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TED Prize Winners Reveal Their World-Changing Wishes at TED 2005 Conference
MONTEREY, CA February 25 - Four months ago, three extraordinary individuals - musician Bono, photo-artist Edward Burtynsky, and inventor Robert Fischell - were each granted THREE WISHES as winners of the inaugural TED Prize. They were given time to formulate their wishes and strongly encouraged to THINK BIG in order to impact life on this planet. They were allowed to wish for anything at all, with TED agreeing to spend $100,000 on each winner to help make their dreams come true. Now, live on stage at the TED 2005 conference, they divulged their wishes to the world.
BONO announced the launch of ONE, a major new social movement in the US, aimed at fighting poverty worldwide, and wished that it would sign up one million members by year end. He then called for one billion impressions about ONE prior to the African G8 Conference. And he challenged the TED community to connect every hospital, health clinic and school in one country in Africa.
ROBERT FISCHELL sought new uses for his extraordinary invention of a neurostimulator implanted in the cranium, to follow on from its potential in curing epilepsy. He asked for help turning an electrical device for curing migraine headaches into a marketable design. And he called for the setting up of a brain trust to rethink our approach to medical liability.
EDWARD BURTYNSKY wished for the launch of a major campaign based around his landscape photographs that would raise people's awareness of man's impact on the environment. He also called for a major competition in primary schools to promote sustainable ideas. And he wished to learn how to translate his work to film format in order to make an IMAX movie.
"The ambition and creativity behind these wishes is breathtaking," said Chris Anderson, Curator of TED. "If the TED community is able to fulfill even a few of them, then the TED Prize dream will have been spectacularly realized. No one here is under-estimating the challenge involved to make these wishes real. But there are already signs that spectacular contributions will be forthcoming."
The dream behind the TED Prize is that the three recipients will find a way to leverage the resources of the TED community, as well as TED's corporate sponsors and partners, to achieve value that is an order of magnitude greater than the $100,000 set aside for their wishes.
Here, in more detail, are the wishes of each recipient:
TED Prize Winner Bono may be one of the most well known musicians in the world, but he is also a tireless and amazingly effective activist who continues to change lives across the planet.
Bono explained, "The geopolitical world has got a lot to learn from the digital world, from the ease with which it blew away obstacles nobody knew could even be budged. You have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. My wishes are for the people at TED to blow away some more barriers and build an online activist community of one million Americans for the One campaign; achieve one billion media hits for the one billion people living on less than one dollar a day; and to wire up every clinic and school in one African country, Ethiopia."
Bono Wish #1: ONE, A NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRICA
WISH: I wish for you to help build a social movement of more than ONE MILLION American activists for Africa.
GOAL: Empower Americans to fight poverty.
PLAN OF EXECUTION: Use U2 2005 Tour to recruit people to the ONE Campaign using a text messaging solution based on a creative combination of Java technology, java.com site participation and technologies from Sun Microsystems and Voxiva.
Bono Wish #2: CREATE A BILLION IMPRESSIONS ABOUT ONE
WISH: I wish to tell people ONE BILLION times about ONE, with as much of this as possible before the G8 Africa Summit in July 2005.
GOAL: One billion media impressions to tell every person in the
U.S. about the ONE Campaign to make poverty history. I would also like to reach every person in other G8 countries about the opportunity for a historic breakthrough in the fight against AIDS and poverty in 2005.
PLAN OF EXECUTION: Engage religious leaders, soccer moms,
Hollywood and the heartland in the ONE Campaign; produce and distribute video, audio and web content.
Bono Wish #3: ONE AFRICAN COUNTRY INTERNET CONNECTION
WISH: I wish for you to show the power of information-its power to rewrite the rules and to transform lives-by connecting every hospital, health clinic, and school in one African country, Ethiopia, to the Internet.
GOAL: Prove the power of the Internet in a country's development.
Track and improve public health with information technology; expand the resources available to local schools. AMD has generously agreed to provide support for this ambitious plan.
Shashi Tharoor, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, presented each of this year's TED Prize winners with awards created by New York-based sculptor Tom Shannon. These sculptures feature a magnetically levitated sphere with three ripple points. All recipients received their awards in person, with the exception of Bono who appeared on stage via Teleportec, a video conferencing system that provided a life-size image of the musician. HBO introduced the Winners with a video tribute of their works.
Nominations for the TED Prize 2005 will open March 1, 2005. Members of the public are strongly encouraged to nominate remarkable candidates - even those not currently in the public eye.
TED Prize and TED conference Background
TED -- an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design -- is an annual conference that has been described as the ultimate brain spa. Each year a unique audience of 1,000 leading opinion formers experiences the latest, greatest ideas, inventions and passions, delivered by more than 50 speakers and performers. TED was founded in 1984 and acquired by the Sapling Foundation four years ago.
In May 2003, a group selected from the TED Community set out to
brainstorm an awards program unlike any other. The goal was to tap into the formidable talents and resources of the TED Community in the most creative way imaginable to leverage the work of remarkable people. This process, further aided by a creative team from world-renowned design and innovation firm IDEO, culminated in the Three Wishes format, to our knowledge, the first time this format has been used in an awards program.
In February of 2004, The Sapling Foundation began soliciting nominations for the inaugural TED Prize from the TED Community and members of the public. The Foundation also appointed a secret team of official Nominators covering areas as broad as Science, Technology, Business, Design, the Arts, Entertainment, and Social Entrepreneurship.
The Nominators were asked to find people whose work was capable of transcending boundaries and making a significant impact on our shared future. More information is available at www.ted.com.
