TED Community » Phil Klein

More About Me

I'm passionate about

survivor readiness and success, the evolving social self, intercultural openness, aviation, social software, philanthropy, community, education, philosophy, and transformation

An idea worth spreading

1) Ethnoglobalism over Ethnocentrism 2) The web, with engaged participation, is a social problem-solving platform and environment. Social problems that had been too complex and costly to solve can be addressed now, due in part to sociotechnological capabilities that can handle complex data, interdependent processes, distributed organizing and task management. Data analysis can handle deeper complexity, software development and science has given us skills in solution modeling, testing, iterative learning and practice producing results – KM and just-in-time production and better data integration, that melds data collection, analysis and process tuning allow solutions to evolve rapidly and continuously. And because we have new methods for solutions development and delivery (such as peer production, user-centric design, social entrepreneurialism, distributed expertise, and intercultural translation processes) social capital and globally distributed resources are apped, lowering costs

Talk to me about

philanthropy, survivor readiness and success, TEDx, KM, data, Lit, social software, Intercultural relations.

People don't know that I'm good at

appreciating the sunrise and other moments, caretaking memories, reading, crazy good day dreaming, listening to my daughters.

My TED Story

Went to TEDGlobal 2009, then spoke at TEDxAnchorage and TEDxTamaya in New Mexico on living through cancer. Also attended TEDxWhistler and TEDxSeattle, viewed TED2010, and am now producing TEDxRainier, a 500+ attendee event in Seattle on October 10, 2010. Past conversations with Ethan Zuckerman, then following his blog first led me to TED. I met TEDster Siegfried Woldhek (who did the Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait talk) about NABUUR.com the global neighbor network, who said I belonged at TED.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +846 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Talk: Chris Bliss: Comedy is translation

  Feb 22 2012: a short TEDx talk on how music translates, with voice and not language, from the same event where Chris Bliss spoke, is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It8VtkHwtd4&list=PLF4540D73A1245390&index=2&feature=plpp_video
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How does the presenter impact the reaction to a talk? So how might people's reactions to my talk be different if I was retired military?

  Apr 29 2011: I think people take statistics when observing others, looking for validation and exceptions to prior experience and noting consistencies and inconsistences across the range of appearances expressed, visually, gesturally, in tone, language, and verisimilitude of perceived roleplaying. I think listening and viewing are contextualizing acts. and the viewer contextualizes the presenter (as author, narrator and/or character or actor) in relation to themselves, in relation to the speaker's perceived community, and in relation to social structures like values and cultures. These statistics are how we detect saboteurs and party faithful, leaders to follow and those to fell. The presenter can influence reaction by changing how they are perceived, although this effect can be dulled or compromised once a feigned roleplaying is detected or suspected. The film Borat comes to mind, as does Stephen Colbert. What I wonder about is what makes people take their empathy responses seriously, and what allows people to shorten its half life to render empathy into little more than a token or experimental gesture.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: How does the presenter impact the reaction to a talk? So how might people's reactions to my talk be different if I was retired military?

  Apr 29 2011: I agree with Laurie that many (most) people have boundary-seeking and social grouping tendencies which force a perceived grouping where there may be none between or around people. I think of this as a filling in of the gaps in what we know about someone's affiliation; people generalize based on limited and/or imagined information about other people. This influences the evaluation and extent of empathy responses.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Rob Harmon: How the market can keep streams flowing

  Mar 11 2011: This talk is another real demonstration that sensible, smart policy can put business, environmental, and civic interests all on the same side of the equation. Further, it is often merely outdated policy that originate such adversities. Brilliant work, Rob, thanks for seeing material opportunity beyond assumed conflict..
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: How can the travel and tourism industry catalyze conservation?

