TED Community » Chris Grayson

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Education, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Distance Learning.

An idea worth spreading

"Will we capitalize on the moment by instigating our own evolutionary leap, or will we squander it and cause our own demise?"

—Chris Grayson

Talk to me about

Meeting for a coffee or a cocktail and having an interesting conversation. I'm in New York. If you're in town, get in touch.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +780.70 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +3

  A comment on Talk: David Bismark: E-voting without fraud

  Nov 2 2010: The problem here in the US is that the software for the voting machines has been awarded IP protection. As such, the courts have ruled that the owner of the software is not obligated to publicly disclose the actual code, even to the government!!
  
  Zero transparency.
  
  I own the URL = OSvote.org for a project I've been networking to find partners.
  
  There are a variety of groups advocating for Open Source voting machine software. Thus far none have had much traction. I think this is because the companies making the voting machines are in the "hardware" business -- they have no incentive to work with the open source developers. I believe the solution is to go open source all the way to the hardware and manufacture the actual machine. Incorporate as a Not-for-Profit, and sell them to city and state governments at cost. That's the idea, in broad strokes.
  
  I am going to contact David Bismark and see if there isn't an opportunity to incorporate his encryption methodology. I like his idea a lot.

• A comment on Talk: Sheena Iyengar: The art of choosing

  Jul 31 2010: The thinly-veiled-condescension every time she draws out the word "Americans" is nauseating. Nobody would put up with it if it were another nationality.
  
  Everything she says about Americans and their soft-drinks could be said of the French and their cheese. But soft-drinks are not as culturally sophisticated, so she can mock them and get away with it (I'd like to see her lecture the French about how they need fewer wine options… in blind taste tests 50% can't tell the difference).
  
  Choice drives the economy. Every time you eliminate choice, you're eliminating someone's job.
  
  Even if everyone agreed on the need for fewer choices, nobody would agree on which choices to eliminate.
  
  Modern life gets more complex by the minute. This overwhelms many. But that is not a time to eliminate choice, it is a huge opportunity in the market for recommendation engines to narrow options based on past preferences. I can easily see this along the lines of a stronger AI version of Google, as a mobile app.
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Carter Emmart demos a 3D atlas of the universe

  Jul 5 2010: Like a contemporary interactive version of
  "The Power of 10", by Ray Eames & Charles Eames.
  
  The software is available to download from the Hayden Planetarium at this link:
  http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/download
  
  Available for: Windows + Mac + Linux + Irix
  
  I'm downloading it now myself.
  
  cheers to all.

• A comment on Talk: Michael Pollan: A plant's-eye view

  Jul 5 2010: Excellent.
  Like the plant world's perspective on Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene.

• A comment on Talk: Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world

  Jul 5 2010: In full disclosure, I am a big fan of Clay Shirky's speaking engagements, and have watched hours of them on YouTube and elsewhere.
  
  That said, this particular TED Talk was one of his weaker performances. Perhaps being a fan, I'm going to be an apologist, and *partially* blame it on the audience. Tough crowd! Every time he baited them for a laugh, it was just crickets. Seemed like he spent most of the talk trying to recover.
  
  BUT I cannot blame it *All* on the audience -- Clay has given his cognitive-surplus speech many many many times, and in the talk above it appeared he was trying out a lot of new material for TED, nearly all of which I'd not heard him use before, and I think he wasn't as comfortable with it all.
  
  CONTINUED BELOW -->

• A comment on Talk: Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world

  Jul 5 2010: CONTINUED FROM ABOVE -->
  
  Though this TED talk is only 13 minutes long, it feels much longer than a version he's given before of similar length.
  
  INSTEAD, I RECOMMEND:
  
  Clay Shirky - "Where Do People Find The Time"
  http://blip.tv/file/855937
  
  I will even speculate that this 2008 Web 2.0 Expo talk was the inspiration for his subsequent book of the name, "Cognitive Surplus." So far as I'm aware, the talk at that link was the first time he ever used that term publicly.
  
  It does a much much better job of selling Clay Shirky's "Cognitive Surplus" concept (and book) than this new TED talk does.
  
  That's my 2¢

• A comment on Talk: Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide

  Mar 23 2010: London, San Francisco and New York should all be applauded for their quick response to Tim's call to action. San Francisco launched DataSF, London launched the London Data Store, and NYC created the New York City Data Mine as well as a competition called "NYC Big Apps" with a $20k prize to raise awareness and get people using the resource.
  
  If you're interested in these efforts, have a look at:
  http://NYC.gov/data
  http://dataSF.org
  http://data.London.gov.uk
  
  At the federal level, in the US the government launched:
  http://Data.gov
  
  Organizations & businesses others might be interested in include:
  http://Pachube.com
  http://InfoChimps.org
  http://DataMarketplace.com
  http://Factual.com
  
  Also, if anyone here knows of similar efforts by other city governments, federal governments, NGOs, businesses, non-profits or otherwise, operating in the open data space, I'd by very happy to learn about them as well.
  
  cheers,
  Chris
• +4

  A comment on Talk: Gary Flake: is Pivot a turning point for web exploration?

  Mar 23 2010: Disclosure: I have been a dedicated Apple / Mac user since I switched from Commodores in the late 80s. I briefly owned a PC about a decade ago in order to learn 3D Studio Max, and was soon back with a Mac (currently typing this on a MacBook Pro). I have never held Microsoft in high regard as an innovator (Bill Gates -- a business genius, yes. Tech innovator... not so much.).
  
  That said, I've always tried to keep an objective attitude and not just blindly be an Apple fanboy.
  
  Microsoft should be applauded not just for Pivot, but for their entire LiveLabs department responsible for Pivot, Photosynth, and SeaDragon. Amazing technologies that give Microsoft a completely legitimate claim as a leading technology innovator. They also recently hired Georg Klein, a researcher from Oxford that I'm betting will soon be up there with Gary and Blaise, among Microsoft's new team of rock-stars. I'm really excited and expecting more great things from this new generation.
  
  Kudos.
• +2

  A comment on Talk: Parag Khanna maps the future of countries

  Sep 29 2009: .
  
  "When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will."
  --Frederic Bastiat
  
  I enjoyed Mr. Khanna's talk.
  
  One of my favorite TED speakers is Juan Enriquez. He has written a book titled "The Untied States of America" and given lectures elsewhere covering much of the same territory as Mr. Khanna (if you'll pardon the pun). Juan, however, focusses on the potential breakup of the US. A video of one of his presentations on the subject can be found at the link below, if anyone is interested.
  
  2004 - Juan Enriquez - The Untied States of America
  http://tr.im/untied_states
• +14

  A comment on Talk: Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

  Sep 28 2009: With all due respect to Barry Schwartz, this is a false paradox, though I can easily see why his meme has such appeal. We've all been in the kind of anecdotal predicaments he describes.
  
  The problem with limiting choice is that nobody will agree on the ones to eliminate, and the ones to keep.
  
  Our problem is not too much choice but too poor filters. As choice multiplies, informed recommendation becomes increasingly valuable.
  
  Like those on Amazon or iTunes that tell you, "People who like this, also like that."
  
  While his talk was very entertaining to listen to, lowering our expectations on life is not the solution.
  
  In the here and now, there is a huge market opportunity for filtering. Filtering software in the mobile space (and soon, mobile AR space) will allow us to make more informed decisions. And perhaps this does eliminate choice for *you*, narrowing options down to a manageable list that you're most likely to prefer. But it doesn't eliminate choice in the marketplace overall.