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Education The Media Technology

Next Week, 500+ Geek Talks Around the World 60

Posted by timothy from the cheaper-than-ted-talks-too dept.
Brady Forrest writes "Next week, from March 1-5 there will be ~65 Ignite events happening around the world. Ignite is an opportunity for geeks to share their passions and ideas with local peers. Each speaker gets 20 slides that each auto-advance after 15 seconds for a total of just 5 minutes. The result is bite-size chunks of information that inform the crowd on new topics. Most of the Ignites will be streamed on the new Ignite video site."
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Next Week, 500+ Geek Talks Around the World More

Next Week, 500+ Geek Talks Around the World

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  • 500 geeks talking *simultaneously*? (Score:3, Funny)

    by PaulBu ( 473180 ) on Thursday February 25, 2010 @08:43PM (#31280126) Homepage

    ;)

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Cryacin ( 657549 )
      15 seconds per slide for a total of just 5 minutes.

      It'd be advantageous to all of our family's sanity if Aunty Jane and Uncle Joe's holiday slides presentation had that rule....

  • Around the world? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There are events in the US, Australia and ... that's it. Sounds like the World Series.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by c_sd_m ( 995261 )
      Um, what? Both the first and third links have maps with little pins all over the place including Lima, Bangalore, Madrid, Nairobi, Montreal, and Cape Town. The list of events is missing at lot of them but clicking on the towns will get you local event pages [oreilly.com]. From the third link: "Ignite is coming to 60+ cities on 6 continents during the first Global Ignite Week, March 1-5, 2010."
  • Fifteen seconds per geek? After the obligatory movie quotes and boastings about having a girlfriend/wife, that really doesn't leave much time for the tech talk.

  • OMG its twitter irl (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jailbrekr ( 73837 ) <jailbrekr@digitaladdiction.net> on Thursday February 25, 2010 @08:55PM (#31280232) Homepage

    Can they add the rule where its kept to a maximum of 140 characters as well?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by xenn ( 148389 )

      ... but listening to each character speak 3.571428571429 times is just silly. Why not have 500 characters speaking?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by c_sd_m ( 995261 )
      At the one I attended, they ran a second projector with a twitter feed. Yep, 5 minute presentations were too much and needed to be condensed into a set of tweets. Either that or people needed to be told what to think about the talks.

  • Well, TED did jump the shark this year (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Thursday February 25, 2010 @09:09PM (#31280334)

    So in other words, this will be TED without the elitism (used to be you had to get "invited", now you can't join at all except to pay $1k to get streaming video), astronomical ticket prices ($6000 to attend the conference!), etc?

    Christopher Poole, founder of 4chan, was invited to talk this year at TED.

    "Eyyyyy!" *splash*

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/185

      Also, from a reddit interview with TED founder Chris Anderson:

      "It's kind of a myth to think that if we would only cut the price, everyone could show up and join in. We have an event that is sold out a year in advance, and we can't make it much bigger than the 1,500 who come now (plus 400 in Palm Springs) because it would get too impersonal. If we cut the price (which is normally $6k), it wouldn't allow any more people to come, it would just increase the number on the wait

      • Happily the TEDx program has spawned literally hundreds of independent TED events that charge $100 or less for admission.

        Happily you can go to a LUG meeting in a thousand places every month, almost always for free, and learn something neat and engaging about technology.

        Come on by DLSLUG on Thursday if you're near New Hampshire, James Murdza is presenting the Awesome window manager, some kind of GUI you customize with Lua scripts. Free, of course.

        If you want the bigger-picture philosophical discussions, you

      • "It's kind of a myth to think that if we would only cut the price, everyone could show up and join in.

        It's not a matter of how many people. It's a matter of who. Hence the term ELITIST.

        We have an event that is sold out a year in advance, and we can't make it much bigger than the 1,500 who come now (plus 400 in Palm Springs) because it would get too impersonal.

        They already limit the number of tickets sold, so this is hogwash. They could easily do a lottery.

        Instead, a $6000 entry bar means that o

        • >I'm sure the $9M in ticket sales also has nothing to do with it. Folks: it doesn't cost $9M to put up a website and hold a conference or two a year.

          I am sorry, but having been in the conference business for 15 years, you would be surprised what it costs to host an event...

          Let's start shall we:

          1) Food: You got to feed the people, and that costs at around 100 to 300 per day per person. You think this is crazy? Absolutely it is, but if you are in any hotel or conference center they will explicitly force th

      • Re:Well, TED did jump the shark this year (Score:4, Insightful)

        by afabbro ( 33948 ) on Friday February 26, 2010 @12:50AM (#31281582) Homepage

        I wouldn't pay fifty cents to see another TED video. They're all the same. Someone who is famous for something stands in front of a pretty slideshow and states 3-4 little-known facts that are interesting and draws obvious inferences from them. He then says thanks and that's it. Heck, I could read the backs of Trivial Pursuit cards and get the same thing. I have yet to see a TED video where the presenter ties all of his ramblings together into a prediction, or a new synthesis. They are all just regurgitated fact-sharing.

