TED (Technology - Entertainment - Design) - A.I. - Talk of the Town & Trailblazer INK

TED (Technology – Entertainment – Design) – A.I.  - Talk of the Town  & Trailblazer INK 

TED is a global set of conferences run by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading". 

TED was founded in 1984 by Architect and Graphic Designer, Richard Saul Wurman in United States as a one-off event; the annual conference series began in 1990.  The TED has its headquarters in New York, United States of America. TED's early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has since broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural and academic topics.

TED has a combined viewing figure of 500 million and the TED talks have been watched over one billion times worldwide.

TED covers almost all topics in more than 100 languages.

TED’s agenda is to make great ideas accessible and spark conversation.

The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, Canada, and its companion TEDActive is held in Whistler, British Columbia Prior to 2014, the two conferences were held in Long Beach and Palm Springs, California, respectively. TED events are also held throughout North America and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Richard Stallman, Bill Gates, Bono, Mike Rowe, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners.




                                             
 Bill Clinton at TED Talk                                                      Bill Gates participated in TED Talk

TED is currently funded by a combination of various revenue streams, including conference attendance fees, corporate sponsorships, foundation support, licensing fees, and book sales. Corporate sponsorships are diverse, provided by companies such as Google, GE, AOL, Goldman Sachs, The Coca-Cola Company; among others. Sponsors do not participate in the creative direction of the event, nor are they allowed to present on the main stage, in the interests of journalistic independence.

The TEDIndia Fellows joined the TED community in Mysore, India for TED's first conference in Asia in 2009. This diverse group of artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, musicians, activists, doctors, researchers, filmmakers and teachers provides a snapshot of the creativity and innovation emerging from South Asia.

History – INK TALKS :

 

With a shared passion in both Indian and American culture, Anu Sethuram and Lakshmi Pratury set out to create a bridge of intellectual exchange between India and the US in the form of a media firm, Ixoraa Media, in 2005.

From the pair’s first project, Lakshmi’s Lounge, the personal journeys of global doers were showcased through interviews, combined with equal parts audience engagement and personal insight. The firm’s next project was the first of many conferences emphasizing culture and personal experience. In 2007 and 2008, the Aamra Grove Conference brought together 50 of the world’s most influential Indian leaders through conversation that explored the Indo-US corridor and re-imagined India’s international presence.

In 2009, Lakshmi, a longtime TEDster, co-hosted TEDIndia, a one-time conference that expanded TED’s reach into Asia. Nearly 1,000 attendees from 46 nations traveled to Mysore, India, to hear from a diverse group of accomplished speakers. This conference brought together accomplished artists, architects, technologists, business people, musicians, dancers, scientists and social entrepreneurs as well as one hundred young TEDIndia Fellows. Riding the momentous energy and demand generated from TEDIndia, the inaugural INK Conference was held in December 2010 in Lavasa Hill City, India, with the theme of Untold Stories. INK is independent of TED, but values a continued warm relationship with the New York based TED organization.

TED's current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson.

TED Curator Chris Anderson

The unique stories that inspire and create today’s leading thinkers take centre stage at INK. Just as ink serves as an essential medium to express thoughts, INK strives to be an essential medium through which individuals voice ideas and exchange them with the world. 

The INK Fellows Program is a young, global and cross-disciplinary community of path-breakers who they believe will be the shapers of tomorrow. Every year, INK identifies the minds that are redefining their field of work, and the world around them. The Program aims to provide them the support necessary to leverage their impact.

The Fellows Program is about making lasting contributions to the trajectories of young trailblazers, and helping them take their visions to the next level — the real value of the Program truly extends beyond the conference. Secretly, to think of it as the coolest couch-surfing community in the world. It has been wonderful to watch them grow into a family, invested not only in their own individual visions, but in the visions of their peers.

The  Goals of INK :

• To create a community of like-minded peers on unconventional ‘career’ paths, from any field. The experience of being a change-maker is often isolating, as it can lack the financial security, clarity of direction and social network that come with traditional jobs. Being an INK Fellow provides the peer-support necessary to take brilliant work to the next level.
• To leverage their impact, through mentorship, support, networks and specially designed opportunities.
• To provide them a platform for discovery and exposure like no other, so that our change-makers gain access to potential customers, funding opportunities, accolades and other forms of support critical to their development and success.

 

INK  Mission :

INK is committed to spreading disruptive ideas and inspiring stories -- from the most unexpected sources. 

Their cornerstone event is the annual INK Conference, which follows on from the one-off 2009 TEDIndia Conference (hyperlink) hosted by Lakshmi Pratury (Founder, INK) with Chris Anderson (Curator, TED Conference). Inspired by the TED format, INK is part of a movement to change how the young and young at heart view their world, goals and ambitions, particularly in emerging economies. To broaden their reach beyond the Conference, they host INK events at organizations, companies and colleges throughout the year. INK gives away all of the knowledge it collects at the INK Conference to the world at large — for free — through its website, INKtalks.com.

But INK is not just about inspiration -- it is a springboard to launch ideas into creative action. Acting as an accelerator for select ideas and people, derived from their events, the INK network works toward turning these ideas into reality. 

INK's vision is one of global conversation and action among cultures, economies, and great thinkers. 

All the billboards and sign posts lead towards the only venue of forthcoming INK Conference 2015 in Mumbai from October 16-18,2015, we can foresee a real disruption of traffic during that period.

TEDx Singapore :

                  

         

                 

TED Talk -  Artificial intelligence is getting smarter by leaps and bounds — within this century, research suggests, a computer AI could be as "smart" as a human being.

I would like to provide below a link to the talk  given by Nick Bostrom in March 2015 at TED2015 about Artificial Intelligence.

           

What happens when our computers get smarter than we are?

 

 

 

 

Artificial intelligence is getting smarter by leaps and bounds — within this century, research suggests, a computer AI could be as "smart" as a human being. And then, says Nick Bostrom, it will overtake us: "Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make." A philosopher and technologist, Bostrom asks us to think hard about the world we're building right now, driven by thinking machines. Will our smart machines help to preserve humanity and our values — or will they have values of their own ?

  

https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_bostrom_what_happens_when_our_computers_get_smarter_than_we_are?language=en

(Click on the Link and then view interactive transcript for  the full text of TED Talk given by Nick Bostrom.  For Audio Visual effect of the talk, please click on the image for the video.)

Ads Worth Spreading  :

Ads Worth Spreading is TED’s initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising -- to highlight the ads that people want to see and share with their friends. An ad worth spreading is a short way of communicating an idea. What makes these ideas powerful is that they have a life of their own; an idea can reset someone’s worldview and even begin a domino effect as they pass it on to friends.

Ads honored through Ads Worth Spreading can be as long as it takes to communicate the idea powerfully, up to five minutes, whether that’s through state-of-the-art animation, lush imagery or an individual talking directly to the camera. What matters is the “a-ha” moment -- the central idea. The thing that makes consumers connect to the idea in the same way that TED speakers connect with their audience.

This is a dialogue on ideas that brands should want to be a part of. It’s a collection of fascinating thought -- the final selections should inspire new ideas. TED wants to lend support to those who are reinventing marketing, sharing their  platform with the experts moving this revolution forward.

TEDx Program

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

The TEDx Program is designed to help communities, organizations and individuals to spark conversation and connection through local TED-like experiences.

At TEDx events, a screening of TED Talks videos — or a combination of live presenters and TED Talks videos — sparks deep conversation and connections at the local level. TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently, under a free license granted by TED.

TEDx  encourage concepts like "innovation labs" — areas outside of the main stage that show cool new ideas and products.

TEDx Youth Day  :

 

 

 

 

 

TEDxYouthDay is a series of events all around the world that coincide with TEDYouth.  These events are designed to empower and inspire young people.

Let me pep up this Blog with a candid confession from fashion model Cameron Russel which was rated as one of the top-most 10 TED talks.  Given below are excerpts from her honest TEDTalk.

 

Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model  -  Cameron Russell.

TEDxMidAtlantic  -  Oct 2012

Cameron Russell admits she won “a genetic lottery”: she's tall, pretty and a fashion lingerie model. But don't judge her by her looks. In this fearless talk, she takes a wry look at the industry that had her looking highly seductive at barely 16 years old.

“ So today, for me, being fearless means being honest. And I am on this stage because I am a model. I am on this stage because I am a pretty, white woman, and in my industry, we call that a sexy girl. I'm going to answer the questions that people always ask me, but with a honest twist.
 

The real way that I became a model is I won a genetic lottery, and I am the recipient of a legacy, and may be you're wondering what is a legacy. Well, for the past few centuries we have defined beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that we're biologically programmed to admire, but also as tall, slender figures, and femininity and white skin. And this is a legacy that was built for me, and it's a legacy that I've been cashing out on.

