Couple of big, hairy interesting events on at present, namely:
- TED 2007; you can read all about it via the TED blog of course. They are bringing together "FIFTY REMARKABLE PEOPLE" (in capitals, so they must be remarkable) who are icons, geniuses and mavericks. They include Edward De Bono, Jeff Skoll, Jaime Lerner, Lawrence Lessig, RIchard Branson and...er.... Tracy Chapman.
Day one wrap; day two wrap....which do sound pretty thought-provoking...
- and the lesser-known Doors of Perception in Delhi; this genuinely looks AMAZING (justified capitals!); there is enough in the participants and their projects to blog about for the rest of the year...so check them out; we will be revisiting several of these projects soon, and have no doubt there will be some interesting conversations coming out of the event (on Worldchanging and elsewhere)
Do check out the links to TED and the TED Talks: I hope they'll be posting the video from some of these SOON.
Just wanted to add two more bits regarding Jaime Lerner and his philosophy:
He's famous for pushing people to start things, even if you don't have your plans fully developed--indeed, not having all things thought out beforehand frees your mind from any preconceptions of how a design "ought" to be. Or, in his words, "Don't wait until all your pumpkins are in the truck to start your journey to market. They'll accumulate along the way."
And in an address to the American Institute of Architects I heard years ago, he was once asked (after someone had toured Curitiba's impressive public transport system,) Where are your experts?
"We don't have any experts." Lerner responded. "Experts would have told us we couldn't do this."
'Nuff said! TDM
Posted by: Thayne Muller | March 13, 2007 at 01:00 PM