TED Community » Mark Sylvester

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Helping people see how technology can be used to sift through vast amounts of information and help them make better decisions, faster, easier and much more intuitively.

Talk to me about

What you do with your day that might surprise me.
What your favorite TED moment is (this year)
What the best question anyone ever asked you was.

People don't know that I'm good at

Helping brainstorm ideas on how a smart social network could be created that would stimulate conversations between employees, customers and partners.

My TED Story

In 2002 I learned from a colleague at Macromedia that they were slated to sponsor TED. But because of their sponsorship role, the company would not be able to self-promote at the conference - so we proposed that Macromedia create an immersive social networking experience for the attendees.

In just eight weeks - and with the help of Chris Anderson, Macromedia heavyweights, and some talented developers and designers - we created an ambitious and unprecedented networking system that allowed over 1,000 attendees to build personal profiles and interact with one another. After just four days 78 percent of the people had tried the system at least once and more than 3,000 messages had been sent.

Since then, we formed introNetworks, Inc. to continue innovating around the base technology created for TED. We have rolled out a completely new version of the platform each year, always working closely with customers to implement their ideas for improving the networking experience.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +326.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Talk: Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

  Mar 6 2013: Ron, I have been a Chef since I was very young - opened several restaurants here in Santa Barbara and for the past three years have been primarily a raw / live food person. We call it raw til dinner.... works for us. I have been blogging about this at http://msylvester.tumblr.com and you may find some interesting recipes and ideas that the kids might like making. I loved your line - "Kids that grow Kale, eat Kale." I have a monster Kale salad there that my die hard carnivores ask for seconds.
  
  I'd love to see how your project connects to the next step up the food chain, which is in the Kitchen of the families you are serving. Jamie Oliver is doing a lot of work in that area as well - which you may know, now that you are in the esteemed club of TEDSpeaker.
• +3

  A comment on Talk: Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA

  Mar 6 2013: Ron, great to meet you in Long Beach - so thrilled that TED posted your talk so soon. It's important. Thanks for having the courage to follow your passion and present your ideas in a way that certainly will be spread. I expect 1000's of comments here with people looking for ideas on how they can get started in their local area.

• A reply on Talk: Jenna McCarthy: What you don't know about marriage

  Sep 6 2012: Wrong person. She frequently gets confused with Jenny - her name is Jenna.

• A comment on Conversation: How to build love that lasts forever?

  Mar 23 2011: Maria, this is a great question and one that we explored at our TEDx event in October. One of nation's preeminent psychologists spoke on 100 Reasons to not have a secret affair - educated love in the 21st Century' - his name, Dr. Keith Witt - you can see his talk here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsyw4P7x6EA
  
  It is a REALLY great answer to your question

• A comment on Conversation: Would you risk declaring to a total stranger three TED resolutions?

  Mar 23 2011: I have thought about this a lot every year on the drive home from TED. And I found one thing that really has kept me in the TEDHEAD space - and that's the TEDx program. We co-produced one last year, started working on it right after Long Beach and while it was a lot of work, it kept us in touch with what TED stands for (Ideas worth sharing, and in our case, Community) - and we really felt connected to TED - and it worked. The multiple conversations we had with potential sponsors, speakers, attendees and volunteers allowed us to be ambassadors for TED in each encounter. That was an excellent way to keep the spirit alive.
  
  Also, there are about ten of us from Santa Barbara and we are planning a TEDDinner next month to get together and keep the fire burning so to speak.
• +5

  A comment on Talk: Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter ...

  Mar 18 2011: My favorite line from her first poem knocked me out when I heard it live and it was great to hear again, "My mama was a worrier and my papa was a warrior." What a great sentiment to conjour.
  
  I hope that TED continues to showcase these types of voices (think RIVES from a few years back)
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney

  Mar 7 2011: Someone asked me "What was the best thing about TED this year?" I said, seeing a human kidney get printed while we watched.... this is stunning, and one of the reasons we continue to attend TED, to see the future.

• A comment on Conversation: How do we capture the collective wisdom and engage the global TEDx communities?

  Feb 17 2011: I think that the first thing to do is recognize that TEDx is a world wide phenomenon and has gotten extremely large and complex very quickly and that there are hundreds of amazing people involved with each of them. As a TEDx Organizer I have to say that trying to keep up with the TEDx Community is like drinking from a firehose, there is so much information out there. When we were in planning mode I had no idea how much time it was going to take (4 months of 15+ hr's week).
  
  I would also like to see us get together more than once a year - and not just Palm Springs (I attend Long Beach).

• A reply on Conversation: How do we capture the collective wisdom and engage the global TEDx communities?

  Feb 17 2011: Great Idea James. As an organizer myself, I would produce such a video and look to watching others. It's a big, big job and takes a lot of time - not what I expected - but well worth it.
• +5

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

  Feb 17 2011: In 1971 I found a copy of The Universal Traveler (http://www.amazon.com/Crisp-Universal-Traveler-Don-Koberg/dp/1560526793/ref=dp_ob_title_bk) that I marked up and is dog-earred from so much use. I recently brought it out in a discussion with a speaker we had at our TEDxAmericanRiviera event. Seems that my friend had taken a class in 1970 with Don at Cal Poly while the book was being written - he didn't know that anyone had ever read it. If you are a problem solver and are looking for new ways to think about how you do your work, this is an amazing book.