TED Community » Tony Yet

More About Me

I'm passionate about

TED, Innovation from China, world-class education for all

An idea worth spreading

I think there should be a museum of language to be built in many countries, to make a showcase of the diversity of human language and raise public awareness of endangered languages - idea inspired by Wade Davis' talk.

Talk to me about

Sustainability, Youth education, nature, explorations, and TED

People don't know that I'm good at

word hunting

My TED Story

It all began in the summer of 2006 when I started using Ubuntu, and I got to learn TED from some other Ubuntu users, and was ever hooked on to this amazing website. I like the TED philosophy of sharing with the world one's ideas for building a better future. Here, TEDsters help me realize that there's always hope for a better future, and that we are not far from that goal, if we can implement concerted efforts now.

I wish to write a book documenting this wonderful conference, passionate TEDsters and the people behind it. I think this kind of conference can pave way for inspiring local innovations in China, where I come from, and where rich opportunities for changing is bountiful.

In June 14, 2009, together with my friends in Guangzhou, we hosted the first-ever TEDx event in mainland China. The name of the event is TEDx SYSU. It was a big success. We are considering rolling out further mini TED-style events in Guangzhou, do join us if you feel inclined.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +3296.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A comment on Talk: Questions no one knows the answers to

  Mar 18 2012: I love the animation of the TED Ed video series. It makes complex ideas easy to grasp at.
  
  One small suggestion: maybe it is better to host the videos on ted.com, as YouTube could be inaccessible for some parts of the world (like China for example). or even better if a download link could be provided, as YouTube streaming could be quite slow in my part of the world...
• +7

  A comment on Conversation: What would be the best way to make Khan Academy go International?

  Mar 10 2011: Or maybe we could reframe the question like this: how can we find ways to inspire people to take on what Salman Khan has done in the English language, and do similar video courses for their mother tongue? Or to put it in another way, how can we opensource the Khan Academy, not just the content, but also the methodology, the tools and the platform?

• A comment on Conversation: Do you have a favorite TEDx talk? http://www.youtube.com/tedxtalks http://www.youtube.com/tedxyouth

  Feb 21 2011: My favorite TEDx talks are:
  
  Jian Xu on cultural preservation for communities not in spotlight, at TEDxSYSU:
  http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/XXr4lisAwJ0/
  
  Keith Lam on hack to create, at TEDxGuangzhou:
  http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/q6b9C2wVjLQ/
  
  And Josh Klein on Hacking Work at TEDxDublin
  www.youtube.com/watch?v=H07pbDhBgXg

• A comment on Conversation: What's the best hidden gem in the TED archive?

  Feb 17 2011: The first TEDTalk that I watched and got me ticked was David Pogue's Talk on simplicity sells: http://www.ted.com/talks/david_pogue_says_simplicity_sells.html
  
  And some of the TEDTalks that have deep resonance with me:
  
  Ben Dunlap recalls life of a Polish teacher and mentor:
  http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_dunlap_talks_about_a_passionate_life.html
  
  Bill Strickland on making changes with slides (boy, I must visit his Manchester Bidwell shall I be visiting the US):
  http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_strickland_makes_change_with_a_slide_show.html
  
  Patrick Awuah on his returning home and rebuilding liberal arts education in Ghana:
  http://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_awuah_on_educating_leaders.html
  
  And some talks that have changed my thinking on something:
  
  Juan Enriquez tells the story of genomics and our future:
  http://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_on_genomics_and_our_future.html
  
  Erin McKean on dictionaries:
  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What's the overlooked gem, the book I haven't read that I must?

  Feb 17 2011: For me, it is Henry David Thourea's Walden. I stumbled upon it seven years ago in a bookstore, bought it, read it and it has since changed my life.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed yet." What futures have you seen that are here, but unrecognized?

  Feb 15 2011: I love this William Gibson quote. Alex Steffen quoted that in his 2005 TEDTalk: http://www.ted.com/talks/alex_steffen_sees_a_sustainable_future.html
  
  I think one of the most important unnoticed trend is that hackerspaces are sprouting all over the world in recent years, and they are poised to become the model for future work spaces. And many innovations are stemming from these hackerspaces. They are what Seth Godin called a tribe, they see the future by inventing it by hand, collectively.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves

  Mar 16 2010: This is one of the most inspiring talk I watched on TED.com. One question though, would this hole in the wall model work in cities as well? Or does it work only in rural villages where kids are never exposed to computers and Internet?

• A comment on Talk: Jonathan Harris: the Web's secret stories

  Jan 8 2010: This is one of the coolest demo of data visualization I've watched so far. BTW, would it be great if we can build a visualization tool for TED?