TED speaks out

Inspired by Chris Anderson’s TED Guide…

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Monica: I highly recommend it.

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Joseph: But it’s an academic conference. A TED talk is short. It seeks to persuade. An academic presentation deals with theory and data, it cites other studies, goes into pros and cons.

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Monica: Chris says it’s a challenge to reduce complex ideas to something everyone will understand.

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Joseph: Admittedly, that’s a skill many academics could practice.

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Voice-over

Chris Anderson's Ted Talks is a great reminder of public speaking tips. Plot the throughline, use metaphor, tell stories. Link sections with connectors and design powerful slides. Rewrite, rethink, rehearse. In the performance, connect with the audience, be yourself, start and finish strong.

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A TED-type talk: a performed presentation

After the plenary…

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Anika: Marvellous. He didn’t read a single word. Just talked.

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Markus: And the PPT slides. What images. Dozens of them.

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Anika: So there you have it. He’d memorized his talk. A performance against the backdrop of a cascade of brilliant visuals.

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Markus: Like theater. Or a movie.

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Anika: Why can’t academics all present like that.

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Source: The Best Schools

Markus: It’s called “reading a paper”. Seems they don’t know how to talk, or even read.

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Anika: I wonder how much coaching presenters receive before doing a TED talk?

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Voice-over

Academic conference presentations. Head down over a script, gabbling or mumbling. A very few can passably read as if they were a radio broadcaster. Even fewer can actually perform their script. Tribute to the Henry Jenkins plenary at NECS on 180627.

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Can the Invisible Web find the Invisible Expanding Collective?

Discussion on the invisibility of people and data.

Frank: I was watching a TV program about a photographer who took some photos of a group in London. And I thought, “They look interesting.  I’ll google them.” Didn’t find them.
Jill: So famous as to be on BBC but Google couldn’t find them? Who was the group?
Frank: The Invisible Expanding Collective.  A group of squatters. Or “site sitters” as they called themselves.
Jill: Ha! Of course you couldn’t find them. They’re invisible.
Frank: Well, not so invisible. There was one article in the Guardian from ten years ago. But nothing else.
Jill: There’d be something else about them. On the invisible web. The iceberg-like 90% of the internet that google can’t find.
Frank: Maybe. Like the underworld. People used to believe in ghosts. Then it was the invisible man: Wells, H.G. A mention of invisible literature: Ballard J.G. Now it’s the invisible web. Bergman, M.K.

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Voice-over
Invisible, you can do a lot of stunts, entertaining and evil.

Entertaining, as China’s Invisible man shows.

Or evil, as  Invisible Darien beats up a mime.

Quizzical, as in a movie quiz with the faces taken out.

There are many reasons why things are invisible on the internet.
One of the more interesting explanations is that of Eli Paiser  who claims search engine algorithms invisibly filter what they think we want to see. What Google serves you may not be the same as what Google dishes up for me. He talks about “invisible internet information bubbles” on TED.
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