Sean Wood

or "Why Bad Mission Statements happen to Good People"

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Stop motion video from New York to San Francisco. Here's a Google Map of his walk: http://bit.ly/brNULW

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Here is an interesting presentation from the TED Global conference about "How we Decide." Sheena Iyenga talks about her work in different areas of the world in regards to "Choice".

She makes a good analogy with soda and makes a funny joke about how Coke is clearly better than Pepsi...

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This was one of the video segments they showed at the TED Global conference this year.

On April 1, 1957 the British television programme Panorama broadcast a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland... The segment concluded with the assurance that, For those who love this dish, theres nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.

bbc - Spaghetti Harvest - 1st April 1957
Uploaded by ashankuruppu. - Click for more funny videos.

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A documentary about how the semantic web will tame the wild, wild web. 

"Does the world make sense? Or do we make sense of the world?"

- Clay Shirky

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

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This project from Northeastern University and Harvard University shows the daily happiness across the U.S.  Using the information from over 300 million tweets, this animated cartogram map shows the national mood variations based on time and geography.

http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/amislove/twittermood/

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This is an amazing scientific discovery...

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Wow - TED really kicked in today!  My brain is bursting open with new ideas and ways to improve.  Be sure to check out CNN's story about TED Global: "Is the world ready for good news?" http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/13/ted.good.news/index.html

Here is the list of TED Talks from today:

I'll be posting tweets here: @SeanWood and here: @FreeworldMedia
Snapshots will be posted here http://www.flickr.com/photos/freeworldmedia/

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The conference kicked off this afternoon with "TED University" and here are a few speakers that really touched me...

Julia Hobsbawm, CEO, Editorial Intelligence
"Overcoming Shyness in the Age of Communication"
Julia is an expert in interpersonal networking and talked about the direct relation to technology and the increasing amount of shyness.

 "Creativity loves good communication.  Good communication loves creativity"

Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO iOpener
"Being Happy at Work"
Jessica spoke about the measurable benefits of optimism in the workplace.  Her research shows that happy employees are twice as productive as unhappy employees.   A video clip she showed reminded me of Coca-Cola's Expedition 206 project where three ambassadors are travelling around the world to find out what makes people happy.

Alex Kelleher CEO, Cognitive Match
"Your Brain and the Web"
Measurable response to website based on their usefulness and stress responses in the brain.  How square corners cause stress in the brain and why apple uses rounded corners in their design.

The web makes our brain more effecient. 

Niall Murphy "Founder of Evrything" (Nice self-appointed title but I'm still the "Leader of the Freeworld" :) 

Niall talked about how everything will be networked.  Even what we now know as common everyday objects will someday have a digital presence.

Dan Cobley, Senior Director of Marketing, Europe, Google
"What Physics Taught me about Marketing"
The bigger the brand the more force is needed to change direction.  He cited Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in that when people are exposed to product marketing their behavior is changed from their responses given in market surveys.  He said working at Google he knows porn is the most popular content on the web - although most people will never admit it. 

He talked about how brands (like BP & Toyota) that have spent decades building a positive image can be quickly destroyed in the information age.

Julian Treasure, Chairman, The Sound Agency
"Sound Health"

Julian spoke about how noise affects our health and mentioned several things to watch out for that damage our hearing and the way it affects us.   What's interesting is the idea of schizophonia where we have headphones plugged into our ears which disconnects us from the sounds around us and causes our brain to be altered in harmful ways.

Listen Consciously

On a personal note, Julian is one of the kindest people I have met at TED Global.   Here is a link to Julian's previous TED talk, "The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us"

Amitai Etzioni, Professor, George Washington University

Dr. Amitai Etzioni changed his topic at the last minute and gave a very high-level talk in the spirit of the conference, "And Now the Good News".  He talked about focusing on social, spiritual, and non-consumer activities once you have hit a certain place in your life.

He cited Maslow's Hierarchy and how consumer product marketing increases artificial needs after the fundamental human needs are met. 

At the party I had a chance to meet many more great people, where we shared further insights, a bunch of laughs and thoughtful exchanges about the future, the present and where things can and should go.   Today was the perfect start to a week of mind-blowing TED talks.

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This afternoon I arrived in London and rode the train to Oxford for TED Global 2010.  It's great being back for the conference and some of the TED organizers and attendees got together this evening to watch the World Cup at Keble College. 

Stay tuned everyone... this is going to be an amazing week!

Follow the live stream here: http://twitter.com/TEDNews

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