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. 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.

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 and watched another live in Sydney. 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: 0 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Talk: Benjamin Zander on music and passion

  5 days ago: Loved the stories and the music. I wrote about this in (2008) http://www.dialogcrm.com/blog/2008/07/18/magic-music-moments/

• A comment on Talk: Pamelia Kurstin plays the theremin

  5 days ago: The music is great but I love the moments around 7mins when she laughs & shares the less serious side of the theremin.

• A comment on Talk: Chris Abani on the stories of Africa

  May 8 2012: Even after 5 years this talk about transformation, language & humanity is superb

• A comment on Theme: TED Under 30

  Feb 10 2012: Hi Praveena ,
  
  There are many developing nations talks
  
  Have a look at http://www.ted.com/pages/396 may have some names you recognise
  
  Look at these themes: Rethinking Poverty
  
  and Africa: The Next Chapter (50 talks)
  In June 2007, TED held its first conference in Africa there are plenty of great talks
  
  http://www.ted.com/themes/rethinking_poverty.html
  
  http://www.ted.com/themes/africa_the_next_chapter.html
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Diana Nyad: Extreme swimming with the world's most dangerous jellyfish

  Jan 26 2012: Do you really think that swimmers swim in a straight line between locations? The actual distance swimming between Bimini in the Bahamas to Florida would have been much more especially in the '70's. Regardless of the actual distance it was a very long swim.
  
  (I understand it is easier to swim in a straight line now.)
  
  However that was never the point. It was more that she had a personal history of doing very long ocean swims 30 ish years ago. And to her revisiting that particular discipline means something but while the story sounds like it is about swimming it is more about having a giant goal physical and mental goal and what is involved.
  
  Update: Staying awake for 3 days without sleeping (perhaps she was allowed breaks) does push a number of physical barriers that maybe shouldn't be pushed that far. Curious why this is on TEDMed. Perhaps an extreme test of human endurance but what what does science learn from this ? I also don't think anyone would mind if she wore a wetsuit.
  
  However there does appear to be a few "elephants in the room" that no-one wants to mention.
  
  If the swim attempt cost $500,000 then that is a lot to spend on any kind of dream. As a non- US citizen we tend to be somewhat puzzled by the huge hype around personalities and celebrity style events.
  
  As a keen swimmer myself I appreciate the huge amount of mental and other effort to do long swims but surely there are plenty of other ocean swims that would test many of the same attributes. What can be achieved from a 60hr swim that can not be learned from a 30 hr swim?
  
  At the risk of offending viewers the expedition looks much more like a grand folly and giant ego trip than the inspirational dream it is being pitched as.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Sebastian Wernicke: 1000 TEDTalks, 6 words

  Jan 15 2012: Its a joke and it takes about 3 minutes too long to tell. Surprised that some people take it so seriously.

• A comment on Talk: Kaki King rocks out to "Pink Noise"

  Jan 15 2012: The interesting thing about music and other art is that we as viewers get to spin off in a multitude of directions and the real answer is I agree with everyone here. There is no right answer there are only opinions.
  
  I once watched Leo Kottke in concert and while he is technically brilliant for me it was kind of sterile and neither the music nor the songs connected with me. Kaki is clearly one to watch as she is youngish and by the sound of it has some new music since this performance. I have seen other virtuoso players before and so maybe this is not so surprising as it is to those for whom this style is a new thing.
  
  Technical excellence is a great starting point for a musical conversation. Last year I watched Rufus Wainwright in concert and I wanted him to hit some wrong notes so I knew I wasn't watching a hologram. He did make some connections but sometimes he was just playing the piano. I was there for the songs - & not the tricks.
  
  The brain makes instant associations and connections with our prior experiences so we all come to new musical experiences with our own filters & comparisons. That is how we are wired. Daniel Kahneman and Daniel Levitin have great research into this type of thinking.
  