You can be anything. You could be the President of the United States, or the inventor of the next Internet, or a ninja cardiothoracic surgeon poet, which would be awesome, because you'd be the first one."

So, the last question people ask me is, "What is it like to be a model?" And I think the answer that they're looking for is, "If you are a little bit skinnier and you have shinier hair, you will be so happy and fabulous." And when we're backstage, we give an answer that maybe makes it seem like that. We say, It's really amazing to travel, and it's amazing to get to work with creative, inspired, passionate people.

-          But mostly it was difficult to unpack a legacy of gender and racial oppression when I am one of the biggest beneficiaries.”

Comment by Jeonghyun Kim about this TEDTalk by Cameron Russel :

I really enjoyed Cameron's talk. I like the way she sees herself and her beauty. She is smart and confident enough to discuss the issue of beauty on the stage, without making people uncomfortable. Thank you for your talk.

Let me introduce to you few prominent Indians who won TED prize and contributed in TED related talks in a bigger way.

Dr Sugata Mitra wins TED Prize in 2013   -


NRI education pioneer, Dr Sugata Mitra has won US $ 1 million TED Prize in 2013.  He is the only Indian so far to win a TED prize.

Previous winners of the annual TED prize include the singer Bono, former President Bill Clinton, naturalist EO Wilson, tech-savant Larry Brilliant, and the writer-historian Karen Armstrong. 

Feb 27, 2013

Onstage at TED2013, Dr Sugata Mitra makes his bold TED Prize wish: Help me design the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other — using resources and mentoring from the cloud. Hear his inspiring vision for Self Organized Learning Environments.

My journey to re-inventing education :

Sharing fascinating incidents from his life, education researcher Dr Sugata Mitra connects the dots to what led him to his now famous experiments in education and self organized learning environments.

LONG BEACH, California: Sometimes, a hole-in-the-wall is all you need to get a deep insight into education and -- attain worldwide recognition.

When Prof. Sugata Mitra installed a computer in a slum in Kalkaji, Delhi, in 1999 in what came to be known as a "hole-in-the-wall" experiment, it led to a fundamental reappraisal on his part of the formal education system. Surreptitious monitoring of what followed showed the power of what he would later call ''Minimally Invasive Education.''

Left to themselves, kids anywhere, from any background, even without knowing English, seamlessly learn to use computers and the internet. Particularly if they are working in groups, they can figure out complex subjects such as DNA sequencing, trigonometry, and avionics, as Dr Mitra found in similar experiments he has conducted across the world.

For his revolutionary work in this area, TED, the multidisciplinary conference of brainiacs, on Tuesday awarded him its US $ 1 million prize at its annual mindfest here in Long Beach, California. Cheered with gusto by the cream of world intelligentsia and geek power, Dr Sugata Mitra later told Indian daily newspaper, “The Times of India”  that the prize money would go to further research in non-formal, minimally invasive education "that should rid us of a system that is fast becoming obsolete."

Previous winners of the annual TED prize of US $ 100,000 before it was bumped up to US $ 1 million this year include the singer Bono, former President Bill Clinton, the naturalist E.O.Wilson, tech-savant Larry Brilliant, and the writer-historian Karen Armstrong.

In experiments from Karaikal in Pondicherry to Villa Mercedes in Argentina, Dr Sugata Mitra has found that left to their own devices (literally), children easily forgo what he mocks as TCPIP education, the abbreviation denoting an Internet Protocol that merely carries data without comprehension. Such learning by rote, he says, is a legacy of both Victorian and Brahmanical values, furthered by the East India Company to produce an army of clerks and accountants for the Empire. Independent India has not challenged that model; instead, it has nourished it.

In the Pondicherry experiment, Dr Mitra left a computer with some DNA Replication software amid slum children who did not know any English. Yet they managed to figure out within days that improper replication of DNA causes disease. Similarly, kids in a remote South American village grappled with theology and geometry in understanding why human beings are born with five fingers on a limb. The best results were when children worked in groups and there was minimal adult supervision, although informal mentoring helps.

''The results broke every learning hypothesis in my mind," said Dr Mitra, adding that such alternatives could have happened only at this time with the arrival of computers, internet, and broadband. "There is no need to carry data in our head as if it is a pen drive, because information is available at our fingertips. Instead, children should be challenged to understand and express ideas and concepts."

Dr Sugata Mitra has since expanded on his findings and created a "granny cloud" -- online moderators of retired teachers -- who could Skype into learning centers and encourage children with questions and assignments. He now wants to build a "School in the Cloud," a learning lab in India, "where children can embark on intellectual adventures by engaging and connecting with information and mentoring online." He is particularly keen on schools and teachers NOT depriving children of smart phones, laptops, and other connected devices in the classroom.

"Such schooling is outdated," he said. "Will you take away a gun from a soldier when you send him to battle?"

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Parmesh Shahani

Dot Connector - Author - Fashion Victim

Parmesh Shahani is a  TED fellow and a trailblazer of INK talks.

Parmesh is the founder of the Godrej India Culture Lab, a space that aims to interrogate the textured nature of Indian modernity by cross-pollinating the best minds working on India from across the academic, creative and corporate worlds.

In the past, he founded Freshlimesoda, India's first online youth expression community, and worked across the Indian media and corporate landscapes, as a writer, editor, and venture capitalist, at organizations like Elle, the Times of India group, Sony Entertainment Television and Mahindra and Mahindra. He is the editor of “VERVE”, a fashion style magazine.

Parmesh stylized  the theme of  Sydney, Australia’s one-day art festival in a dilapilated ware-house to be demolished the very next day at Godrej, Vikhroli, Mumbai to the great reception of a populace of art lovers across Mumbai. The visual art work spaces created at about to be demolished warehouse was a novel idea for Indian art lovers and artists alike. The show had many skit, classical music, pop music, paintings a la  Grafitti, photography and design talent of in-house and the artists from in and around Mumbai.  Also show-cased the Godrej company products in the exhibition.  The show attracted many enthusiasts including some of the cultural icons and turned out to be a thumping success.

Parmesh is a TED Fellow, a MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, and Utrecht University's Impakt Fellow for 2012. His first book - Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (New Delhi, London, Los Angeles, Singapore: Sage Publications) was released in 2008. Parmesh has undergraduate degrees in Commerce and Education from the University of Mumbai and a Master's degree in Comparative Media Studies from MIT.

Parmesh Shahani is the promoter of  LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER  (LGBT)  community.  He has published his book about Gay community in 2008.  He had a candid confession and calls himself a voyeur.

Parmesh often sports his trade mark bow tie and has the ability to mesmerize his audience with his compelling talks with which he rivet the audience to the edge of their seat.  Parmesh has a great sense of humor and always has a fixed smile on his face.

The writer was lucky to witness his talk shows which he anchored and interviewed many writers, artists, musicians and creative people from different walk of life.  He questions with wit and humor and create ripples amongst the audience.

   

Kenneth Sebastian

Stand-up comedian, Musician

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Crowd-sourcing lyrics at INK2014

India’s rising stand-up comedy star Kenneth Sebastian lightens up the day at INK2014 with an improvised song with lyrics contributed by the audience.

Kenneth Sebastian is a Bangalore based stand-up comedian, actor, writer, filmmaker and musician. After graduating with an Arts degree in Painting, Kenneth decided that Stand-up (which he got into by accident) was going to control his life and consume his very energetic and hyperactive soul.

He has performed more than 300 + shows since he started at the age of 19.

A regular in the Bombay Comedy Scene, he regularly does shows with the Canvas Laugh Factory.

In 2012, Kenneth edited a major motion picture ‘STATION’ and also became a part of the improvisational group known as ‘The Improv’ produced by CENTERSTAGE. Most recently, he was signed on by Agentc, a talent management company run by Thomas Course who also runs The Canvas Laugh Factory in Bombay. Having done many corporate shows as well for clients such as Google, Adobe, Wipro, Flipkart, Deloitte, Calvin Klien, etc… Kenneth has a wide range of experience in his career as a comedian, Improv Actor, Film Director and Musician.

Kenneth also runs a Film Studio “Kennymedia” based in Bangalore, where has produced over 200+ corporate videos ranging from Animation, Advertisements and Graphic Prints.

When he is not doing comedy or working on videos, Kenneth loves composing and recording music and in 2012 produced his own acoustic blues album “Balance”.

The world is definitely a better place to live in with the “Ideas Worth Spreading”.  Imparting knowledge, sharing and brainstorming the possibilities of advanced learning and scientific innovations challenges a probing mind to come out with startling revelations.  The Technology, Entertainment and Design was never more interesting without TEDTalks.

Hope this Blog helps to communicate the message of “Ideas Worth Spreading” in a macro-level.