TED Community » Red Maxwell

More About Me

I'm passionate about

finding a cure for diabetes and using the internet to make the world a better place.

An idea worth spreading

The web is about sharing. Sharing ideas. Sharing resources.

Web 2.0's challenge is to harness the internet's ability to help people advance our greater understanding of each other and of the world around us. We may then create ways to make positive and tangible change. Innovation- that's the promise of what we'll share.

You can check out this concept in action at www.squidoo.com, a Web 2.0 experiment I'm working on with my friend Seth Godin and Juvenation.org a social networking platform for the diabetes community that I founded.

Talk to me about

Electronic persuasion and propaganda. Crowdsourced knowledge.

People don't know that I'm good at

Cartooning

My TED Story

At my first TED conference, James Crick told me that winning the Nobel Prize didn't result in more dates. I wonder if this revelation will make people leave their Nobel prize accolades off their Match.com profiles.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +200 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +3

  A comment on Talk: Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government

  Mar 8 2012: The big take away from this talk is that technology can facilitate civic ACTION. At a time when social media is made up of mostly chatter, Jennifer reminds us that we can self organize as citizens for the betterment of our communities.
  
  Her vision is a powerful one: She wants to build not just a crowd of voices- but also a crowd of hands.
• +4

  A reply on Talk: Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

  Mar 5 2012: The audience in Long Beach had a jaw dropping moment as Bryan shared his views on justice, inequality and community. Perhaps the most significant concept that came out for me was this:
  "The opposite of poverty is not wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice."
  
  Think about that a moment.
  
  It's a corollary to the maxim that money can't buy happiness. This idea, however, is a deep insight that we can build an entire civilization around.
  
  The source of the message is important too. Coming from the lips of a man who deals daily with the poor, racial injustice and death row cases, his words ring with great purity. By making connections to his black racial heritage, Bryan's argument was delivered with incredible power.
  
  Many attendees after the talk told me that Bryan should have been awarded the TED prize. Chris Anderson did even better- on the last day of the conference he raised $1.1 Million within minutes through live pledges for Bryan's cause.
  
  TEDsters like Bryan are changing the world for the better. It's inspiring to see the entire TED community rise up to support him in it.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: Should we ask kids to help us solving the real world problems? And if yes, how?

  Apr 29 2011: Listening to John Hunter, I was struck by his incredible humility. In person, John is a mountain of a man with a deep authoritative voice that could easily hijack any discussion in which he chooses to participate. And yet... his approach to his elementary school students reveals a tremendous amount of respect and deference to the childrens' ideas.
  
  Shouldn't we, an older generation of leaders. approach the world's toughest problems with the same humility? Shouldn't we be open to fresh, child-like ideas and approaches that are not jaded? Shouldn't we enact systems to be able to "hear" their feedback?
  
  The power of crowdsourcing relies on the confluence of many, divergent perspectives. Why not have a humble enough approach to include the input of children?
• +1

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

  Mar 7 2011: The live demonstration of Anthony Atala's organ printer at TED was indeed stunning. Tony and the team at the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine have advanced the field of organ regeneration by a quantum leap. Two things worth noting:
  
  1.) The organs are grown from the patient's own cells which eliminate the need for anti-rejection therapy.
  2.) Cellular regeneration technologies are being developed by his team which may hold potential avenues for a cure for diseases such as diabetes, alzheimer's and parkinson's.
  
  We see the future, and at TED, it seems the future is NOW.
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work

  Feb 10 2011: How inspiring this is. Nigel reminds us all that "it's the little things that make life so grand." Making yourself open to opportunities for REAL connection with family and business is the challenge -- and balance can only be achieved by making a conscious, daily choice. It's important to be reminded of maintaining the proper perspective and this TEDtalk does it in such entertaining fashion.
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory

  Mar 1 2010: Kahneman's brilliant talk reveals the importance of the stories that we tell ourselves. It begs the question, "now that you know, how will you live your life differently?"
  
  Will you serve your remembering self or your experiencing self?

• A comment on Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight

  Oct 11 2008: It's amazing to see how one person's brain explosion can affect others' brains to expand. Thank you Jill. It was a privilege to meet you.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Rives controls the Internet

  Aug 9 2007: How do you truly ***understand*** where science has taken us?
  
  Art and poetry from insightful minds like Rives' help us comprehend technological progress on human terms. Through metaphor. Through humor. Through verse.

• A comment on Talk: Seth Godin on standing out

  Apr 16 2007: Why do we buy? Seth's brilliant insights go beyond marketing. He eloquently (and entertainingly) explains the dynamics of consumer desire and the power of remarkable ideas.

• A comment on Talk: Eva Vertes looks to the future of medicine

  Apr 16 2007: Can a 19 year old cure cancer? Eva demonstrates that looking at such challenges with a fresh perspective and an open mind will open up countless possibilities.