TED Conversations

Will True

Product Development, TED Conferences

TEDCRED 200+
TED StaffHostAssociateTED Attendee

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Do you have a suggestion for TED? Something we could do better?

Have an idea for the website? Maybe a suggestion to improve TED Conversations?

We would like to use this space to hear and discuss your ideas for TED and TED.com.

Please note: If you wish to suggest a speaker please use the following link: http://www.ted.com/nominate/speaker

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  • J C

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    Jun 18 2011: I'd like to be able to filter or sort by the length of the video.

  • Mihir Joshi

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    Jun 18 2011: I missing element in our scientific development work as humanity is any unifying consious strategy to priortize talent and resources towards key goals. there has never been infact ever a conversation around which problems across the plethora of sciences would give humanity a leap forward. It need not be "the grand theory" but maybe a better measuring principle which would help verify/ falsify some of the existing theories like strings. Frankly, being an Engineer biases me towards backend of science then front end. But it is my hypothesis that more accurate & sensitive clocks and such have led to subsequent theories or atest their proofs. Its tough one but wonder if TED could create a conversation around what problems should Humanity prioritze to take leap.

  • jaeyun hwang

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    Jun 18 2011: Ted is just spreading information. For that it deserves kudos. But the sad reality is that Ted has no power to guide those developments. Right now, in Ted, at each conference, there is the largest gathering of brain power and capital in the world. Ted with its wide range of contacts would be able to push through research and development for at least one technology. Why wait for chance to take hold and for people to bump at random for something to develop. Give the people in the audience a challenge, have them work together for an end result that will appear in Ted. Their failure or success would be highly informative and educational. Ted might become the civilian Darpa.
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    Els De Keyser 500+

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    HostTED AttendeeTED TranslatorAssociateLanguage Coordinator
    Jun 18 2011: I have a suggestion for the transcription of talks by non-native English speakers. I would suggest to have the transcription reviewed by an experienced TED Translator whose mother tongue is the same as that of the speaker. I've come across quite a few transcription errors that were no brainers to me - because either I myself make the same pronounciation errors, or I hear them all around me. They included errors in talks of very popular speakers, like Hans Rosling, that had already been translated 30 times before the transcription was corrected. That's a pity.
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    Jimmy Strobl 50+

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    TED Translator
    Jun 18 2011: Give http://www.ted.com/profiles/865907 some TEDCreds!!
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    Thomas Pisarchick 10+

    • +1
    Jun 17 2011: For about two weeks or so I have not been able to send TED e-mails. I just get an auto responder saying the message was not delivered. Is anyone else having this issue?
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      Will True 200+

      • +1
      TED StaffHostTED AttendeeAssociate
      Jun 17 2011: There is some work being done on the emailing system, we hope to have it back up and running soon!
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      Jimmy Strobl 50+

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      TED Translator
      Jun 18 2011: Which address is that? Could you use another one?
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        Thomas Pisarchick 10+

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        Jun 18 2011: ?
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        Els De Keyser 500+

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        HostTED AttendeeTED TranslatorAssociateLanguage Coordinator
        Jun 18 2011: It's currently impossible to send a mail to another member of the TED Community. These mails use a placeholder TED mail address for every user. I have been getting error messages for the last few weeks as well. It's quite annoying, because as a TED Translator I'm used to contacting other translators. The only way around is to try to get hold of the real email address of the other person.

        I do hope that it will be solved soon. It would be a good idea to put a message on the first page of the TED website instead of having people 'experience' that there is something wrong.
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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Jun 17 2011: Please make a public statement to say that TED Admin is in charge and depose the tin pot dictators of the site!Tell people you can handle the job and that they are not and have never been appointed to police the threads.In the absense of a strong direction dictators are taking over and making life miserable for all of us Liliputians!

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      Will True 200+

      • +2
      TED StaffHostTED AttendeeAssociate
      Jun 17 2011: Hi Kathy -- As stated in email, I'm looking into this. Editing comments is not something that the Admins use as a practice, and they always notify users of comment deletion. They occasionally request that users edit offensive statements out of comments, but again, let the users do it themselves. I will be in touch with you as I learn more.
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        Richard Dawson 30+

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        Jun 18 2011: Thanks Will. I think Kathy K's idea is an excellent one.

