DailyDirt: Public Speaking Made Easy...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Talking in front of a big audience can be daunting, and there are a few organizations that try to help people get better at this skill (eg. Toastmasters, the Association of Speakers Clubs, POWERtalk, etc). But a great speech doesn't necessarily have to be delivered in front of a large, live audience, especially now that Youtube/Facebook can reach millions of people (sometimes unintentionally). Practice helps, but good video editing can be pretty important, too.

• Chris Anderson knows a thing or two about what a good TED talk is. The original TED curator has a book on public speaking, and Anderson thinks anyone (who can tell a story to a group of friends at dinner) can become a good speaker. Perhaps Anderson has better dinner guests than average, though. [url]
• A few years ago, The Onion made a classic TED talk parody. Too bad it was made before What Does The Fox Say? went viral, but The Onion had a whole series of TED-like videos, too. [url]
• If you ever want to give a serious talk that appeals to a mass audience, just follow a few simple rules. Any presentation seem more legitimate if there are slides....

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: chris anderson, parody, public speaking, ted talk, the onion, viral video

DailyDirt: You Say You Want A Revolution...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Really big, world-changing ideas are not that easy to come by... but they're even harder to implement. Still, it seems like a good first step is to devise ways to collect good ideas and then try to give funding/resources to help develop them into reality. Crowdsourcing this process is a somewhat recent trend (or fad) that gathers wisdom from a community, and there are more than a few projects that have adopted this method for collecting inspiring ideas. Here are just a couple more challenges that you might contribute to.

• The Buckminster Fuller Institute has an annual challenge that will award $100,000 to support strategies that will "make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone." The deadline for submission is April 11th, and the prize will be awarded in November. [url]
• Contests/challenges seem to be an effective way to kickstart innovation and maximize resources for investment. A study of thousands of software contests concludes that the scope and uncertainty of a problem should be explicitly addressed when designing a challenge in order to optimize the incentives and performance of any innovation tournament. [url]
• The AI XPRIZE is looking for some kind of artificial intelligence that can get a standing ovation for delivering a TED talk. The rules are not set in stone yet, but it looks like the winner will be the best lying bot ever created -- or else it might present an irrefutable criticism of humanity itself. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: buckminster fuller institute, challenges, contests, crowdsourcing, ideas, innovation, innovation tournament, prize, ted talk, xprize