US State Department Looks to TED for New Ideas

This last Wednesday, we were able to attend TED @ State—a US State Department sponsored TED conference.  The one-day conference is the result of the Global Partnership Initiative, which is, in the word of Hilary Clinton, designed to reflect the State Department’s “opening its doors to a new generation of public-private partnerships.”  Basically, the conference was the government’s recognition that innovation will likely not be found inside the Beltway (a sound judgment in our opinion).

TED brought out their heavies to address an audience primarily made up of folks from NGO’s, the US government and diplomatic circles.  The presenters focused mostly on issues germane to the State Department.  The first presenter, Clay Shirky talked about how the Internet and social media have made “former audiences the producers.”  He celebrated how governments can no longer institute one-way information dissemination.  For example, he lauded Obama for his use of social media, highlighting how he communicated with his constituents on his change of vote for FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act).   While Obama didn’t change his vote because of a mass-outcry to do so, the remarkable thing, according to Shirky, is that he allowed and responded to the voices of dissent.

Next was Steward Brand.  The futurist and creator of the “Whole Earth Catalog” plugged ideas espoused in his forthcoming book “Whole Earth Discipline.”  In the Catalog, Brand says, “We are as gods and might as well get good at it,” and thus was the gist of his presentation.  In a stark (and somewhat scattered) way, Brand outlined the state of the world with its ever-increasing slums and urbanity, disease and global warming.  He didn’t suggest we try to reverse these trends, but rather deal with them—improve and legitimize the slums, feed the multitudes with GMO crops and satisfy our energy needs with compact nuclear reactors.

The remaining three speakers more or less spoke about poverty eradication.  Paul Collier, author of “The Bottom Billion,” lent strategies to deal with post-conflict recovery, saying how economic security—particularly for young men who like to fight when bored—is more important than a straight political solution.  Jacqueline Novogratz, who runs the Acumen Fund, talked about “patient capital”:  investment with little expectation of high or quick returns.  She sees it as a middle way between aid, which breeds over dependence on external money, and no aid, which breeds stagnation.  Lastly, the economist Hans Rosling gave a dazzling display on how the developing world statistically stacks up against the developed world.  He debunked many basic assumptions about the possibility of how much the developing world can and does develop, showing how ostensible 3rd world nations often outpace their 1st world brethren in terms of literacy, disease prevention and other indicators of progress.

While we didn’t stick around to mingle with the decidedly stiff-looking crowd, we did find the atmosphere encouraging.  Perhaps the State Department’s appeal to TED for new ideas, and the standing room only crowd’s eagerness to listen reflects a substantive change in US and global governments’ openness (or desperation) to change.