        I also think that the forced closure of Tim Colgan's conversation was grossly unfair. He was not even given the option of extending his conversation that others are given, including yours here. Could you look into that also?

        And although I got an email stating that flagged conversations are not automatically removed, I am sure that a far larger percentage of those get removed than ones not flagged. Normally posters are quite tolerant of each other, but there are one or two, (one in particular I positively know of), who keeps ticking other posters off about what we should or should not post.

        Is there any way of you knowing if flags are coming from a particular person? I think that person should be told to ease off.

        And we should be given an opportunity ourselves to remove and edit in any case, and we be given reasons why this should be done, not just a cryptic "this is in violations of our rules, please see the link". Our posts should not treated as citizens in a police state being led off in the dead of the night on the tip-offs of informants.
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    Dain Brammage

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    Jun 17 2011: I have not been able to find or figure out how to favorite a theme. Also, some of the videos do play on the iPhone app. because of their format I suspect. I also suspect that they are from the Best of the Web theme and therefore you cannot convert them. If this is the case have you considered trying to get them licensed for converting them to a more universal format.
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    Alap Shah

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    Jun 17 2011: Design workshops for people from various domains coming together for generating ideas for tomorrow and generating funds to put up start ups for attaining those ideas

  • Ahmad Safadi

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    Jun 17 2011: Hey am new at TED this is my first comment. This website is simply amazing.. I've noticed it being extremly diverse, i think it'd be better to have it more categorized as for ex.medical topics, architecture etc..
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    Patrick Keenan 20+

    • +1
    TED Attendee
    Jun 16 2011: Why not have a separate place for the execution of ideas? Its all well and good to talk, but we need to spread AND EXECUTE ideas, that would be inspiring.

    • zack simmons

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      Jun 16 2011: i'll second that
      it would be cool if we could search for people in our area - with the option of being left out of those searches as a privacy setting
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      Will True 200+

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      TED StaffHostTED AttendeeAssociate
      Jun 16 2011: Hi Patrick -- another TED Conversation user brought up a similar point. We've been discussion how to take action (or make it easier for community members to) on ideas that come out of TED Conversations. We would certainly appreciate input on this!
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        Jimmy Strobl 50+

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        TED Translator
        Jun 16 2011: Could you please provide a link to that conversation Will?

      • zack simmons

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        Jun 16 2011: I think if you would allow us to see who is on ted in our area we could form super local groups and meetups where we could talk about what needs to happen in our specific areas

        but thats just my opinion take it or leave it
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    Jimmy Strobl 50+

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    TED Translator
    Jun 16 2011: An idea for improving TED!?
    Move George Spillkov's comment about censorship at TED (and all comments attached to that one) to a new conversation since it's taking up way to much place on this one and keeps ending up on top of the other comments...
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      Tim Colgan 50+

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      Jun 16 2011: Perhaps it's size is an indication of it's importance to the participants.
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        Jimmy Strobl 50+

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        TED Translator
        Jun 16 2011: I thought that you would like the idea of a devoted conversation about "the Freedom of speech at TED"...
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          Tim Colgan 50+

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          Jun 16 2011: kind of an oxymoron, isn't it - "the Freedom of speech at TED"?

  • zack simmons

    • 0
    Jun 16 2011: i think a polling option to add to ideas and conversations would be a good addition - an easy way to find out generally what tedders think

  • Meredith Frey

    • 0
    Jun 15 2011: I think that TED should allow people to chat online. It should also be education in socialtion on the comperther. and what better way to do this then chat? please allow us to chat. Thanks/Beep!!! You in addvance!!! Peace out yo!
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    Will True 200+

    • 0
    TED StaffHostTED AttendeeAssociate
    Jun 15 2011: Hi Dana -- For a more detailed response to this I would recommend reaching out to the TEDx team (contact info is available in the ted.com/tedx sub-page), but my understanding of that rule is to ensure that the larger events reflect the 'feel' of a TED conference. The TEDx program gives out the TED name at no cost to organizers all over the world, but my understanding is there has to be some limitations along the way to ensure the overall quality of the events.
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    Jim Moonan 50+

    • +1
    Jun 15 2011: When I think about it, I don't always know exactly what prompts TED to delete. It might ber helpful if the removal of a comment was also tagged with the reason. Declaring something "off topic" is often a result of TED not taking the time to read the conversation in it's entirety and the result is they see the commentvout of context.

