TEDxKalamazoo was billed as an event to generate ideas to be acted upon and the evening delivered new ways to look at learning, making changes, and those uncivil comments on news stories.
And that was just a third of the evening. Ways to use drones, ways to look at social media, ways to bring public information to the public, and the power of fixing bikes were among the ideas shared.
Three TED videos offered even more food for thought--why the way we judge charities is wrong, businesses use motivation all wrong, and how schools are killing creativity.
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts ballroom was nearly full and those attending were encouraged to pull out their cell phones and tablets and send out into the world tweets regarding the ideas presented.
Here are some of the highlights:
Ethan Alexander, Executive Director of the Open Roads Bike Program. Alexander says he is concerned that young people are so "plugged in" these days, citing statistics that those between ages 8 and 18 spend six-and-a-half hours a day in front of a screen. "That's not the life I want for my kids or any kids," Alexander says. "When kids are searching for answers where will they find them? Will Facebook give them meaningful relationships? Can they find the answer to significant questions they have using Google? What are we losing? Are they going to be connected to nature? Are they going to be able to take things apart and put them back together?"
They will if they are part of Alexander's program, Open Roads, the program he started as a result of such concerns and the recognition that when you give kids the opportunity to use their hands as they do when they are learning to fix bicycles they learn to solve problems and be active.
They learn job skills and people skills through the program.
Alexander says the program needs partnerships with businesses, nonprofits and others across the community, especially in the neighborhoods where kids "live, play and run around."
The revolution will not be motorized, Alexander says. "If you're wondering where do I become part of the revolution--we need people to make this work happen."
Penny Weller, Senior Director, Global Business Services, North American Practice Leader in management consulting for the
Hackett Group.
Weller says that 68 percent of organizations have a two to three year plan in which they hope to achieve significant or moderate transformation. For those that go the route of "big change" about 70 percent fail. It's important to make small changes, she says.
Think about the process and focus on it. She suggests process mapping--identifying the steps in the process, whether they are important, and why they are considered important.
Weller gives the example of a process she and her team were evaluating in hopes of making the process shorter by one day. As they identified the steps in the process they found one step that the company was taking because it thought customers liked it and which customers thought was being taken because the company was required to. Eliminating that step shortened the process by a full day, as they had set out to do.
"Make it easy for people to do the right thing," Weller says. "Find out what's the natural flow of things. Get in their shoes. When people realize you care about them magical things happen."
She encouraged people to take action--to do.
"You have more power than you know," Weller says. "Small changes are powerful."
Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs, a company that will manufacture and sell small, easy-to-use autonomous aerial vehicles, or flying drones when they are approved by the government.
Because people tend to think of spying or bombing when they think of drones, Ellis says he has been advised by the government to call what he is creating autonomous aerial vehicles. Regardless, he calls them drones.
Ellis anticipates drones will have the same kind of revolutionary effect that smart phones and tablets have had. "Seven years ago they did not exist. Today we can't live without them," Ellis says.
They will have many nonmilitary uses: looking for survivors in natural disasters and in other situations, such as fires, where flying in helicopters is dangerous; flying over cultivated fields to get an accurate determination of how a crops' yield; surveying bridges for structural damage that could lead to collapse; analyzing blades on wind turbines to help keep them operational; even delivering tacos and pizza.
The drone revolution could even include "do-it-yourself" drones. What you may one day do with a drone may be limited only by your imagination, Ellis says.
Matt Hampel, founder of LocalData, has worked with nonprofits, newspapers, universities, and other organizations to build tools for the public good.
Hampel discussed a number of projects he has worked on that takes public information and presents it in a way that it helps address a need or concern in the community. Tracking local buses using the GPS devices they all have is just one example. He also encourages the development of local wikis where the collective knowledge of a community can be found.
"There are local wikis around the world," Hampel says. "They are building our shared understanding of the world."
Ways to collect data on mobile devices have created ways for people to work together that have created fantastic results, Hampel says.
Sarah Lee, director of marketing and communications for Greenleaf Hospitality Group and a social media strategist who helped organize Tweetup Kalamazoo and other local social media groups.
She says she is often asked about how to engage customers in social media. Lee says that too often people get caught up in the medium, such as Twitter or Facebook, and they forget it is supposed to be "social."
When social media is truly social it intersects with people's interests and passions. Getting to know people and what drives them is how connections are made. Introductions and asking others to be part of an expanding network also are part of keeping it social.
"People are invested in relationships, the things they care about, their passions and interests are so infectious that other people are blown over by it. Social media is so much more impactful because of those relationships."
Dr. Charles Severance, associate professor at the University of Michigan, is an early pioneer in massive online open courses and open-source software. He teaches the history of the internet on the cutting-edge Coursera teaching platform to students around the world. His first free Coursera class was attended by 56,000 students online.
Severance says most of what the media has written about massive online open courses, or MOOCs, is "crap." The criticism of the courses don't take into account that this is student centered learning and it is up to them what they get out of the program. "This is not about measuring how many finish the course. It's teaching those who want to learn," Severance says.
In a traditional classroom, Severance says, "I can teach you even if you barely care" about the course. In MOOCs "you can learn only if you want to."
Jen Eyer of MLive has been building online communities for more than a decade. She offered what to some may seem a counterintuitive argument that anonymity is a good thing when it comes to online comments on stories.
Eyer says anonymity can work well if the online community is well managed. Eyer says that those who believe comments should have real names on them as letter to the editor on op ed pages once did often don't realize that requirement was a way of limiting the number of letters published.
Anonymity gives a voice to the voiceless, Eyer says. Women, minorities and urban residents are the most likely to be hurt by requiring real names be published with comments.
"Real name policies benefit the powerful and the status quo," Eyer says.
Civility is often not the result of using real names and often comments from those using their real names are worse than anonymous commenters, Eyer says.
Participation drops among those who are not willing to use their real names due to job concerns or perceived ramifications to their local business, for example.
In cases where people use pseudonyms and their comments are rated with "likes" people tend to take pride in the online persona they create.
"Requiring people to use their real names does not teach people to be civil," Eyer says. The actual results are that there is a steep reduction in participation, discussions become bland and 30 percent of the people commenting are jerks and don't care and will continue to be uncivil regardless."
Comments can be governed with clear rules and with communication with those who break the rules against name calling and personal attacks.
"Communities can evolve if we never stop demanding more," Eyer says. "Go forth and comment."
Three TED videos were viewed. They are well worth watching: