Marketing with Technology and More

Another hot technology had TEDsters Jaws Dropping

Well, maybe it is a bad title, but it is very cool technology.A company called Aliph is demonstrating a hot new headset called Jawbone, that is sure to be the fashion accessory of the well dressed technoratti.  Pictured here on company CEO Hosain Rahman, this is no ordinary bluetooth headset.  It has a special microphone system that uses noise cancellation (I always wondered if Bose could do it for headphones why someone could not do it for headsets), and amplification of sound conducted through your actual jawbone to create a cellular call that can be heard and cancels out background noise.  The design is by Yves Behar, and the packaging would  make Steve Jobs proud.  I tested a unit, and it worked great, I will give you a full report after I have tried the real thing on my Blackberry.  From what I have heard from those who have one, I'll love it.

If you want one, consider placing an order.  According to what I heard at the booth, there is already a waiting list for the next ones to come out of production.

TED07 Prize Awards - Where Everyone's a Winner

I’m going to work backwards on yesterday here at TED Conference.  Last evening was the TED Prize award ceremony, and it was truly an amazing event.  Three awards were given to exceptional individuals for significant lifetime achievements.  The TED awards are remarkable in that the winner is granted TED-community support to assist them in achieving a wish.  This year’s recipients were acclaimed news photographer James Nachtwey, world-renowned biologist Edward Osborne “E.O.” Wilson, and former President Bill Clinton. 

  Each of the three recipients delivered moving speeches about their work and how it related to their goal.  James Nachtwey, whose prize was presented by Oscar-winning actress Goldie Hawn, is well known for his extremely moving photographs taken in war-torn locales.  His wish is as follows, “I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about.  I wish for you to help me break into the way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age … I am a witness and I want my testimony to be honest and uncensored. I also want it to be powerful and eloquent and do justice to the people I'm photographing.”  Naturally, he could not provide too much detail about the event, but more information is to be revealed at a breakfast this morning.

E.O. Wilson is a well-known biologist and was presented his award by Whole Earth Catalog Founder and long time TEDster, Stewart Brand.  Wilson’s wish was one that TEDsters should easily be able to get their arms around which was, “I wish that we will work together to help create a key tool that we need to inspire preservation of the earth’s biodiversity: the encyclopedia of life … I've come on a special mission on behalf of my constituency, the millions of trillions of insects and other small creatures, to make a plea for them. Please keep in mind that if we would wipe out insects from the planet - which we are trying hard to do - the rest of life would disappear within a few months.”  In essence, the Wikipedia of biology, or perhaps more appropriately, the Biowiki. 

President Clinton, for obvious security reasons, has not been a full participant at the conference this week.  Clinton entered the session right before his award was presented, accompanied by a full phalanx of secret service agents.  He delivered a strong speech about some of the work the Clinton Foundation is doing, especially in regards to health care in Rwanda.  Clinton thanked the TED community saying, “Help me in creating a better future for Rwanda by assisting my foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan government, to build a sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country, that can then be a model for other countries. We have a chance here to prove that a country that almost slaughtered itself out of existence (while none of us, most of all me, did anything to help) can practice reconciliation, reorganize itself, focus on tomorrow and provide comprehensive healthcare to its citizens.”

All three of these wishes will be discussed over the next day, and many TEDsters will offer support in a variety of ways. 

The power of the wishes was illustrated as many of the prior year’s recipients’ wishes were reviewed, and many were making remarkable progress.

With the three prizes presented, it was now time for the audience to receive its' prize.

After a champagne toast, musical legend Paul Simon (more pictures of Simon and the other winners are in the Photo Section of this Blog) took to the stage and wowed the audience for the next forty minutes.  Simon started the memorable set with Graceland and sang well-loved favorites including Mrs. Robinson, The Boxer, and Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard.   He received multiple standing ovations and performed an exquisite solo guitar encore of Wartime Prayers from his latest album, Surprise, beautifully capping the evening.

Many more pictures from the event can be found in the TED07 Photo Album.

New Desktop

Another interface innovator was a big hit at the TED Conference.   Anand Agarawala, demonstrated an entirely new desktop that actually performs like a real desktop called Bumptop.  It is impossible to describe how this interface actually worked, but thanks to YouTube, you can view a video of it in action.  This is what I love about TED.  It would take a long time for a technology like this to make it out of the lab, yet today 1000 innovators had an opportunity to preview it.

Fantastic Video Describing Web 2.0

TED started this morning with a brief video called The Machine Is Us that in 2 or 3 minutes does more to explain Web 2.0 than any speech I have heard yet.  It is required viewing for anyone who wants to understand what the 2.0 revolution is all about.

Today's Sessions at TED07

Today's sessions had many highs and just a few lows.

Here are a few highlights:

The first part of the program was titled Stop, Look, Now Look Again, and no title could have been more appropriate. The first session kicked off with an incredible presentation by Carolyn Porco, one of the leading scientists on the Cassini spacecraft programs investigating Saturn. She shared amazing photos of the planet (one of which included the view of the earth through the rings) Saturn that was truly beautiful. 

A brief technical glitch stopped her in mid-program, and Apple could not have paid for a better commercial in front of this group when her computer "froze," and had to be rebooted.  At the reboot, the giant WINDOWS screen popped up, and the audience roared with laughter.  Only to be topped a few minutes later with the response from one audience member when Porco asked TED technicians "Whose controlling these things (referring to her slides), one joker in the audience yelled out Bill Gates.

Philippe Starck, was entertaining, but I found his presentation a bit difficult to follow.  I think I understood the points he was trying to make. He saved himself with a great sense of humor.

Steven Pinker presented an interesting look at the history of violence.  The basic premise of which is that man is much less violent today than in the past.  What was great was the statistics he used to back up his presentation.

Two highlights of the day were repeat performers.  Hans Rosling and Jeff Han.  Both of these presenters wowed the audience at TED2006 with their presentations, Rosling with his fantastic graphic presentation on world health and Han with his new multi-touch computer.  This year they took what they shared last year to the next level.  Rosling shared new data, but also showed new the latest version of his software.  Then he swallowed a sword.  It was one of the more unusual TED events, but his point was that we can do what we think is impossible.

Han, showed a giant version of his computer interface that is actually on display in the Simulcast Lounge.  No presenter has ever appeared to have more fun with what they do.  I had an opportunity to spend time with him last evening at the cocktail event, and he has now started his own company to grow the idea.  Last year he was in the academic world.

Not being a scientist, and having barely made it through basic science in high-school, I don't feel qualified to comment on the multiple speakers from the scientific world, but Nobel Prize Winner Murray Gell-Mann (the man who discovered Quarks) gave a wonderfully warm and humorous presentation. 

I can honestly say however that I did not understand a thing that DNA scientist Jonathan Widom talked about.  I know that it was important, but his presentation would have been better if delivered to a room of DNA scientists.  After a fairly technical introduction, he said that he would devote the balance of his talk going into the technical detail.  The audience chuckled (thinking he was joking), and then he really did go into technical detail.

The day wrapped up with a wonderful musical event featuring Raul Midon.  He is a singer and guitar player with a combination Jazz and Argentinian flavor.  He was fabulous.