        It would be all-right if the fact-sharing was educational or comprehensive. "I'm going to explain the housing bust to you" or "let me explain how X works". Great. But TED is neither comprehensive nor educational. It's just random observations, hypothesis, exposition, and "let me tell you a story" stuff.

        I watched one by Misha Glenny not long ago. I've read and enjoyed his books, but the TED video was like sitting with him after he's had a few beers and listen to him talk stream-of-consciousness. Kinda interesting but after a few minutes you start to think "where is all this going?" and it turns out it's going nowhere. His books told the story of post-war Eastern Europe and had a definite goal. The TED video felt like "they paid me to stand up here and entertain you for 10 minutes".

        Every single video is like that! TED is waste of time.

        • I don't see what your problem is. They're telling their stories, what's wrong with that? You didn't expect them to solve all the world's problems in a 15-minute talk did you?

        • The TED video felt like "they paid me to stand up here and entertain you for 10 minutes".

          Every single video is like that! TED is waste of time.

          Unless you enjoy entertainment.

        • Might I suggest Fova.tv as an alternative?

          Fora has less of the 'look at my gadget|idea' but more 'panel discussion on topic X'.. and they aren't put on by Fova.tv themselves.. they just web-air panels from other organizations. Some videos are interesting, some not, but all are usually longer, and in more depth, then the ones on TED.

  • Geeks Vs Nerds (Score:1, Informative)

    by markass530 ( 870112 )
    I've maintained for a while, that I am a nerd, into computers, and tech stuff etc.I Also say that I am not a geek, because "Geeks" are Star Trek, anime, and get dressed up as such characters (and other things I think are retarded) . I point to Slashdots title, news for nerds, as exhibit A. (A majority of stuff on the site is about nerd stuff, not geek stuff). Anyone agree/Disagree?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by aldld ( 1663705 )

      I disagree. But that's probably because everyone has their own slightly different definition of geek and nerd.

      I consider myself to be a geek, but I don't get dressed up as characters, I don't like anime at all. Star Trek is okay, but I'm not anywhere near being obsessed with it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mirix ( 1649853 )

      People that play dress up aren't just nerds or geeks, they're dweebs.

    • Re:Geeks Vs Nerds (Score:4, Interesting)

      by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater@@@gmail...com> on Friday February 26, 2010 @02:17AM (#31282012) Homepage

      I mostly agree. I've been saying for some years now that back in the day, geeks/nerds were people who were passionate about some out-of-the-mainstream interest. SF, computers, model railroads, real railroads, chess, war games, obscure bits of history...
       
      But nowadays 'nerd' is synonymous with what would have been called a 'computer geek'.
       
      The meaning of geek has suffered an even worse fate - geek now means conformity. It's not just about being into Star Trek or anime, it's about having seen and being into the right anime. About knowing the popular cultural references. About having read the right books and seen the right movies. (Hence the phrase "geek cred" and "turn in your geek card")
       
      I don't call myself a geek or a nerd nowadays, because both terms have been rendered essentially meaningless.
       
      Hmm... I guess I don't agree after all.

      • Geek now means conformity [...] it's about having seen and being into the right anime [...] I don't call myself a geek or a nerd nowadays, because both terms have been rendered essentially meaningless.

        Heretic! Turn in your geek card!

    • I am a human being ..
      Labels like these are for soup cans. Not me and you. I am what I am. Social categorization like this disgusts me. Sadly, people in USA are brought up that way. They have to belong to a group which does certain things.

      Just because you are part of a social label you are supposed to bahave and dress and act in a way? Fuck that.

  • Why not Pecha Kucha? (Score:4, Informative)

    by lennier ( 44736 ) on Thursday February 25, 2010 @11:50PM (#31281290) Homepage

    15 slides for 20 seconds... this sounds like an unbranded knockoff of Pecha Kucha [pecha-kucha.org], which has 20 slides at 20 seconds.

    I know the PK crowd is haunted by architects and designers and artisty Mac-using types... and maybe they're a bit tight with control of it... but why not just join/run PK events in your area, or create more? Why does the world need two names/brands for what's the same idea?

  • Finally, an event in my area (Salt Lake) that actually appeals to my interest. Maybe I'll actually leave the house for a few hours next week.

  • It figures: my town (and state capitol) has no Ignition event planned. Nope, the only ignition we have here is the variety that begins with a match and lighter fluid.

    Did I mention our town had a Slashdot Meetup (meetup.com) some years ago, but it fizzled for lack of interest? *sigh*

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