TED Conversations

Michel Desjardins

Manager, Assurance & Advisory, Telstra

TEDCRED 10+

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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.

Related Talks:
Topics: Funding crowdfunding ideas ideas worth spreading
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Jan 18 2013: While TED and TEDx speakers are not permitted, I think fortunately, to use the stage to make pitches for funding for their projects, every talk you hear gives you links to the speaker's bio and organization.

    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.
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      Michel Desjardins 10+

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      Jan 19 2013: Thanks Fritzie for your comment. It's much appreciated.

      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.
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        Fritzie Reisner 100+

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        Host
        Jan 19 2013: I feel very much the same way about TED Conversations, that if it were a free marketing channel, that aspect would quickly come to dominate the setting. Those who are attracted to the site to learn and wrestle with ideas in community very likely would seek another forum where they could do that without being distracted by a barrage of pitches for funding.

        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.
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      Michel Desjardins 10+

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      Jan 19 2013: In addition, what is your point of view on the crowd sourcing of an idea, abstracting the funding part? More like an international collaborative project.
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        Fritzie Reisner 100+

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        Host
        Jan 19 2013: I love the idea of international collaborations, whether of a crowd-sourced kind or not. Open Ideo is an example of a forum that does this in an organized way. Clay Shirky in one of his TED talks about Ushahidi, another great example. He and others talk about Wikipedia along these lines, a crowd-sourced effort with tremendous public benefit. Mochai Benkler's TED talk about open source economics mentions SETI - maybe also Linux?- but also puts forward a theoretical framework for why this works so well and why people are willing to contribute for free. The Northwest Folklife festival, the largest free folk festival in the US, uses thousands of volunteers, both on stages and in operations to make it happen and almost no paid staff.

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