TEDChris: The untweetable

When 140 characters just aren't enough... 



May 14, 2009

Evan Williams on Twitter's #fixreplies controversy

I had an interesting chat just now with Twitter's CEO Evan Williams (@ev) about the company's #fixreplies, #twitterfail problems this week (in which a status change that apparently impacted just 2% of Twitter users ignited a firestorm.)

I asked him what had driven their decision to change how replies worked. Engineering issues or (as originally stated) a desire to reduce user confusion?

Answer:  Both. 

(And now I'm paraphrasing him, not quoting): The engineering issue was significant in that even though the vast majority of users were on the default option (of seeing only those replies that go to others you follow) the system still had to investigate the relevant status of all of a user's followers every time he/she submitted a reply.  But equally important was the fact that the choices were simply confusing.  Twitter's ethos has always been that if you keep the rules simple and clear, users will do amazing things.  They were noticing that many, perhaps most, Twitter users weren't 100% clear on who would see their replies. (I was among them.) The concept of 'mutual friend/follower' is not obvious and having the extra two choices (that v few were using) made it that much more confusing. Different users would treat replies in different ways, expanding the confusion.  It's not always the case that more individual choice is a good thing for the overall system. Simplicity and clarity are really important for a well-functioning community.

And then the endearing bit: "Look we know we screwed up the way this was handled." But they'd learned a lot from the episode and were determined it be turned to the good, by using the torrent of feedback to build a stronger solution than before.  From what he hinted at, they're well on the way.

The temporary fix is here.  But they'll have something better soon.  (And he also said they would fix a confusing bug in the old Twitter search engine: currently, when you click to reply to a listed name, their @name does not appear in the text-box as it should.) 

If I had to guess, I'd say they'll come out of this OK. They're smart guys, with an obsessive commitment to the explosively-growing Twitter community. Exhibit A: this talk Evan gave at TED this year.

It's not been their best week, but in the immortal words of Friedrich Nietsche "That which does not kill you, makes you stronger."

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [4]

May 14, 2009

One step at a time... World Ocean Conference declares support for Marine Protected Areas

TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle just emailed that the World Ocean Conference in Manado, Indonesia, which has government delegations from 50 countries, is including the following statement in its closing declaration:

"We resolve to further establish and effectively manage marine protected areas, including representative resilient networks, in accordance with international law ... recognizing the importance of their contribution to ecosystem goods and services..."

Her TED Prize wish was to generate support for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and there's strong momentum building.  We'll be announcing an exciting project before long to advance her wish.  You can track this at http://www.tedprize.org or here on twitter: http://twitter.com/tedprize

Her amazing talk is here.

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [1]

May 13, 2009

#Twitterwin not #Twitterfail

The tweetsunami of rage against Twitter for changing their @reply policy seems to have missed one of the main benefits of the change: it's now OK to send replies you otherwise wouldn't dream of sending.

 Suppose someone called RandomTweeter who isn't a follower tweets something you want to reply to. They're not a follower, so you can't Direct Message them. All you can do is write a tweet beginning @RandomTweeter.

 Until yesterday's change, that tweet would go out to ALL your followers (except the tiny minority who had discovered that buried in Twitter's options was the choice to switch off tweets that are replies to other people). But the last thing I want to do is annoy followers by tweeting mundane replies to individuals. Indeed that's become a killer problem on Twitter. All noise, no signal. That's what the change is trying to address. As things stood, the choices were: ignore the comment (which might be rude, and could leave out there something that should have been addressed) OR add to Twitter noise with something of interest to only a few.

 After the change, that tweet is seen only by those of your followers who also follow @RandomTweeter. So now I'll be willing to respond knowing that a far higher percentage of anyone who reads it will be interested. This is going to encourage groups to coalesce and conversations to evolve that otherwise wd never have happened.

 The protesters are saying this means that they're losing the benefit of serendipitous discovery through eavesdropping. C'mon. There are dozens of ways of serendipitous discovery on Twitter. Search any word you care about for starters. Or just click onto the full twitter stream of someone you admire to see who they've been replying to. It's all there. And if you want your reply to be seen by all your followers, that's easy too. Just place @RandomTweeter in the middle of your reply.

  This, below, is the choice that has been oh-so-cruelly snatched away.

Personally I think it's a good thing. Twitter's whole ethos is based on less is more. The protesters upset about a choice being taken away are missing the fact that in a connected system individual choices impact the entire system. If Twitter have the balls to stick with the change, I think we'll start seeing more thoughtful replies being written, and real conversation starting.

 (And if they don't, I hope there's a massive campaign to encourage people to select the middle choice above, which is what we all now have. Without that, I for one, will not be replying in public.)   

