Posts Tagged ‘ted’

clay shirky kills it, enough said ::

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

:: I peeked this TED Talk today and was pretty impressed. Shirky does many things really well in this presentation, but most notably:

  • he smartly and succinctly summarizes the entire “transforming media landscape” X “social / digital media is important and why” meme we have all come to know and love over the past 5 years.
  • he clearly illustrates the best example of social media in a China to date – better than any of us so-called Chinese digital experts have done. [Hail the power of online video and good public speaking skills!]
  • he says this, “on the Internet, every medium (i.e. TV, magazines, telephone, books, etc.) is right next door to every other medium, put another way, media is increasingly less just a source of information, and increasingly a site of coordination.”
  • he also puts forth this brilliant nugget of wisdom, “the media landscape that we knew, as familiar as it was and as easy as it was conceptually to deal with the idea that professionals broadcast messages to amateurs is increasingly slipping away. In a world where media is global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap; in a world of media in which the former audience are increasingly full participants – in that world [i.e. today], media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals, it’s more and more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups [i.e. conversation and community-based interaction]. The choice anyone who has a message that they want to have heard anywhere in the world faces, isn’t whether that’s the media environment we’ve want to operate in, that’s the media environment we’ve got. The question now is, how to we make the best of that medium even though that means changing the way we have always done it.” [Halle-fucking-lujah! Shirky, you killed it with that closer – bravo!]

The last point is what I have spent a good chunk of my professional life trying to get others to understand (and pay for). It has vast implications for “media people,” (who is everyone now-a-days) as well as the communications, PR, marketing, advertising, etc. industries. The next time your client (or colleague, or your mom) just doesn’t get it, play them this video. If English is not their first language, get a professional to translate it into the appropriate language. It will save you a lot of time / effort / money in the long run.  // AjS

ted talks + chinese subtitles ::

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

ted_logo:: I’m a TED.com fanboy – always have been, always will be. It’s some of the best content on the whole of the world wide wide, and It’s just gotten better.

With the support of NOKIA, TED.com is rolling out a major open source translation project aiming to present TED talk videos in 40+ subtitled languages, including simplified and traditional Chinese. There are already four videos subtitled in simplified Chinese (1, 2, 3, and 4 – many more coming soon), one of which is probably my all-time favorite TED talk: Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight. Enjoy, and share with your Chinese friends that perhaps wouldn’t watch without subtitles.

Related, TED.com is holding it’s first ever official event in China next month: TEDxShanghai. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the TEDxShanghai advisory board). Also, link here to check out TEDtoChina, a Chinese-language TED fan / community site.  // AjS

we stopped being wise ::

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

::  a TED presentation by Barry Schwartz, an author and academic, in which he makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad. Rules often fail us; incentives often backfire; wisdom can rebuild our world.  // AjS

things well done | jill bolte ::

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

:: a stunning TED presentation by brain researcher Jill Bolte, who tells the story of her own stroke and the insights she drew from the experience. Bravo, well done. // AjS