
universities per capita, etc. than anywhere, even California. This ends the first group of sessions.
I guess we reached that point when you just don’t remember where to configure your Vivvo not to cache CSS, how to set up different category template, or what that VTE::box_article_module does? Well, the documentation team at Spoonlabs has come up with a way to make all product documentation as easily available as possible, allowing users to rapidly find answers to all questions quickly and easily, dramatically reducing time to search for information.
