Lunch over IP

Oceans, space, and music: the 2009 TED Prize winners

Star oceanographer Sylvia Earle, SETI's director and astronomer Jill Tarter, and maestro and Venezuelan youth orchestra founder José Antonio Abreu are the winners of the 2009 TED Prize. Each wins $100,000 plus "One Wish to Change the World." Their wishes will be unveiled at TED2009 in February. More details here.

Housing, energy, sanitation: the Curry Stone Design Prize winner

The Curry Stone Prize for humanitarian design was handed out in Louisville recently. The winners (US$ 100'000 plus recognition at the Venice Architecture Biennale) were Luyanda Mphahlwa and Mphethi Morojele, two architects from South Africa for their design of energy-efficient homes made using timber and sandbags for infill for a Cape Town family.
The other finalists were Shawn Frayne, inventor of the Windbelt, the world's first non-turbine wind-powered generator; Wes Janz, architect and associate professor at Ball State University, Indiana, whose work is inspired by the ingenuity of slum dwellers who build shelters from scavenged materials; Marjetica Potrc, an artist and architect whose "dry toilet" design, which converts human waste to fertilizer, is now used in barrios in Caracas, Venezuela; and Antonio Scarponi, an architect whose project, "Dreaming Wall," casts text messages on a wall in Milan, using technology and design to "jam" conventional social orders and illuminate the socio-political lines that unite and divide us.
Wayne Hall has a great write-up of the award ceremony, full of details.

Announcing TEDGlobal 2009 in Oxford

We just opened registrations for TEDGlobal, which will be held in Oxford on 21-24 July 2009. The conference will go under the theme "The Substance Of Things Not Seen" and will feature more than 40 remarkable speakers presenting over the course of the four days. The whole TED team is buzzing with excitement for this event. TEDGlobal is TED's twin conference, with the same focus on identifying novel voices and bringing to the stage inspired ideas, experiences, technologies, and performances -- with an even stronger international perspective.

I'm currently working on the program, designing it to explore and make visible the substance of things that run unseen through our lives. These hidden forces -- social conventions, biological links, cultural frameworks, coded meanings, complex processes, creative impulses, scientific speculations, software, networks, infrastructure -- are the connective tissue that binds societies together and the engines that propel organizations forward. When illuminated, they offer vital insights into our relationship with each other and our world.

Confirmed speakers at this point include two of the world's most celebrated writers; a scholar with a radically new idea about development; a mathematician and a neuroscientist who are redefining the way we see the world; a visionary aviator; a Capuchin monk; a former child soldier; a designer who creates out of thin air; a leading global business thinker; one of the biggest names in contemporary art; a photographer of the invisible; experts from the hottest regions of the world and the underworld; plus many other leaders in business, science, technology, entertainment and the arts. The full program will be unveiled about two months before the event.

Oxford is a one-of-a-kind environment that for centuries has championed the power of reason, fostered open-minded discussions and forged new directions in the search for understanding. TEDGlobal will be finely woven into the Oxford landscape. Most sessions will take place at the Oxford Playhouse, with special events at the distinctive Sheldonian Theatre, historic Keble College, the Museum of Natural History, and the Malmaison Hotel -- the newly renovated hotel that was once a Victorian prison.  

And: During the 24 hours preceding and following the conference, attendees will be offered a series of visits, discoveries and special programs, including a tour of Bletchley Park (think Alan Turing and the Enigma machine) and punting on the river Cherwell. We'll also hold a half-day TED University, where attendees have the opportunity to give short lectures on their areas of expertise.

The registration fee for TEDGlobal is US$4,500. Seating at the Playhouse is extremely limited. Hope to see many of you there, it will be an awesome conference.