Conferenza

Serious Play indeed!

Wednesday night was the opening of "Serious Play", the third semi-annual conference at The Art Center in Pasedena, produced in conjunction with The Art Center and its faculty and masterminded by Chee Pearlman.

By the looks of it, this will be a giant, creative, wonderful event.

Included herewith are shots of Danny Hillis, whose comment while presenting at the 2006 edition inspired Pearlman's theme for this year, as he navigates the rope dancing patterns of a troupe of phenomenal presenters.

War-walking in Nazareth

Apparently, finding an Internet cafe in the Holy Land is more challenging than I'd been led to believe.

Taking advantage of some free time before Kinnernet, Yossi Vardi's conference retreat at the Sea of Galilee, I thought I'd visit a few iconic historic locales, and make a few late-night Skype calls. I've been told by some natives that somewhere in town there is a bistro called "Coffeenet," but so far it retains mythical status.

But even in a small town in the Middle East, there could be free bandwidth floating out there somewhere. After wandering the narrow streets for a time, I sat at a bus stop with St. Mary's Basilica in view, outside a large office building. Sure enough, an open access point.

I assume this isn't common behavior in Nazareth, however, because it's enough of a curiosity that numerous town-dwellers have stopped to watch me, with a few people attempting futile conversation in anything but English.

Watching the street traffic provides a fascinating perspective on contention-handling, as large tourist buses and small delivery vehicles routinely attempt to occupy the same space on the street. The local equivalent of CSMA/CD seems to be honking. If Bob Metcalfe had used Israeli traffic as a model for Ethernet, colliding packets would simply have yelled at each other until one got out of the way.

gB

Aspen launches Environment Forum

Aspen Institute and National Geographic Magazine kicked off the first "Aspen Environmental Forum" with a Wednesday evening prologue documenting the likely [and daunting] impact of a tripling of energy consumption worldwide on the already escalating climate change on the planet, and a Thursday morning welcoming session which began invocation led by two native Americans of the Ute tribe.

"We have had many private meetings at the Institute on the environment in the past, but this is the first one in a public forum," said Gerson, adding he and the Institute will make the conference an annual event.

At the prologue, National Geographic Executive Editor Dennis Dimick offered glaring photographic evidence of the accelerating changes to our environment, and posed the challenge of how we can cope with a projected tripling of energy demand by the year 2050.

He was joined on stage for a panel discussion by [from right to left] Gerson, MIT professor Daniel Nocera and David Sandalow, Director of The Brooking's Institute's Environment and Energy Project.

Professor Nocera related the global energy consumption to lighting a one-watt lightbulb, stating annual demand is the equivalent of 12.8 trillion watt lightbulbs, or 12.8 terrawatts. To get more energy to meet new demand, if one assumed one could harvest and burn EVERY living plant on earth, with no more eating, one would only crate a maximum of seven terrawatts. One still needs to eight terrawatts of power - though if one could pull 18 terrawatts from the Sun, which produces orders of magnitude more energy striking the earth, that would hit the target.

Of course, Nocera spun off these numbers with wreckless abandon, and I look forward to revisiting them, as should you.

Sandalow described how he had altered his hybrid car to make it plug-in adaptable. When he bragged to the people who developed his kit that he was getting 80 to 90 miles per gallon they were upset [because it was so low!], and they patiently showed him how he could adjust his driving habits to get roughly double that efficiency.

In answer to a question about how individuals could be encouraged to make an impact, Dimick suggested making a moving about the power of growing one's own food. "We eat oil," he said, referring to the amount of oil used to fertilize, harvest, process, transport, sell and drive home the groceries we eat.

In response to another questioner's assertion so little is being invested in science around climate change compared with other priorities, panelists generally agreed, with one noting that $1.7 trillion is spent on chronic disease and $1.3 trillion on the last two years of a person's life. Sandalow questioned whether Americans are committed to addressing climate change.

Professor Nocera shared a joke he noted was too prevalent in the way Americans prioritize the environment below related concerns, such as human health and healthcare. What's the difference between an American and a person living in the rest of the world? he asked. The American thinks dying is an option.

Thursday's morning sessions included a scientific panel on "the Climate Machine" moderated by New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin, and a discussion of "the Human Footprint," which delved into issues of equity in facing environmental challenges.

