I imagine Bill Gates is frustrated. He's one of the richest people in the world, but he doesn't have what he needs to solve AIDS and malaria in Africa single-handedly. He needs to recruit some of the other rich people he hangs out with, all of whom no doubt think it's great what you're doing in Africa, Bill.
He knows if he could unglaze some of those eyeballs, he could solve the problem.
And now the economy's going to shit, and it's harder than ever to get people to focus on something that's happening to poor people across an ocean.
So while speaking today to an elite audience at the exclusive TED conference in California, Gates unscrewed the lid off a glass bottle and said, "Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some. Here, let them roam
around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected."
According to an account on USA Today's blog, "While he quickly reassured the group they were not carrying the
disease … the organizer of the conference said it
was an 'amazing moment' that provided the crowd with 'food for thought.'"
The last time I had an "amazing moment" like that, they had to clean it up with a flat shovel.
Ballsy, Bill.
Absolutely brilliant – the jar and the mosquitoes – hopefully this part of his speech ends up on YouTube so other speakers see the impact a well-placed prop can generate.
One of my biggest regrets is that many years ago when the web & online information was young I had an opportunity to attend a TED conference and had to pass. It was around the time that the brain trust at LexisNexis decided the the Internet was going to be a passing fad and not a long term strategic opportunity for the company (can you say clueless?).
The theme of that year’s conference was technology oriented and John Perry Barlow was able to get me an invitation and urged me to attend but I was unable to get clearance and had to attend an obviously unmemorable and unimportant company meeting.
Who knows how my career/life might have changed had I been able to attend.
Ouch, Craig.
The conference does look fascinating; you can spend a day looking through past talks on their Web site, http://www.ted.com.
Where is J.P. Barlow today?
David
Alas, I have lost touch with John over the years although our relationship was one of mutual convenience rather than personal connection.
Around this same time period (can’t recall if it was before or after TED) I was speaking at the PRSA conference in Seattle. Unbeknownst to me, a few blocks away in the law offices of Perkins, Coie & (something else) Barlow, Nicholus Negropante, and other early net luminaries were meeting trying to form a global response to what they foresaw as impending legal actions as various countries tried to grapple (and would misunderatand) the Internet.
I found this out the following week when John call me to recruit me to the cause. Not because I was so well known or in their same league, far from it, but because Reed Elsevier had bought LN, and he/they felt it would carry a lot of weight having that name associated with the effort.
Of course that request too, flew like a safe within the halls of LN.
I used to keep up with the conference for a while but haven’t thought about it for many years.