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How can we make the world even smaller, more accessible? *A TEDActive Mobility Project Question*
http://on.ted.com/projects
The TEDActive Mobility Project will explore ways to reduce the cost, time and necessity of driving. We'll look at the barriers to mobilizing local communities, and examine new tools that can make our world more accessible.
At TEDActive2011 in Palm Springs, an amazing group of individuals came together as a group to come up with a simple micro-action solution for making our world a much smaller place. After a quick 36 hour period of time, they recommended that we make an effort to be a bigger person and "SOCIAL UP." They're sharing their Social Up experiences in the TEDActive mobility project page (click on link above), and invite you to share your ideas in the TED Conversations space. Please tag TEDActiveMOB in the "topics" section below for us all to join you!
What would be your micro-solution to making the world more accessible?
julian ramiro fittipaldi
James Hayward
I recall first when transistors were discovered noone really understood why they worked but used them to create amazing things.
I think the phenomenon of cyberspace is a miracle. It is like feeding the 5000 with a few loaves and fishes. It is a social miracle. Cooperation and sharing is the secret to making it a better world and creating and educational miracle.
It is possible that it is happening right before our eyes.
Sebastiano Fedrigo
But I guess is that people like to be flexible with his car and his commute. So bus, trains and all the rest should be more flexible to accomodate this needs.
Technology should help. How many times on a bus ride you would like the bus to stop just 200 mtrs before the turn or teh actual stop? There must be a way to make the bus system more flexible. A bus that would ride where his passengers wants to go and comes around where you are. A bit like how ryan air fill its planes, or addison lee picks people up by sending a text "your car driver has arrived".. putting the two together should make it work. Don't know how, but I live that to the clever engineers of this world.
michele ziosi
Luis Cilimingras 50+
Our micro action, “how can we social up transportation?” is born from the insight that increasingly we move for social reasons (meet with family and friends, work, events) and less so for transactional reasons that are being covered by technology, that’s helping us to do from home many of the things we don’t like or can’t be bothered to do, like bureaucracy, going to the supermarket or renting a movie. If we make our transport more social, we bring the world closer to us not only when we arrive, but also when we are travelling.
A great initiative in this area is the Walk to School campaign http://www.walktoschool.org.uk/, run by the UK charity Living Streets, that walks 1.6 million children to school each year, avoids traffic jams and saves money and CO2. And I am sure it makes children feel they are bigger!
James McBennett 500+
The concept I would spread for this discussion is at the tower as a set of villages, no longer vertical spawl. A 3D planned city has every potential to make our cities smaller, local and much more enjoyable.
Happy brainSTORMING!
Gerry Mann
It seems to me that the goal is to help those that are without connection to get connected.
In my view extending accessibility into the remote, poor, disenfranchised areas of the world is more important than making it easier for us in the middle and on the top to interact faster, cheaper, better.
I think if we establish a scholarship/endowment to pay for selected teachers, artists, community leaders in the disenfranchised areas to attend TED events, provide computing technology to increase connectability, and provide a virtual support communiity to the scholarship recipients to sustain progress and growth, then we will be making the world a smaller, more accessible place.
Thank you for posing the question.
Kelly Stoetzel 500+
Gina Clifford 500+
So, companies can make the world smaller by hiring more global telecommuting employees. Companies should consider embrace the people of the entire world as possible employees. Remote workers can add tremendous value without additional overhead because they require no office space, no or reduced travel costs, and low or reduced travel time. Employees sourced from around the world offer diversity, are naturally tech and social media savvy, are more accessible, flexible, and probably happier employees, too.
With cloud computing, social media, Skype, and numerous other communication and collaborative work environments at the world's disposal, the only excuse for not embracing telecommuting is entrenchment in old ideas, resistance to change, lack of vision or imagination, or ignorance.
R D Bhatnagar
If one could just speak in the air and the technology could capture the spoken sentence by its voice imprint, do all the processing and forward it to the intended recipient, perhaps then the world will the smallest and instantly accessible.
Thomas Smtih
Karin Lindstrom
-Use OpenID to keep government and health records together as well
-Rework privacy laws and regulation so companies and agencies can share without consequence (with your permission of course) but have huge penalties for using any information to harm an individual or group the information is about. Sharing is about productivity and for the benefit of consumers not for profit.
-Google should start including foreign search results that are translated to the account holders language. I personally believe international commerce would increase exponentially. (Currently this is an option but it's still buggy, better translation of pages is needed as well.)
Not an expert on anything, just some thoughts.
Ian Auld
Instead of people purchasing and running cars, they could invest that money (or a part of it at least) in a transport cooperative with other people in their city. Once a critical mass is obtained this cooperative could run a service which maximises benefits for its members/owners. Members would then have a huge financial incentive to use their own transport service, and would have a say about how it operates. The transport service could extend beyond traditional forms (buses/ trains) to include cycle hire, car pooling and car-sharing arrangements- it could even go as far as chartered flights at peak demand times, like holidays. In this way there would never be a question of transport tickets being too high (as any profits are returned to the people using the service). It could be managed as a non-profit by a professional management team who's responsibility is to the cooperative, being at the same time the owners and the users of the service, and the members could easily add their input through the increased efficiency of web- based communication, and through democratic governance.
In my opinion, this would not only encourage people to use public transport but would also engage people with wider transport issues and help to reduce the overall environmental and social cost of a transport system based around personal cars.
I would love to hear any feedback or suggestions on this idea. Thanks!
Comment deleted
Ian Auld
I was thinking primarily of people who, like me, live in city-fringe suburbs in cities with relatively under-developed public transport networks, where price is prohibitive due to lack of a "critical mass" of use. In Auckland, New Zealand, where I currently live, public transport is not yet seen as a an economically superior option to driving as they still have to keep ticket prices relatively high due to low passenger numbers- the whole paradox of "critical mass". As a result, government spending is still concentrated on roading, and there is still a culture of individual car ownership. I guess the biggest difference between my scheme, and current public transport schemes is that the users of the service would have a more direct financial incentive to use their own asset. I also think their is room for creativity with it, such as including car sharing, car pooling and cycle hire, within a more holistic and integrated approach to transport. I would also support greater use of tolling and congestion charges (you can probably tell I'm a fan of user-pays and market mechanisms).
Meher Like Spring Rabbit 10+
Olivier Normandin
No more traffic jams made up of one person driving car...
My two cents worth today...
John Madsen
There are several things that must be done first. A free exchange of ideas and education should be a worldwide priority. Next, politics and religion should be done away with. More people have died for those two things than any other in history. Medical care should be readily available to everyone, no matter where you're from or if you have insurance or not. All national borders should be eliminated. Every household should be energy self-sufficient, whether it's from solar panels or wind turbines or any other source of non-poluting energy. Cars, trucks and busses should be converted from fossil fuels to hydrogen for long distance or electric power for local commuting.
When I said to do away with politics, I don't mean to do away with government. We'll still need laws for a while yet. When I said do away with religion, I don't mean you should stop your worship services. There are those that need the support of their god.
This is only the shadow of my vision of "Utopia". Maybe someday portions of this will become a reality and bring to fruition the topics of conversations that were held in basements and bedrooms four decades and more ago. John Lennon had it right in his song, "Imagine".
Gina Clifford 500+
Scott Bell
Max Feist
Lucas Avelleda 500+
Stoyu Boshnakov
Lee Flockton