TED Community » Jason Kemp

More About Me

I'm passionate about

The transformational power of positive relationships and doing the right thing. Happy to live in an exciting time when the internet can be used to extend reach. E.g WordPress, Kiva, Kickstarter

An idea worth spreading

I'm a big fan of WordPress in particular as an enabling technology based on open source. I spoke at WordcampAu in 2008 and was one of the organisers for WordcampNZ 09 held in Wellington NZ Aug 09 which featured founder Matt Mullenweg. Many of the attendees were working on community projects where easier use of technology can have a very positive impact. We setup a charitable trust for wordcampnz to help us organise more events. (now 4 completed in NZ)

Attended Wordcamp SF in May 2010 & Aug 2012. Organiser for WordCampNZ Aug '10 attended TEDx Auckland in Oct '09, helped on TEDxAkl Sept 2010 as CRM partner. Organiser for WordCampNZ '11 Feb 2011, presented at Melbourne Wordcamp Feb 2011, lead organiser for WordcampNZ April '2012 in Auckland. Helping again with TEDx Auckland events in 2012 and 2013

Talk to me about

Developing Customer capital, Better education, smarter marketing insights, developing online communities, social capital, platforms for change & taking your website to the next level.

People don't know that I'm good at

Music, swimming, design

My TED Story

BrianS and RemoG both introduced me to Richard Saul Wurman's work online and been watching TED develop since very early days. I've watched more that 300 TED videos. I'm particularly keen on Architecture related talks. I have been to 2 TEDx events in NZ TEDxSydney. I'm actively involved in helping grow TEDxAKL and looking to help out on some other TEDx events offshore. I have met a recent TED fellow and have worked on his project in SF. I'm also worked on a Millennium Development project in Sub Saharan Africa. I was delighted to hear that a prominent TED Africa speaker is supporting that project. Love the way NZ'ers are everywhere as changemakers.

Since early 2007 I've been making CD's and DVD compilations of videos here much the same way others do mix tapes. TED makes it easy to share great ideas with everyone. I'm a blogger & online facilitator active in many community projects on more than 150 websites

Comments

• TEDCred score: +2.70 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +2

  A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley

  May 11 2013: Loving this quote from Ken towards the end
  
  "The real role of leadership in education -- and I think it's true at the national level, the state level, at the school level -- is not and should not be command and control. The real role of leadership is climate control, creating a climate of possibility. And if you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things that you completely did not anticipate and couldn't have expected."
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Pearl Arredondo: My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher

  May 11 2013: Thanks - I believe we call them charter schools and depending on how effective your local school system is already that might make a positive difference or not. It does look like the intentions are positive. See http://www.utla.net/pilot for some background.
  
  What is curious to me about this talk is the lack of real information about what this school is doing differently and that is what I was hoping the talk would include.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Pearl Arredondo: My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher

  May 9 2013: This is a curious talk as it is not so easy to identify clearly what it is that the school is doing that could be an idea worth spreading. If it has just cherry picked students and resources from a larger group I do wonder about the real impact on the original school.
  
  So a bit more background on the school and some metrics would be helpful. For example this clip - Geoff Mulgan: A short intro to the Studio School is in the same territory but I have a clearer sense of what that school is really about.

• A reply on Talk: Erik Brynjolfsson: The key to growth? Race with the machines

  Apr 26 2013: The actual debate was a bit disappointing but in the context of 2 short talks and a short debate which went more for the sound bites and entertainment factor rather than a real connection to what most of us are experiencing today in our current working lives.
  
  Incredibly Eriks talk mirrored a TEDxAuckland talk that I was at in October last year on the future of augmented intelligence.
  
  I blogged about that talk over here http://www.dialogcrm.com/blog/2012/12/18/what-if-machines-people-can-work-together/
  
  I have previously been puzzling over Robert Gordons theory and I would have loved to have seen Hazel Henderson in the mix somewhere.
  
  Elizabeth Warrens' talks in the past few years on the death of the middle class is a bit of a report on some of the same data but from another point of view. She ( along with many others) notes that even though we are working more we still can't keep up so when actual jobs are disappearing that has an even greater impact.
  
  This is an important debate that won't go away and it deserves more attention.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Tim Leberecht: 3 ways to (usefully) lose control of your brand

  Apr 16 2013: I liked this line "At the end of the day, as hyperconnectivity and transparency expose companies' behavior in broad daylight, staying true to their true selves is the only sustainable value proposition." companies are at their best when their actions match their values.

• A comment on Talk: Rick Smolan tells the story of a girl

  Apr 8 2013: Very curious that some viewers don't register that this story starts in 1978 when the world was very different. This is almost 20 years before the internet became mainstream (in about 1996) and changed everything. Also this talk was given at another event called EG (not TED) but a partner event in 2007 so it is more story than an exposition. I don't think most younger people realise how very different the 1970's was compared with today.

• A reply on Talk: Cameron Russell: Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model.

  Apr 2 2013: Thanks for your thoughtful response.
  
  If she is talking with kids then leading by example absolutely works - ask any parent; if you really want kids to take notice you need to model that behaviour where possible.
  
  Continuing to participate in a system that you disagree with lacks credibility. It has to be a compromise and a contradiction in terms and all $ is not the same. What is the cost in terms of personal integrity?
  
  Having watched the video I think Cameron has some smarts but ironically I think a lot of views of this clip are coming for the wrong reasons and I'm not sure that it is really raising any kind of awareness.
  
  I'd disagree completely about her gaining credibility from remaining inside the system. That is the exact thing that destroys credibility.
• +5

  A comment on Talk: Eric Whitacre: Virtual Choir Live

  Mar 30 2013: What is really interesting about this performance is that there seem to be many who like it and a few brave people who didn't feel that connection trying to express another view.
  
  Over on the Elon Musk talk there is a comment by him near the end where he says
  
  "really pay attention to negative feedback, and solicit it, particularly from friends. This may sound like simple advice, but hardly anyone does that, and it's incredibly helpful."
  
  I think this piece is an experiment that didn't work but I'm struggling with how to express that in a useful way. Trying to mix the live choir and the virtual choir ( in my opinion) just didn't work.
  
  If you have watched any of the earlier virtual choir pieces - those performances and songs seem to me to be much more accessible and enjoyable. Eric is clearly enthusiastic and talented but this piece not so much.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Cameron Russell: Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model.

  Mar 30 2013: This seems like a contradictory talk. The saying "do as I say not as i do" comes to mind. It is not clear if Cameron is continuing to work as a model or whether she has moved on to other projects.
  
  If she really believed half of what she said she needs to leave the fashion industry because she is still contributing to the problem by her actions in remaining as a model.
  
  Political awareness is a great insight but if you remain part of the system that perpetuates the fashion as fiction idea that she talks about how is that convincing?
  
  OTOH if she has moved on ( and there are some hints that she has) then it would have been great to have that as part of the talk - because what she does is more important than what she says.

• A comment on Talk: Johanna Blakley: Lessons from fashion's free culture

  Mar 29 2013: Now that there are 10s of thousands of TEDx talks it is very interesting to sometimes come across very similar talks that are completely unknown to each other but related.
  
  Last year I saw John Egenes talk on the The Folk Process: at TEDxDunedin i New Zealand. John was a saddlemaker who also worked in fashion with some big names like Donna Karan and Isaac Mizrahi.
  
  "He proposes that "transformational imitation" where by we improve on existing products could be a more productive way for society and business to look at the concept of intelectual property."
  
  The clip is on TExTalks over at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGhtCTfzbs8