I attended Comcast’s inaugural Ted-like event today. It was organized to fit into a lunch hour and featured four talks at 10 minutes each (plus a few TED videos). I enjoyed the content and hope they organize another one soon!

How to Start a Movement

I throughly enjoyed this short video How to Start a Movement by Derek Sivers.

• Leaders have the guts to stand out and look crazy, but leadership is over glorified. The first followers are key – they transform the lone nut into a leader.
• Leaders – embrace and nurture the first few followers as equals. Followers – Have the courage to join someone you find doing something crazy. If you believe in it too, join!
• The movement must be public.
• Momentum transforms into a movement – becomes less risky to get involved.

Importance of Civic Involvement

“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” -Thomas Jefferson

• Your vote and opinion do matter!
• All politics are local
• No matter where you live you are a constituent
• Get involved in your local community
• Talk to your local, regional, and national representatives
• Educate yourself on issues you are passionate about
• Advocate for something you believe in

Designing Immersive Online Environments for Kids

The most important aspects of virtual worlds that are relevant to children (6-8) are identity, self-expression, and community. Use technology as a tool to cultivate creativity and other skills.

• Identity – Give them lots of options (e.g. customizing an avatar); keep it simple, allow for frequent adjustment; encourage experimentation.
• Self-expression – Create environments and objects to interact with; allow for permeant and sharable object creation; create opportunities for exploration; and make it a game.
• Community – Complicated balancing act of privacy rights and safety; set broad rules that still encourage experimentation; balance collaboration and communication.

Other Points of Interest

• Check out Build a tower, build a team by Tom Wujec.
• Turn your vision into a mission statement. This statement gives you something to fall back on when times or situations get difficult.
• The time to forge relationship is always now!
• Getting it right for the customer: Even small percentages of your customer base can be hundreds or thousands of people – are you willing to jeopardize your campany’s reputation and ignore the needs of your customers? Is that really an acceptable risk?
• Elicit feedback. Respond to negative comments by meeting the customer’s needs.