  Mar 7 2011: Tourism needs to evolve. What I see is that In a sustainable future, travel will involve more people traveling more lightly to more places, with virtual ubiquity, intercultural transactions including micro-philanthropic and social capital exchanges as new norms. Recognizing that classical travel modes are already sustainable, modern tourist developments will be made sustainable through Adaptive Design, a mode of development which provides multiple (3-5) diversified core attractions/activities that anticipate changes in travel patterns. Each attraction will be optimized to flourish in differing scenarios, complementing one another and positioning destinations to adapt to changing clientele dynamics such as: local vs distant visitors, cultural/education seekers vs sightseers, seasons visited, business vs recreational travellers. Attention to making the minimum local environmental impact, and to providing the maximal local economic and cultural benefits will make these destinations more welcome in local communities, more resilient, and more welcoming to increasingly informed and optimal-experience seeking travellers.As superficial and rich guidance becomes widely accessible through online channels, the travel industry will need to evolve to provide better, deeper guidance to catalyze intercultural access and facilitate greater local benefits. Travel guidance will need to adapt to the internet-connected world to provide more personalized services with deeper knowledge and insights. Travel services that support unique, small scale and high quality experiences will be more highly prized across nearly all age ranges.Millions take travel and international interaction for granted and travel, tourism, expat communities and multi-cultural identities are becoming increasingly accepted norms. The ranks of travel-comfortable citizens will continue growing. Travellers seek increased quality experiences while expecting decreases in environmental impact and local disharmony.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: How will you take part in JR's TED Prize wish?

  Mar 7 2011: uploaded a photo last night to http://www.insideoutproject.net/ . now considering how Seattle photographers and attendees of TEDxRainier can engage. I think we may have a portrait-taking salon one evening, where we meet and hold a discussion about what we stand for, then do a photo shoot. My personal stand is for safe neighborhoods where anyone can walk unthreatened at any time. Neighborhoods and cities can be safe places for all people.

• A comment on Conversation: Is infiltrating hip hop culture with rap/music about science/mathematics a good way to motivate minorities/women to achieve in those areas?

  Mar 7 2011: Hi Billy,
  Please check out my friend George Martinez's Global Block Foundation, which uses hip hop culture to gel inter-American cultures and promote greater youth success: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1186900237#!/GlobalBlock . Also check out Sapna Cheryan's talk on stereotypes as gatekeepers : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYwI-qM20x4
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Pepsi's TED talk: Progressive corporate transformation, or TEDwashing (like greenwashing for intellectuals)?

  Mar 7 2011: I believe the role of the corporation in relation to TED is to provide financial and cultural support to TED as both a nonprofit organization and as a mission to spread worthy ideas. What corporations (or anyone else) must not do is misuse the TED platform to spread ideas that should be stopped from spreading. Promoting unhealthy products using the good deeds done by its unaffiliated consumers is IMO an idea worth stopping. Pepsi and many of its products are objectively unhealthy. The efforts of people (including Pepsi consumers and employees) to do good is inspiring, and Pepsi does deserve praise and gratitude for devoting some funds to help those projects. However, not one of those projects contributes changes the unhealthful effects of their products. For Pepsi to live up to its culture motto, the ‘performance’ of its products needs to be viewed in the context of its material products. As food & drink, Pepsi’s performance is by and large detrimental to the health of its consumers and irreconcilable with a purpose that considers the well-being of its consumers. I have no objection to people choosing Pepsi (or Coke) and enjoying their many tasty products as a (modest and small) part of a healthy diet. I do object to the incredible lack of transparency and honesty is the statement that Pepsi is fundamentally or innately good because of 1 ad and culture campaign. To me, ‘performance with purpose’ necessarily means aligning a food company’s products and actions with honest and measurable indicators of its consumer’s well-being. Giving $$$ to TED would be fine, but to be TED-stage-worthy, imo, Pepsi should be straight: Is it wise to consume Pepsi Products? How much lower or higher are Pepsi consumers’ rates of obesity and diabetes than they were 10 years ago? How do they compare with those rates in people who don’t use Pepsi products, or who use their competitors’ products? There is enormous room for big companies to do good, and I am eager and ready to applaud those.

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

  Feb 15 2011: Yes, Brene Brown's talk from TEDxHouston is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies

  Feb 15 2011: This is an amazing talk. Understanding and knowing when key periods of learning and language acquisition occur is a transformational arena full of potential for education, brain science, and social psychology. One of the smaller but still staggering points for me was when the experiments showed that exposure to video and audio had zero learning impact for babies at 6-12 months; that human presence was fundamental to infant learning. Eager to learn more.