Freedom to Connect: Preview of F2C08

David Isenberg puts on a great event.

Of course, I'm biased: David's a friend, and we're working together to bring attention to the need for a national broadband strategy. But he still puts on a great event.

Freedom to Connect is a rarity, a conference sprung from one unique mind, bringing together a fascinating mix of known and unknown voices, each with different perspectives on how the Internet and telecommunications have shaped lives and economies. At F2C, you'll find...

. Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, a new book exploring emergent organizing principles.
. Andrew Rasiej, one of the smartest people on digital politics.
. Reed Hundt, ex head of the FCC.
. Rich Miner, who leads Google's Android initiative.
. And a number of people I call friends, including Jim Baller, the country's leading expert on broadband strategy (and also my collaborator); Brad Templeton, chair of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Michael Calabrese of the New America Foundation.

And many more.

Unless you've been living under a digital rock, you know that David is the author of the "stupid network" treatise, which maintains the best value comes from pushing intelligence to the edges of a network, and letting the internal fabric move bits as efficiently as possible. David builds from that early thought leadership, and each year explores how we should be thinking differently about our computing and communications infrastructure - not in a dry and academic way, but with a wide range of perspectives and voices.

I highly encourage anyone interested in understanding emerging Internet trends to check out F2C. Looking forward to seeing you there.

gB

TED08: A Counter View

Even if you could afford the $6000+ for the iconic TED conference, would you pay? BusinessWeek's Sarah Lacy admits it's likely sour grapes that she's never gotten a press pass for TED, but she takes the event to task for what she perceives as its elitist attitude.

My take: TED fills a market niche, or else it wouldn't be successful. There clearly is a need for its affluent audience to gather, learn, and be exposed to ways in which they can impact world problems. I've truly enjoyed the TEDs I've attended, and have learned much about producing great events from its formula.

But affluent its audience is, which inevitably results in a socio-economic monoculture. I'm glad there are other events that can address a broader range of attendees, while still striving to provide a great experience and learning opportunity.

gB

TED multiplies: TEDAfrica, TEDEurope, TEDGlobal unveiled

Three upcoming TED conferences were announced/confirmed from the TED stage today:

TEDAfrica: Cape Town, South Africa, as previously announced, will have the theme of "What If?" and run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 2009. Details and registration here.

TEDEurope: Oxford, England, July 22 to 24, 2009. Theme: "The Substance Of Things Not Seen". Registration will be announced soon. The first TEDGlobal was held in Oxford in July, 2005.

TEDGlobal: Mumbai, India, November 2009. Details to follow.

TED2008 - RSW returns to the TEDstage!

Richard Saul Wurman has just been invited to the stage for a conversation with Chris Anderson...a remarkable TED moment. Surrounded by a Sputnik satellite, Guttenberg Bible and other artifacts from Jay Walker's library, RSW, or Ricky as he's known to many long-time TEDsters, began with some tears, then described how marvelous it was to take the stage as part of a session dubbed "is Beauty Truth?"

RSW's return was particularly poignant as he and TED curator Chris Anderson had participated in some bitter feuding over the conference for more than half a decade after Anderson acquired it from its creator - a feud RSW announced had recently and finally ended - and also because Anderson has announced he's pulling TED out of Monterey next year, determining the ever-growing audience to have outgrown the facility here.

"It is true we've had an acrimonious relationship the last four to five years, and we don't now, and that's beautiful" Richard Saul Wurman said.

RSW has often described the TED conference, which he began in 1984, as "the ultimate dinner party" he always had wanted to have... and while he and three others in the audience were there at that first TED, it has created a huge following and inspired both a year-long community of attendees and a slew of TED "Wannabe" conferences.

Richard said he had realized much of the period of acrimony resulted from misunderstanding, and he only recently came to learn how may attendees had come to believe that TED had changed their lives (for the better!). Many had attested to Richard that TED had given them license to engage in wondrous new undertakings in their lives.

In the meantime, RSW had launched a one-time rival, called eG, the entertainment gathering, in the Los Angeles area. MIT's Michael Hawley revived in a second edition of eG last December, and now promises to make it an annual event.

The TED conference is now doing some collaboration with eG, and is expected to distribute some of the eG presentations as part of its "TEDtalks" offering of past conference presentations.

