TED2011

In February of this year, Eli Pariser approached me about designing the slides for his upcoming TED Talk for TED2011. Slotted for nine minutes, the topic was the subject of his new book being released on May 12th.

What was supposed to be the great democratizing force of the ages, the Internet, no longer is living up to its promise. Rather, what’s being created around us by web companies and their algorithms is a hyper-personalized space of information specifically tailored to us based on what we like. We are all ending up in our very own bubbles, with challenging subjects or people who disagree with us being filtered out. And we’re not even aware of it.

As of today, the talk is now online at TED. We also have just launched the site for the book, the Filter Bubble. Big props to Eli on this exciting day. And thanks to Matt Linder and the New BLK team for another great site development.

Your very own filter bubble

Eli Pariser: Beware online “filter bubbles”

Talk to me about (Graphic) Design, Collaboration, Activism + Projects

I’m just going to say it. This whole Work/Life balance thing, well I am struggling with it, straight up. I’ve focused a good bit of 2011 thus far thinking about the idea of Work. My work, the type of projects I do and how I want them to fit in to a larger community. And really take the time to consider what the answer to this question is: “and what do you do?”

Well, how about:

I frantically run around in circles for 16-18 hours a day until I get really dizzy and then fall into a deep trance-like state for 6-8 hours until I suddenly am jolted back into attention and then do the circle thing all over again.

Or maybe just this for my title and tagline: Constant Worker Man, Doing or Thinking about Work, 24/7.

That may sound somewhat interesting, but it can be really exhausting. Needless to say when I left my home office in Omaha to go on a weeklong travel excursion to California, I wasn’t necessarily excited to be getting away, just more tired with the thought of traveling and working from the road. But, despite having so much mindblowing information smashed into my brain, I come back to the Work/Life challenges of a graphic designer with a very satisfying feeling of having been thoroughly reset.

Thank you, TED. (more…)

Another new video posted from TED2011. On revolution 2.0, with a vision of winning because “we don’t understand politics,” and the extreme importance of its aftermath summed up from an Egyptian taxi driver; “I am breathing freedom.”

• Wael Ghonim is the Google executive who helped jumpstart Egypt’s democratic revolution … with a Facebook page memorializing a victim of the regime’s violence. Speaking at TEDxCairo, he tells the inside story of the past two months, when everyday Egyptians showed that “the power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”

TED Initiatives » Ads Worth Spreading Interesting new initiative from TED; celebrating ads that do more than sell.

• With this competition, we’re seeking to reverse the trend of online ads being aggressively forced on users. We want to nurture ads so good you choose to watch. On TED.com, ads run after our talks, not before. This means they can run longer than the TV-standard 30 seconds. And that’s the key! In 2-3 minutes, there’s enough time to really tell a story, share an idea, make an authentic human connection, become unforgettable. Instead of ambush, they offer pleasurable, intelligent engagement.

The talk, so moving. The artist, so inspiring. It MUST spread to communities across the world. It is up to us. It is time to act, to do, to make change.

• JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net.

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

2011 TED Prize winner JR has made his wish: “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project. And together we’ll turn the world INSIDE OUT.”

To participate, upload your portrait: InsideOutProject.net.

The first talk posted from TED2011, and one of my favorites from Day 1; Monumental, Majestic, Mindblowing.

• As a democratic revolution led by tech-empowered young people sweeps the Arab world, Wadah Khanfar, the head of Al Jazeera, shares a profoundly optimistic view of what’s happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and beyond — at this powerful moment when people realized they could step out of their houses and ask for change.

TED2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder Happening this week in Long Beach. I’m at TEDActive in Palm Springs. It’s going to be an amazing few days.

This year’s TED Prize Winner: JR. One Artist. One Wish to Change the World

More in the coming days…

TED2008 Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, author Dave Eggers asks the TED community to personally, creatively engage with local public schools.

TED2010 In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning — creating conditions where kids’ natural talents can flourish.

TEDGlobal 2010 Designer Emily Pilloton moved to rural Bertie County, in North Carolina, to engage in a bold experiment of design-led community transformation. She’s teaching a design-build class called Studio H that engages high schoolers’ minds and bodies while bringing smart design and new opportunities to the poorest county in the state.

TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice. Because plastic trash, he shows us, hits poor people and poor countries “first and worst,” with consequences we all share no matter where we live and what we earn. At TEDxGPGP, he offers a few powerful ideas to help us reclaim our throwaway planet.