  Kakis mentor Preston Reed would say he is influenced by John Fahy & others who are largely forgotten by the music business. It seems surprising that no one has mentioned Bruce Cockburn who has been playing for 50 years now and is famous not because of his guitar style which is impressive but because he has written songs that make meaningful connections with many.
  
  Musicianship is not really a competition and those lists by magazines are just easy ways to write a story that the magazine can sell ads around. I did have a look at a list of the "100 greatest guitarists" on Rolling Stone and was amused to see that Joni Mitchell came in at 72 and Joan Jett was at # 87 (the only women in the list) - all of which tells us more about Rolling Stone than it does about music.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education

  Mar 22 2011: The School of Medicine at the University of Virginia has created a room called "The Learning Studio." Very worthwhile to check that for anyone interested in medical education.
  
  Khan is just one person who is reshaping the educational debate. That he did this and not some teacher tells us more about change in the overall ed system. Karl Fisch and other teachers around the world are have been using rich media for years.
  
  As a uni student 30 years ago we flipped the model esp where the lecturers were very bad. We formed our own study group and taught ourselves in a way that suited our own learning styles. I would say that is a norm at graduate level where I live.
  
  Luckily 'one size fits all' approaches are being recognised as a problem and best of all newer ideas are being tried right down to pre school levels now.
  
  As a parent the skill I want my daughter to learn is how to sort through multiple information sources and get the best out of each and every type of media.
  
  It is not an either / or moment - more of a re-balancing away from an over reliance on text based sources. It is the discussion and learning that is important not the exact mix of data sources. Storing knowledge is something for computers to do (mostly.) Learning from those ideas and learning useful skills from the process is more important in the longer term.
  
  I posted about some of these ideas including Khan's videos over at http://www.dialogcrm.com/blog/2011/03/10/flipping-the-classroom/

• A comment on Talk: Beer: The Untold Story

  Mar 22 2011: Why is this ad still here?It should be removed immediately. It is a clear example of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. There is nothing authentic about it. Do we believe the historians or do we believe the ad agency?
  
  Sean is correct in linking to that Herald report. The line about how the complaint was partially upheld is also misleading. The newspaper that carried the story is being careful not to offend the agency and the client because of vested interests.
  
  The advertising standards authority decision "The majority of the board believed the television and cinema advertisements were likely to mislead and deceive consumers and were therefore in breach of the Code of Ethics".
  
  The "partial" exemption related to newspaper and print advertisements only. "The complaint was not upheld for newspaper ads because these were ruled to be more conversational in tone and allowed the reader time to digest the story being told."
  
  Author Gordon McLauchlan, who wrote The Story of New Zealand Beer, dismissed the ad as fiction. "There is hardly a single correct fact or impression in it, except the names of Nordmeyer and Morton Coutts," he told the Herald on Sunday. "I'd say this fictitious little melodrama is the figment of an ad man's hangover."
  
  The agency appears to be running a slightly different version of the ad now which probably complies with the ruling but the campaign will be forever tainted by by its misrepresentation of history.
  
  It is extremely disappointing to watch an ad agency come up with such sophistry and untruth when the real history of the Coutts brewer is even more remarkable than the marketing spin we get in this ad.
  
  Advertising and communication agencies can and should do much better than this. And they should be held accountable. An ad worth spreading should have integrity and truth. Lets raise the bar by dropping this one.
  
  Taking ads on board is a slippery slope especially given the public service nature of the TED mission.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Frank Gehry asks "Then what?"

  Jun 5 2010: That "guy" is Richard Saul Wurman (b 1935) who founded TED & was an architect himself. Also just a few years younger than Frank (b 1929). I quite enjoyed seeing a couple of old timers talk about creative process. The Then What comment by Gehry is the best part of the presentation. Note this talk was in 2002.
  
  No matter what your opinion of Gehry having another chance to view up close is a good thing. The museum in Bilbao really put that city on the world map.
  
  For some other views look up the doco "Sketches of Frank Gehry" which came out in 2005.