Adobe - Illustrator and Photoshop and Acrobat were all announced from this stage, as was (Sun Microsystems Inc.'s) Java (programming language), even before it had a name, RSW recalled.

"This is the best conference that every happened, and the clones are nothing... well the clones, they are interesting, too, and they give people license to do other things..." he said.

Anderson and Wurman embraced, and said they were collaborating to create the 25th anniversary conference next year, which will be staged at a larger theater in Long Beach, California, under the theme "The Great Unveiling".

"The picture has already been taken," said Chris, at Wednesday night's opening gala, when your co-respondent commented this was a picture that needed to be made! Nonetheless, they were willing to mug again, and RSW could be heard praising the excellence of what he'd witnessed at the opening sessions - welcome words not only to Chris Anderson, but to all tedsters, young and old.

TED2008: TEDprizes to stream Live amid BIG Questions...

Our hosts at TED, which is taking place at its traditional home of Monterey, California, for what may be its last time here, have announced as excerpted below they will be streaming live Thursday the winners of the TED prizes for 2008 as they outline the wishes they want the TED community to help fulfill.

Quick note to the TED Community at large:

There's a huge sense of anticipation in Monterey and Aspen as TED2008 opens today. With 50 main speakers and another 50 shorter talks and performances, there's a real feast in store. For those of you who can't be here, here's how you can enjoy TED from afar.

First and foremost, we are opening up one complete session of TED free to the world, streamed live over the web. It's the dramatic session tomorrow evening when three remarkable individuals each unveil their TED Prize wish. ("One wish to change the world. No restrictions. Think big. Be creative.")

I invite you to join a global audience as Dave Eggers, Neil Turok and Karen Armstrong share their inspiring visions, followed by the uplifting music of Vusi Mahlasela.

You can see the live video feed here on Thursday, starting at 5.15pm US Pacific Time and lasting a couple of hours. You'll probably need a broadband connection to see the video properly. There's a button below the video to select a full-screen view.

Meanwhile you can keep up with the conference by checking in on the official TED blog, plus the brilliant blogs maintained by Ethan Zuckerman and our very own Bruno Giussani. We may have a few tasty surprises for you during the week.

You can also see a rapidly-growing gallery of pictures from the conference here. And Portfolio magazine has an impressive curtain-raiser on the conference here.

Best wishes from the all-abuzz TED Team.

TED2008 asks the BIG Questions?

The extravaganza which is TED began with a blast of Hamlet, out of the darkness on stage as delivered by Michael Stuhlbarg, a Tony award nominee actor of Shakespeare in the Park. Not just ANY soliloquy, of course... "To be or not to be."

This year's conference is about questions. BIG questions.

Chris Anderson, TED curator extraordinaire, then asks the audience to take a moment of silence to shift into the spirit of curiosity and intrigue and wit and soul-searching that is TED.

Minutes later, third generation paleoanthropoligist Louise Leakey is telling us "we're the only walking upright Ape that exists in the world today." Does that not seem to raise a big question? Well, consider this: many if not most species on the planet co-exist with many other related species, and in fact through three generations of research her family, as it happens, has demonstrated that there were multiple species of hominids at any one time, long ago in history.

Indeed, in 2001 Leaky and her mother, Meave, found a previously unknown hominid, 3.5 million year old Kenyan-thropus platyops at Lake Turkana in East Africa. This was found not far from where her grandparents, Louise and Mary Leaky discovered the bones of Homo habilis, one of at least three species who co-existed as recently as 90 generations ago - or roughly 1.8 million years.

That 2001 find, Leaky said, included "one of the most very special things you can do with your mother," as she showed the two of them brushing off the bones in making their discovery.

As much of the first session, there was plenty to entertain, shock and awe - including the actual human brain Harvard Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor shared from the stage, complete with spinal cord.

Near the end of the first session, "Who are we?" Anderson introduced astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who made a presentation recorded a couple of hours previously from his home in Cambridge, England.

"We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth," so it is naturally possible if not likely that it has arisen elsewhere in the universe. "Life appeared on earth within half a billion years of it being possible."

"We don't happen to have been visited by aliens...," he added, discounting observers of UFOs and the like as quacks. However, in answering Anderson, in a matter of seven minutes using his onscreen editing system,

"I think it quite likely we are the only civilization within several light years, otherwise we would have heard radio waves..."

But no one, including the marvelous and wide-ranging images of perennial TEDster and anthropologist Wade Davis or the nearly unfathonable graphics and factoids of artist Chris Jordan {we use 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes - do we?} could prepare anyone for the closing of Jill Bolte Taylor, as she described how she had been overtaken by a stroke on the morning of December 10, 1996.

The scientist described how she'd awakened with a throbbing sensation behind her eye akin in sharpness to eating a big bite of really cold ice cream, and that only after she'd worked out on an exercise machine and taken a shower did she realize the stroke was spreading.

At that moment, she had the actual forethought of mind [literally] to not only realize she was undergoing the stroke, at her home, but to ponder how rare it must be for a brain scientist to actually go through a stroke herself!

Then, no sooner had she thought that thought than "it crosses my mind that I'm a busy woman. I don't have time for a stroke."

She manages to reach a co-worker, after feeling an arm become paralyzed, and as she's being shifted from one Boston hospital to Mass General, she feels as a balloon letting out air that her energy was lifting from her body, and her spirit surrender.

"In that moment I knew that I was no longer the choreographer of my life," she said.

In vivid language, Taylor describes how she felt her spirit "like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria," surrendering to the notion either her physicians would save her, or not, and yet wondering if she would ever be able to fit that enormous feeling of euphoria back into her body.

Then, she enraptures the hall with the realization that she was indeed still alive, and the realization that though she could not at that time walk, read, speak properly or recall anything of her life, she would come to realize that since she was still alive, and could feel this nirvana, then logically others could do so.

Bolte Tayllor had described how the left brain is responsible for action and memory, while the right brain was the processor of the "here and now." Within her stroke-disabled body, she described feeling only a world of peaceful compassion in which she envisioned living people could control and dismiss left-brain calculations, to step to the right of their controlling left brain hemisphere to embrace a positive, humane world.

She described this particular stroke of insight into how we could lead our lives as what motivated her to recover...a process which took the work of eight long years to complete.

"Who are we? We are the light force power of the universe," she said, lauding the cognitive ability, humanity and manual dexterity she attributed to "50 trillion molecular geniuses" at work.

Little doubt, that was one of the grandest, most intense and most powerful beginnings of any TED conference, and, as Jill Bolte Taylor said of her own revelation, certainly worthy of TED's focus on "Ideas worth spreading."

iAB Annual:The Integrated Agency

Rob Norman is a funny guy. And his company is going through some serious thinking about how it organizes itself to meet client needs.

The director of the interaction group at WPP's GroupM - "the largest company you never heard of," according to IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg - Norman talked about the fundamental changes affecting the agency business overall, and his company in particular. Operating in 73 countries, the 16,000-employee GroupM does three things: Create, distribute, and measure advertising. But historically it's duplicated each of those functions in each country, and in both the analog and interactive worlds.

That duplication probably doesn't make much sense in an era where costs are increasing, and customers demand better integration. As a result, GroupM is consolidating a variety of functions worldwide to increase efficiency and customer response. And it's working hard to integrate the capabilities of WPP's 24/7 Media acquisition to provide a consistent technology layer as well.

That may have a lot of implications for competitors and others who have rolled up a variety of related but barely-integrated businesses. We may see a lot more of this kind of re-jiggering of organization and services in coming months.

But perhaps even more interesting is the company's ventures into the content business. By Norman's report, GroupM has well over $100 million invested in developing TV shows and other content, either in partnership with or in support of its customers. He maintains that where GroupM takes these kinds of risks, "putting skin in the game," his company should also participate in the upside from those investments.

We saw a similar perspective the day before from a marketer, Don Friedman, EVP & CMO of CA, who said on the "Coopetition" panel that his company commissioned a custom print publication, delivered directly to its top customers. Typically the province of media companies, the content business is hard for marketers and agencies, but because it's also a strong attractor - my mantra for years in publishing is "content-driven attention" - it also offers tremendous value for those who get it right. As we've heard time and again from speakers at the conference, the lines between players in the marketing ecosystem continue to blur.

gB

(Disclosure: IAB is a client of my company, Xigi Media)