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TED Ideas Worth Funding
For many years now, we are learning ideas worth spreading on TED.
I then asked myself:
- What's happening to TED ideas after broadcasting?
- How could we ensure that great ideas come to life?
- How could we help an idea to come to life?
Which lead me to:
- How could we bring TED to its next evolutionary stage?
My ideas:
- Let's embed a crowd funding model into TED. Let's ensure that great ideas have the financial support required to come to life and to impact our society.
(if you need to learn about it, here is a link to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_funding )
- Let's even consider embedding crowd sourcing into TED. So, we could all work collaboratively at making the world a better place.
(wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing)
That's one thing to have an idea; that's another to make it happen. Let's make it easier for everyone and for us.














Michel Desjardins 10+
I have my own ideas (private business ideas) and I am working hard to make it come to life. It's not an easy task. It requires the assembling of a skilled international team. It requires time, personal and financial investment. I have a full understanding of the full life cycle of an ideas (or business) from its generation, implementation to retirement.
To have TED ideas and to share it is one thing (and an excellent one). But it's another thing to make ideas happen. The essence of my idea is "how could we help ideas coming into life?"
Potential help such as:
- design
- execution
- manufacturing
- funding
- business management
- risk management
- project management
- marketing
- legal
- programming
- etc.
Don't just focus on the funding part (most people dislike the concept, but they like the money when it flows in). If an idea would be supported by crowd sourcing the need for funding could be minimal if not nil. But without crowd sourcing, the need for funding is significantly higher as a project would need to hire specialists and consultants to do the work.
How can we help TED ideas?
James Clifton
John Gallagher
Finally, four years ago, an earnest effort began and now the means by which to accomplish the task of brushing one’s teeth unaided and without a brush, paste, or water has been prototyped and patented. It is Clean Bite™ and hopefully, it will bring oral hygiene to not only those first intended, but as well, at risk children, the poor, and populations most in need globally.
Healthful Innovation: the toothbrush made of food … that you ingest!
• Shaped like a double mouthpiece, the Clean Bite™ contains almost 800 bristles and is a single use toothbrush
• Provides 60-90 seconds of utility, and thereafter dissolves and can be ingested or disposed
• Dentifrice is contained in four separate reservoirs located on the horizontal plane between the bites and upon first compression small ports rupture providing equal distribution
• Bristles are set at 45° to the gum line to better brush the teeth and gums
• Bristles brush the teeth, gingival margin, and tongue
• Frontal port enables breathing in the event that the user is congested
• Comprised of Gelatin and other GRAS materials
• The Clean Bite™ when consumed maybe employed as a delivery system for vitamins, nutrients, medications, and possibly microencapsulated vaccines in developing countries
• Water soluble and biodegradable
• Comes in different flavors and sizes for both adults and children
• 24 times the surface contact area in comparison to the traditional brushes
• Contains Xylitol
• Both design and material formulation are U.S. Patented
• Primary US market is “at risk children” receiving free or reduced cost meals at school and are 3x’s more likely to have untreated caries than their peers, (31M “ARC” out of a US K-12 student population of 52.5M)
• disaster relief, travelers, etc.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
I know when a speaker has caught my interest, I have followed up often by reading his further work or by exploring her organization's website.
So I think it's really easy for anyone here to make contributions to what the speakers are doing by following the links to their websites. Not all speakers are people of action, some being scholars who leave it for others to use their ideas, but many are active through organizations they found or work in that any of us could assist if we choose.
I agree with Edward that the nature of the TED site would change for the worse if it became a venue for marketing and fundraising, as so many venues are.
Michel Desjardins 10+
I agree with your angle especially regarding the speakers.
But what about this "Ideas" channel where my question is located?
A what, in my department, we created an "idea register". We collate them and a department committee assess the benefits and viability of each idea. By exception we submit it to voting by our colleagues. Great ideas will have an action owner (usually a Manager or up) and staff will be allocated based on priority of the new project, our currently portfolio and availability of staff and resources.
We have ideas, and we make our ideas come to life. We don't sit and just watch it pass and fade away.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
There are other online venues, like Kickstarter or Kiva, that are focused on the display of proposals for crowd-sourced funding. Not every venue needs to become that.
Michel Desjardins 10+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
edward long 100+
george lockwood 20+