    But I've seen conversations devolve and you know they are going to a place that could very well be destructive, so why not step in to mediate? To me, the question is when, not if.

    Maybe if there was a menu of reasons why TED removes a comment and they tagged the removal with a reason (not just "off topic". I would have no problem with eliminating the "off topic" as a reason for TED removing a comment.
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    Ray Anon 10+

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    Jun 15 2011: And another thought: I have only read a fraction of the 677 comments so far, but among them are many many interesting ideas. In the case you collect and list them, Will, could you perhaps publish that list? I would love to see what other TEDdys came up with :)
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      Jimmy Strobl 50+

      • 0
      TED Translator
      Jun 15 2011: Hi Ray,
      I think there will be an entire section devoted to this on TED quite soon, that's part of the reason why Will is here.
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        Ray Anon 10+

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        Jun 15 2011: Oh, so his presence is part of the greater plan ^^ I am looking forward to this section! It will neatly fit the aims and philosophy of TED :)
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    Ray Anon 10+

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    Jun 15 2011: Regarding TEDx events, I searched whether any would be near me, and while there are some in Germany over the year, most are invite only, and none of them offer a webcast. As I see it, there isn't even a single German TED talk available from the past at all. I also wonder why the page of TEDx Youth@Berlin http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/2863 does not contain any information or at least link to http://www.tedxyouthberlin.de/ . Which in turn fails to mention 2011 with a single word; the application form is still referring to the 2010 event. (On another note, you cannot search for specific US States in http://www.ted.com/tedx/events either. It won't recognize "Vermont" or even "USA", only "United States".)

    It saddens me in general that great speeches are "lost" to people who couldn't attend because of the distance, the costs or because they weren't even born yet at that time. And regarding TEDx in Germany, there are vast cultural differences between Germany and the USA. So the fact that I am thrilled by US conferences doesn't guarantee that I would like the German meetings one bit. So it would be useful to get a proper impression before I decide to travel through the Republic.

    Please don't get me wrong, TED is really progressive in sharing hundreds of speeches for free, so I don't want to appear ungrateful or notoriously dissatisfied :) There is just better advertisment conceivable than missing links, outdated websites and lacking videos. But of course TED can only address a part of it, since TEDx events are independently organized...
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    Ray Anon 10+

    • +1
    Jun 15 2011: As a statistic fetishist, I would love to see graphs and maps on the demography of the TED-community. Currently, there are 118,556 members with photos, of which 49,235 (~42%) live in the USA and 1,524 (about 1%) reside in Germany. But where exactly? Are there geographical clusters? What are the ratios in age and sex? Do they differ between countries? Which professions are widespread? What interests are the most popular? How many languages have gathered here by now? Maybe this information could even be presented in a fancy way? :) You know, Hans Rosling has raised my bar regarding appealing depictions of statistical data...

  • Jack Dear

    • +1
    Jun 14 2011: Notifications for questions / debates. So you can see when someone has responded. Also some sort of understanding of the TEDCred system. Your all being a bit precious about it!
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    Jimmy Strobl 50+

    • +1
    TED Translator
    Jun 14 2011: I'd like to have a list on my profile of the talks that I've watched... And also the ability to sort them out of a search would be great.

    http://blog.ted.com/2011/06/12/have-you-watched-all-the-tedtalks/
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    Jimmy Strobl 50+

    • +1
    TED Translator
    Jun 14 2011: I'm sorry, I know that it's been said before: How about NOT closing this conversation!?
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    Rosemeri Chaney

    • +1
    Jun 14 2011: My first stop on TED is the themes/images page, and I'd love it if the thumbnails (once hovered over) contained the length and upload date.

    I haven't read all of the posts, I'm sorry if this is redundant!

    Thanks for the read (^_^)
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