Dear Chris, June, Bruno –
One of my students at the Center for Civic Media and I were discussing the need for more conference venues for young speakers to share their ideas and polish their presentation skills. While TEDx has greatly expanded speaking opportunities, we felt that there was still more room to experiment with novel formats and extend the TED brand.
In the spirit of collaborative innovation, I posted a proposed new TED format to Twitter this morning:
https://twitter.com/#!/EthanZ/status/134258200265506817
While this would make for a short programme in my case, I suspect there are organizers who could convene an excellent roster of speakers around this theme. Indeed, one especially experienced respondent wondered whether the four-day conference format would be sufficient to accomodate all speakers he planned to invite.
Fortunately, the Twitter hivemind saw the wisdom of extending the TEDx format and have been posting suggestions to me directly, and using the #TEDHighConcept hashtag. I’ve collected some of the more promising ideas for your edification here.
https://twitter.com/#!/nancybaym/status/134266227597123585
https://twitter.com/#!/katecrawford/status/134267309895319553
https://twitter.com/#!/nancybaym/status/134267740029595648
https://twitter.com/#!/techsoc/status/134268835619540992
https://twitter.com/#!/tamaleaver/status/134269266450071553
https://twitter.com/#!/debcha/status/134269643236970497
https://twitter.com/#!/nancybaym/status/134269787495862272
https://twitter.com/#!/techsoc/status/134272338656108544
https://twitter.com/#!/EthanZ/status/134270766819713026
https://twitter.com/#!/ahmed/status/134272665560158208
Some of these ideas are more controversial than others:
https://twitter.com/#!/smwat/status/134272861815848961
While others seem likely to involve litigation over intellectual property:
https://twitter.com/#!/elfrankenstino/status/134277678047039488
Yet some I can easily imagine working on the TED stage:
https://twitter.com/#!/smwat/status/134276247948767233
https://twitter.com/#!/grok_/status/134275041570455552
https://twitter.com/#!/sprinksvherself/status/134276367134113792
https://twitter.com/#!/toluogunlesi/status/134277150349074432
https://twitter.com/#!/kthread/status/134278594385022976
https://twitter.com/#!/AaronGenest/status/134279127338450944
https://twitter.com/#!/lrakoto/status/134279353939927041
Xeni’s suggestion offers ample possibilities for collaboration with BoingBoing:
https://twitter.com/#!/xeni/status/134276349807443968
And a number of suggestions attempt to leverage TED’s technological prowess:
https://twitter.com/#!/springingly/status/134290539775410176
https://twitter.com/#!/Lawgeek/status/134289452620193792
https://twitter.com/#!/stevesong/status/134284590511697920
Finally, we understand TED’s focus on social impact and change. These ideas might prove helpful:
https://twitter.com/#!/cascio/status/134292055160655872
https://twitter.com/#!/shefaly/status/134279703589691392
https://twitter.com/#!/Lawgeek/status/134284817272553473
https://twitter.com/#!/OxbloodRuffin/status/134277588163100673
If you’re concerned about the compatibility of these ideas with the existing format for TED conferences, here’s an especially helpful suggestion:
https://twitter.com/#!/smwat/status/134278286552469504
And while existing conferences rarely suffer from these problems, this is a helpful intervention when events aren’t going well:
https://twitter.com/#!/thomaswilburn/status/134286626099695616
Should any of these ideas prove viable as a future TED format, no need to share royalties – just send mainstage passes. We hope to offer more assistance in the future at the #TEDHighConcept hashtag.
Regards,
@ethanz and friends