Scott Hepburn, this was genius...

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [31]

May 13, 2009

5 steps to understand the power of TED Translate

1. Go to your favorite TED talk page, such as this one by Hans Rosling.

2. Look under the video window where it says 'Subtitles'.  Select English, and think of your hard-of-hearing friends and/or those for whom English is a second language.

3. Then try any language that takes your fancy. (Some will show up as blocks unless your computer has their font installed.)

4. Click the red "Interactive Transcript" link at top-right of page, then click any word in it and see what happens. This transcript is searchable by Google, so it will be possible for people to find specific comments that speakers have made and go straight to them.

5. This page explains it all and shows how different language communities are already responding (and how you, or someone you know, could contribute)

In a year's time we might have 500+ talks translated into 100+ languages. That wd be 50,000 individual translation projects, each of which takes hours of work, an impossible task to achieve any other way.  Any crowd-sourcing project will no doubt generate the occasional screw-up, but we've been amazed at the dedication and capability of the volunteer translators who've contributed so far.  

My colleague June Cohen and her web team, building on the dotSUB technology platform, have been working round the clock on this and have pulled off something pretty miraculous: a thrilling extension of TED's goal to spread good ideas globally.

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [3]

May 12, 2009

Let's sponsor an El Sistema USA music fellow !

Dear Twitter friends,

I ask you to consider joining me in a noble experiment to prove the transformative power of music.  If we're successful, an amazing musician, supported by us, will be trained for a year to lead a music program in an American inner-city area, similar to the world-acclaimed El Sistema youth orchestra program of Venezuela. 

To understand the power of this idea, please do the following:

1) Spend a few moments watching this astonishing youth orchestra performance. 

2) Consider that a few years ago many of the children you just watched were living in poverty in Venezuela.  Music changed their lives and also impacted the lives of the communities they live in. To understand how this could possibly be so, please watch the inspiring TED Prize speech of the founder of El Sistema, Jose Antonio Abreu. 

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jose_abreu_on_kids_transformed_by_music.html

3) Read Maestro Abreu's TED Prize wish. (Each year TED grants 3 remarkable individuals a prize allowing them to make 'One Wish to Change the World')

“I wish you would help create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries.”   

In other words: let's train the trainers. These 50 musicians will be the global ambassadors of El Sistema committing to establish similar programs elsewhere.

4) Take a look at the fantastic training program that has already been created in response to Maestro Abreu's wish.  It's based at the New England Conservatory under the leadership of Mark Churchill, a long time friend, colleague and admirer of Maetro Abreu   From this startpoint El Sistema will be able to spread around the world. We can help.

4) Please consider clicking the Donate button and chipping in whatever you can afford.   I'm hoping we on Twitter can raise enough funding to completely support one of the new El Sistema USA fellows.  He or she will undergo a year of training, in Boston and in Venezuela, learning every aspect of what it takes to recruit, train and inspire kids to let music transform their lives. Then the real work starts. But the year of training is crucial.

The amount we need is $25,000.  It sounds a lot, but every $ helps. It would be thrilling if this group of us on Twitter could pull this off.  As far as I'm concerned anyone who joins this effort is an absolute hero, and I will be publishing here the full list of those contributing unless you ask otherwise.

Donation > $9   =   Valued Giver
Donation > $29   =   Valued Contributor
Donation > $99   =   Valued Donor
Donation > $299 =   Fellow Enabler
Donation > $999 =   Maestro

All funds will be paid into a segregated account of The Sapling Foundation (owner of TED) and 100% of the proceeds will go toward the scholarship.

If we're successful, I'll look forward to introducing you to the Musician whose career you'll have helped nudge into a new, transformative direction. And we'll track their progress from time to time over the coming year.

Please consider retweeting, and thanks for listening!

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [15]

May 11, 2009

Four all-time favorite TED talks

If you're new to TED, these are the talks you should start with.

Ken Robinson on the need for more, much more, creativity in schools
Hilarious story-telling contains an irresistibly inspiring message.


The science may be simplified, but the story is astonishing and uplifting. 

He can transform your understanding of the world with a single 18-second animated graph.

His ingenious psychology experiments prove that humans are terrible at predicting their future well-being.

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [5]

May 11, 2009

Pangea Day, one year on...

• Main TV studio set

On May 10, 2008 millions of people around the world enjoyed a unique experience of global karma, gathering to watch the same films at the same time in a special four hour program inspired by Jehane Noujaim's TED Prize wish.  The event was called Pangea Day, named after the single supercontinent that existed 250 million years (all the world connected). 

