My talk outline – what do you think?
December 21, 2011
by LIOR ZOREF
@lior
(Warning– long post…but an important one).
As part of the preparations for my TED talk, after I asked you what should be in the presentation and how to demonstrate the wisdom of the crowds, I got hundreds of ideas from all around the world.
I would like to share with you the talk structure, just before I’m starting to write the full script.
If you have any comments/suggestions/ideas to things that are missing or anything else, I would love to hear your opinion.
After I get everyone’s feedbacks, I will write a first draft of the text I’ll share it with everyone (in a wiki page which anyone can edit).
So, here is the structure of the presentation:
Opening
Who am I… Emphasizing me being a “computer geek”, not having many friends or a social life during. How my activity on Facebook led me to PhD studies on wisdom of the crowds. And, how it all led me to do the first TED talk based on wisdom of the crowds.
What is wisdom of the crowds
If everything goes well (touch wood) a real OX will come on stage and I’ll will recreate the original experiment which was the base for wisdom of crowds theory. I will ask everyone to tell their weight estimate using their mobile phone on a web-site. Hopefully, the average weight will indeed be the ox’s weight.
In addition, I would offer anyone to propose a closing sentence to end the presentation.
I will explain how today, as social networks are so popular, anyone can use wisdom of the crowds by addressing their social networks friends.
Examples
After addressing the crowd to get assistance in building this presentation, a few people addressed me. Their lives have changed due by using wisdom of the crowds through Facebook.
Here are two examples I am contemplating to show during the presentation:
A pastor who is using wisdom of the crowds through his personal Facebook account to build his mass which he delivers in church. He told me that every Sunday the church is full, and a lot more children and teens arrive. Using crowd wisdom makes him feel wiser.
A mother which raises her son using crowd wisdom. Raising children is a task which requires making decisions daily. With your first child, it’s sometimes hard to know the right decision. She told me how by using crowd wisdom she makes better decisions raising her son. For example – by using crowd wisdom she has solved his speech problem. Crowd wisdom makes her feel as if super nanny is with her at all times for any question that might rise.
Moreover, I will tell about the use I have used crowd wisdom to create my presentation. Could this be a new way to create more TED talks?
Do you know more examples? (Do I need more examples?)
How does crowd wisdom works
In this part I would try and answer the main questions I had received since I started to work on the presentation.
How many friends do you need to utilize crowd wisdom?
Out of all the responses you get, how do you decide what is the collective wisdom?
Is the crowd always wise? (no)
Does it really work?….
At this point I will take an envelope with the weight of the ox. I will show a graph with the weights collected from the crowd, and the average weight. I will open the envelope hoping that the average weight will be the same as the real weight.
Do you have any ideas for other questions or subjects I should address?
What is the meaning of this?
What is the meaning of thinking together (presenting the term “mind sharing”)?
Is the human race a step before a new phase where humans will improve their thinking capability significantly?
Will the use of social networks change? Maybe we’ll use social networks not just for sharing but for thinking?..
Can crowd wisdom succeed where leaders fail?
Can crowd wisdom make dreams come true?
Sometimes dreams do come true
This is where I will share my dream and how special this moment is for me.
I will ask who in the crowd has a dream? We all know dreams can give a meaning to life. My suggestion to everyone is not only to dream, but also share the dream with their friends.
Thanks and ending sentence
I will present an animation showing the profile pictures of those who have helped making the presentation which becomes the words “Thank you” (or any other animation). Is there anyone who wants to/can help with making the animation?
Finally, someone will give me an iPad which will have the ending sentence of the presentation which was sent in real time. To remind you, the sentence sent in the audition was “great minds think alike, clever minds think together”.
Thank you for surviving this far…
Now it’s your turn to think and suggest ideas for improvements.