--Ruderfinn Switzer
MONTEREY, CA February 25 - Four months ago, three extraordinary individuals - musician Bono, photo-artist Edward Burtynsky, and inventor Robert Fischell - were each granted THREE WISHES as winners of the inaugural TED Prize. They were given time to formulate their wishes and strongly encouraged to THINK BIG in order to impact life on this planet. They were allowed to wish for anything at all, with TED agreeing to spend $100,000 on each winner to help make their dreams come true. Now, live on stage at the TED 2005 conference, they divulged their wishes to the world.
BONO announced the launch of ONE, a major new social movement in the US, aimed at fighting poverty worldwide, and wished that it would sign up one million members by year end. He then called for one billion impressions about ONE prior to the African G8 Conference. And he challenged the TED community to connect every hospital, health clinic and school in one country in Africa.
ROBERT FISCHELL sought new uses for his extraordinary invention of a neurostimulator implanted in the cranium, to follow on from its potential in curing epilepsy. He asked for help turning an electrical device for curing migraine headaches into a marketable design. And he called for the setting up of a brain trust to rethink our approach to medical liability.
EDWARD BURTYNSKY wished for the launch of a major campaign based around his landscape photographs that would raise people's awareness of man's impact on the environment. He also called for a major competition in primary schools to promote sustainable ideas. And he wished to learn how to translate his work to film format in order to make an IMAX movie.
"The ambition and creativity behind these wishes is breathtaking," said Chris Anderson, Curator of TED. "If the TED community is able to fulfill even a few of them, then the TED Prize dream will have been spectacularly realized. No one here is under-estimating the challenge involved to make these wishes real. But there are already signs that spectacular contributions will be forthcoming."
The dream behind the TED Prize is that the three recipients will find a way to leverage the resources of the TED community, as well as TED's corporate sponsors and partners, to achieve value that is an order of magnitude greater than the $100,000 set aside for their wishes.
Here, in more detail, are the wishes of each recipient:
TED Prize Winner Bono may be one of the most well known musicians in the world, but he is also a tireless and amazingly effective activist who continues to change lives across the planet.
Bono explained, "The geopolitical world has got a lot to learn from the digital world, from the ease with which it blew away obstacles nobody knew could even be budged. You have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. My wishes are for the people at TED to blow away some more barriers and build an online activist community of one million Americans for the One campaign; achieve one billion media hits for the one billion people living on less than one dollar a day; and to wire up every clinic and school in one African country, Ethiopia."
Bono Wish #1: ONE, A NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT FOR AFRICA
WISH: I wish for you to help build a social movement of more than ONE MILLION American activists for Africa.
GOAL: Empower Americans to fight poverty.
PLAN OF EXECUTION: Use U2 2005 Tour to recruit people to the ONE Campaign using a text messaging solution based on a creative combination of Java technology, java.com site participation and technologies from Sun Microsystems and Voxiva.
Bono Wish #2: CREATE A BILLION IMPRESSIONS ABOUT ONE
WISH: I wish to tell people ONE BILLION times about ONE, with as much of this as possible before the G8 Africa Summit in July 2005.
GOAL: One billion media impressions to tell every person in the
U.S. about the ONE Campaign to make poverty history. I would also like to reach every person in other G8 countries about the opportunity for a historic breakthrough in the fight against AIDS and poverty in 2005.
PLAN OF EXECUTION: Engage religious leaders, soccer moms,
Hollywood and the heartland in the ONE Campaign; produce and distribute video, audio and web content.
Bono Wish #3: ONE AFRICAN COUNTRY INTERNET CONNECTION
WISH: I wish for you to show the power of information-its power to rewrite the rules and to transform lives-by connecting every hospital, health clinic, and school in one African country, Ethiopia, to the Internet.
GOAL: Prove the power of the Internet in a country's development.
Track and improve public health with information technology; expand the resources available to local schools. AMD has generously agreed to provide support for this ambitious plan.
Shashi Tharoor, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, presented each of this year's TED Prize winners with awards created by New York-based sculptor Tom Shannon. These sculptures feature a magnetically levitated sphere with three ripple points. All recipients received their awards in person, with the exception of Bono who appeared on stage via Teleportec, a video conferencing system that provided a life-size image of the musician. HBO introduced the Winners with a video tribute of their works.
Nominations for the TED Prize 2005 will open March 1, 2005. Members of the public are strongly encouraged to nominate remarkable candidates - even those not currently in the public eye.
TED Prize and TED conference Background
TED -- an acronym for Technology, Entertainment, Design -- is an annual conference that has been described as the ultimate brain spa. Each year a unique audience of 1,000 leading opinion formers experiences the latest, greatest ideas, inventions and passions, delivered by more than 50 speakers and performers. TED was founded in 1984 and acquired by the Sapling Foundation four years ago.
In May 2003, a group selected from the TED Community set out to
brainstorm an awards program unlike any other. The goal was to tap into the formidable talents and resources of the TED Community in the most creative way imaginable to leverage the work of remarkable people. This process, further aided by a creative team from world-renowned design and innovation firm IDEO, culminated in the Three Wishes format, to our knowledge, the first time this format has been used in an awards program.
In February of 2004, The Sapling Foundation began soliciting nominations for the inaugural TED Prize from the TED Community and members of the public. The Foundation also appointed a secret team of official Nominators covering areas as broad as Science, Technology, Business, Design, the Arts, Entertainment, and Social Entrepreneurship.
The Nominators were asked to find people whose work was capable of transcending boundaries and making a significant impact on our shared future. More information is available at www.ted.com.
--Ruderfinn Switzer