If you agree that the world is in dire need of border-transcending empathy and that film has a remarkable ability to take you inside the head of "the other", you will get why so many found this idea powerful. 1500 members of the TED community organized Pangea Day events in dozens of countries to join the program and it was available on TV in more than 150 countries. 

• Kigali, Rwanda

 

• London, UK

This was typical of the feedback we received from the event:

Barbara A. from Mexico
This has been one of the most inspiring and beautiful events I have ever experienced. Let's never forget what we all felt and experienced today.

Karima Saad from United Kingdom
I am speechless. Those 4 hours felt as if i was part of the whole world as one community, rather than countries divided by borders.


Carolyn from United States
Thank you for doing this. I laughed, I cried, I was enlightened, I was moved and touched and inspired. 


Marina from Brazil
If I had to express my experience in words, I would not be able to. These were the best movies I have seen as an expression of art. And all the movies combined, just changed my way of thinking....


Lidia from Argentina
I feel too moved to speak and happy that so many people feel that really all of us are ONE.


RicardoSilva from Portugal
I've been using the internet since the 90's, but this is truly the first time that I feel that here, for brief hours, was a global community talking.


Jacqui from Jamaica

It was truly a spectacular event , I sat riveted in front of the television.


Danna from United States

Pangea Day was an incredibly inspiring event!! Best four hours spent in front of the television EVER!


Rhea from India

I am 23 years old and I just finished watching the Pangea Day broadcast. I couldn't go to bed without writing to you and telling you how beautiful, thought provoking it was.

If you missed it, the films

 are still up on the Pangea Day website.  They were compiled from submissions from a wide range of film-makers all over the world in response to the brief "if you had the world's attention for a moment, what story would you tell."  Many of them are just a few minutes long.  They're really worth watching.  Three of my favorites: Elevator Music, Stille Post and The Ball.

OR, better yet, gather some family members or friends, sit down and watch the one-hour highlights reel of the whole program... or even the 4-hour full program.  It certainly has its flaws, but if you're in the right frame of mind with the right people, it's truly inspiring stuff.

There are no immediate plans for a second Pangea Day -- the cost and logistics are formidable -- but never say never. A huge thank you to all who helped make this amazing TED Prize wish come true.


Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [2]

May 8, 2009

15 stories of environmental hope

TED Scribe Jane Wulf is an endless source of fantastic online resources.  Here are 15 fresh links she compiled of sustainability initiatives. Is there a zeitgeist shift afoot? 

Building a Solar Company in a Recession Economy
This is not a reset, where we simply reboot the economy with the same code. This is a rewrite of the code. Our social, emotional, and economic underpinnings are all going through a massive change as we come to grips with a world-wide economic recession AND the background ills that have been festering for over 20 years: healthcare, climate change, real security, peak oil, and unrepentant greed.

Sustainable San Mateo County is preparing the ground for changing society.  We can't simply arrive at a sustainable world...we have to co-create and live our way into it together. The Sustainability Hub is SSMC's newest community resource for promoting a healthy economy, environment, and society in San Mateo County. This first-of-its-kind webtool provides the community with an easy way to share and gather trusted solutions and local resources, as well as the first and only Bay Area Green Jobs Board.

Compostable packaging
Frito Lay, the maker of Sun Chips, (one of the Sun Chip manufacturing plants is solar powered) has taken sustainability another step further.  They have created packaging made from plant based materials, that under the right conditions, could decompose completely in fourteen days.  It is expected that by April 2010 all North American Sun Chip bags will be compostable. 

Win $20,000 to Put Your Green Idea Into Action
SunChips and National Geographic have joined forces to create the Green Effect, an initiative to inspire individuals to spark a green movement in their communities.

Smart Charger Controller
Electric vehicle owners can plug in their cars and forget about them, knowing they'll get the cheapest electricity available and won't crash the grid.

Aging Seattle buildings now environmentally sound 

China To Focus on Renewable Energy 
China is battling air pollution and high costs for imported energy with an aggressive focus on renewable energy. The Chinese government says it will have 100 gigawatts of wind-power capacity by 2020 — enough to power more than 60 million homes. That figure is more than three times the target the government laid out just 18 months ago. 

DOE To Invest US $93M in Recovery Act Funds in Wind Power 
DOE announced last week that it plans to provide US $93 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support the further development of wind energy in the United States. The funding will support projects that draw on the innovations of DOE's national laboratories, universities, and the private sector to help improve reliability and overcome key technical challenges for the wind industry. These projects will create green jobs, promote economic recovery, and provide the investments needed to increase renewable energy generation. 

Bioelectricity Promises More "Miles Per Acre" than Ethanol 
Researchers writing in the online edition of the May 7 Science magazine say the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity, rather than ethanol.

All There is To Know About the Smart Grid and Renewables
In this article, we highlight a four-part audio podcast series about what smart grid theories, technologies and applications mean for renewable energy. 

Naknek Electric Utility Heats Up Geothermal Plans 

US Government Furthers Its Commitment To Invest in Renewable Energy R&D 

Marine Energy: How Much Development Potential Is There? 

"Starting a Career in Clean Tech" 

Take your food to go without guilt - Eco Clamshell

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [4]

May 8, 2009

End-of-week TWISI quotes

Read, ponder, enjoy, then it's a simple cut and paste to retweet the one, two or three you like best.  Spread wisdom on Twitter!   (background 
here and here)


RT@NicolasWarren Go out on a limb; That's where the fruit is. #TWISI

RT@bojang There can't be only generals, there must be soldiers.  #TWISI

RT@EvaEarth You are required only to be happy and to be fair (Borges)  #TWISI

RT@remy_g No street revolution is going to succeed. Redefinition is now!  #TWISI

RT@keithmacd Life in an urban environment: what conveniences one inevitably INconveniences one hundred.  #TWISI

RT@sage_in_spain Accept your own flaws, love them, they are what make you unique  #TWISI

RT@sashadichter  We need more examples of what's really possible.  #TWISI

RT@RobLewicki You miss 100% of the shots you never take. #TWISI

RT@kejames  "...once in awhile, & climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." John Muir http://tr.im/kP0b #TWISI

RT@kevinhorgan An undefined question has an infinite number of answers  #TWISI

RT@piffie I do what others don't today. Therefore I can do what others can't tomorrow.  #TWISI

RT@helena_chari Fear regret, not failure #TWISI

RT@shlbn8r Only when we let go of the rules that govern us inside and observe w/ an open heart will we truly be free #TWISI

RT@sriks7 People with open minds & closed mouths are as much of a risk to society as those with closed minds & open mouths. #TWISI

RT@GreenMyLifeUp Enough is enough. There is no replacement planet. It's time to Green MyLifeUP. #TWISI  

RT@kevinhorgan The purpose of Wall Street is to enable smart people to implement "legal" ways to take money from people who are not as smart #TWISI

RT@milagro88 Give your tongue more holidays than your head. #TWISI

RT@fraymer For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - whenever we have joy, an opportunity for sadness will come. Chose the joy  #TWISI

RT@ashdonaldson @TEDchris The difference between a believer and a skeptic is the incorrigible versus the corrigible. #TWISI

RT@hdkzii Maybe this is what Twitter is all about? #TWISI 

RT@dkeeghan Children need to be taught how to research online, not how to rote learn useless information #TWISI

RT@leondoyle Perception is nine tenths of reality.  #TWISI

RT@RedMaven Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy & strong. The amount of work is the same. F. Reigler #TWISI

RT@rapunzels_tears Embrace a multiplicity of -isms so that you are a slave to none #TWISI

RT@GKS83002 That which kills me makes me weaker #TWISI

RT@perwinroth Let all communicate (step2project.com)  #TWISI

RT@redstarvip: Say It Simply; Say It Often  #TWISI

RT@kenwoo Hey buddy, can you spare $1 for a Venti coffee? #twisi  #TWISI

RT@forimpact Impact drives Income (all sectors)  #TWISI

RT@SharBowers Too many can beat you down.  #TWISI

RT@redstarvip Obstacles Develop Strength  #TWISI

RT@redstarvip Discard Nothing Useful  #TWISI

RT@Benin Life's challenges are the best teachers  #TWISI

RT@skinnyjeans At any given time, we can choose to spread more enthusiasm or more fear. What will you spread today? #TWISI

RT@bjsebeck It's not the path we walk, but the people whose lives we affect along the way that defines us  #TWISI

RT@Benin when we celebrate our neighbors good deeds, we also elevate ourselves along the way. One persons greatness doesn't diminish yours  #TWISI

RT@ @redstarvip Education Begins at Home  #TWISI

RT@HoustonDIVA RT @redstarvip: Education Begins at Home. This is so true - parenting lasts a minimum of 18 years and beyond.  #TWISI

RT@Benin life is to the individual as the canvass is to the artist, we all paint our realities  #TWISI

RT@podzhog Ideas are tested by experiment. That is the core of science. Everything else is bookkeeping.  #TWISI

RT@JasonHartmanROI Never leave ur financial future to unethical/greedy brokerage houses, fund mgrs or corporations.Be a direct investor!  #TWISI

RT@bjsebeck Education is a silver bullet. It is the solution to every problem known to man. #TWISI

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [2]

May 8, 2009

Martin Amm's macro photography...

...is incredible.  


(image copyright Martin Amm)

More here.  

Posted by Chris Anderson 

Comments [10]