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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2011-12-13
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKhCoToyQUg
so in this bottle I have twenty thousand mustard seeds and the twenty thousand mustard seeds represent the number children who die stay from preventable diseases has anyone ever been a crowd of twenty thousand people I think I was a U. two concert one time there is at least twenty thousand people there and I was in a band in a past life in rock and roll Ripper
foreign we went on the road and we played with Everclear one time and I think that we play to a crowd of about fourteen thousand people and what I remember was the sound of the wall of sound that came from the crowd it was deafening was amazing so I was used to wearing ear protection on stage the amplifiers that we had but it's just amazing the
sound of that many people now is fourteen thousand so to make my point today I want to show you what it looks like when you have twenty thousand children that die when I was preparing for this speech I got chills because I realize that twenty thousand children are here with us tonight they're waiting frost see you know what what to respond to their their waiting in
there watching and they really need our help %HESITATION twenty thousand that's just one day about two days from now three days from now past the weekend are we miter might not remember this but that's fifty thousand children the pass by in three days that's as many people who died in the Vietnam War %HESITATION from the US side at least and the organizations that are in a
position to help these children they need help to I don't oppose a simple ethical scenario the dying child was within arm's reach what would you do and what I want to suggest is that the children of the world are within arm's reach they're a click away there a tap away we can learn more about the world and there are some ways to respond to it I
want to start by asking a question %HESITATION what if a series of questions and I want to start with some things that I found separation when I was doing my research on the pasty that I did one of the things that I find inspiring was the space race JFK and a lot of other people got together and they asked the question what if what if we
could get to the moon I've not just what all the water all the reasons we can't or haven't so far but how can we actually do it and they set out to do and they work together and they accomplish that eventually another thing that I find inspiring as one laptop per child I did some volunteer work with them and they're an organization that asked the question
what if we could get a computer to as many children as possible around the world to help them with their education and it was interesting because sometimes people would raise the question well you know why are you helping with education one that child doesn't even have basic sanitation %HESITATION or that sort of you know back and forth debate and the answer that started forming in my
mind was well I think that we need to meet all those needs not just one on but how can we meet those needs in a balanced way so I started thinking about that and that led to some of the things that I talked about today I want to ask the what if question what if we could create a nonprofit stock market when I look at all
the challenge and logistical need in the world sometimes equity paralyzing and I have a feeling like more resources could be brought into play if we felt less overwhelmed to free fell less paralyzed and I think if we look at the way that the stock market works that there might be some lessons from that that I might allow resources to be more effectively allocated to where they're
needed most that it might draw more resources into play and I don't think it's just an ounce of money I think that %HESITATION money is not the only answer but I think that if we start thinking about how we could engage and learn more %HESITATION in assisting a boy I think that that might be an answer so if we set out to turn the stock market
on its head if you look at the for profit stock market it's a financial ecosystem a nonprofit stock market I think that that could also be a financial ecosystem a lot of moving parts out where people work together to put the pieces into place and a for profit stock market you have a variety of indicators and tools and I think that you can have the same
thing in a non profit stock market you could have %HESITATION and analysts and tools to give the bride of information that would allow you to %HESITATION decide how to invest in a nonprofit organization and to really think of it as an investment not just a one time thing not just because you feel guilty about a disaster but to work with things and and %HESITATION ongoing way
and to build hope because you're seeing the ongoing story in a for profit stock market you have a sense of ownership shares you might have an expectation of financial are why which as return investment and I think that the same things come into play in a nonprofit stock market a sense of ownership %HESITATION maybe virtual shares and maybe an expectation of social return investment whatever that
means I think it's a start of a conversation I'm not saying that I would have all the answers but I think but the questions are worth asking in a for profit stock market you might %HESITATION look at it and say that the decisions that investors make guide subsequent decisions are successful in investment decision was a signal to other people Hey you know that's something that may
god one in Boston and I think that you can have the same thing in a non profit stock market of and that that is part of what the market dynamic would bring into play where when you have a system that shows the feedback of people investing in nonprofit organizations looking at their impact that that would help to draw for the resource and to play in a
for profit stock market reports performance of the system guides resources towards where the most effectively use so a profitable company on is efficient and it's making a product that people want in a series of things happened to make it a profitable and then the system rewards that performance I'm not sure what the best things would be in a nonprofit stock market but I think that we
could think about them I think it could be a combination of numbers and where you can't put numbers to things maybe it's stories but I think that you could have information come through that could help you or I to decide where we'd like to invest our money so what would it look like just imagine for a moment a nonprofit portfolio or a mutual fund or analyst
ratings would that mean cut even know if I know what that would mean but I think it's an exciting question to ask and I think %HESITATION it's worth looking at the for profit stock market and some of the lessons that they've learned about how to convey information and one of the things that they tend to do is to basically simplify to bring a lot of complex
information into a more simplified format so might %HESITATION think of a way to draw information on a non profit in a way that just displays a graphic or something like that but I want to ask the question what if color could help to provide balance for nonprofit portfolio because they're still the question of complexity like there's Albany in the world how do I know where did
to put my limited resources and I think that color could be one of those answers green this already in the public consciousness with the environment and %HESITATION you know the green movement and maybe that's one sector red is starting to become the part the public consciousness with the work of bono and data and %HESITATION the join red brown written by clothing and then some of the
money goes towards %HESITATION the global fund to fight HIV I think blue could maybe mean community and %HESITATION that's just one example of how color could potentially allow people to say well if only to give a dollar for dollar was all I had to give how could I spotted up to balance things I'm not just hitting that one a sector and that kind of goes back
to the question I was asking myself knows volunteering from up to laptop per child what's a way to simplify things maybe color would be one way so also when asked the question what if corporate help us monitor our world and I really do think that the world is within you know the entire worlds within arms arm's length and it's interesting because if you take a sixteen
by twelve pixel grid you can represent nearly all the nations in the world about a hundred ninety two and the and the number changes from time to time but literally you know what would be like if you could hold the whole world in your hands look at it and the color of a pixel would alert you to something that you're interested in maybe it's our you
know health issues or natural disasters or whatever it is what if you could hold it and look at it and then you know learn more and more I think that a market based system it helped with engaging people on an ongoing basis and the color might be away again to moderate very complex data I take it and to to show you at a glance what's going
on in the world and that color simplification might be part of the solution I think if we could develop tools like that that that could co exist with something like looking your social network activity or news or whatever by with color coding there and it could be a ubiquitous user experience that might be helpful I think literally out it would become a situation where you got
the whole world in your hands so I would ask to what it was social so I think that would be a natural place to go and maybe an actual starting point for experimentation known in this slide ritualised Dale just invest in the American red cross so imagine people talking about that what does it mean to invest in them you know %HESITATION what do I think about
that or whatever I think that the the social dimension is really a good starting point the other thing that I think would be really interesting is to ask what if social games could %HESITATION provider of currency that you could invest in a nonprofit stock market so there's if you're not aware there's a huge %HESITATION growth in virtual economies with social games where people either get free
virtual currency are they buy out in the end it's really an entire economy and that might be something that happened to %HESITATION maybe people get free currency but maybe a corporate sponsor provide someone says you know with whatever contest you when you can take this to the nonprofit stock market make the world better the other interesting question I think would be worth asking as what if
the nonprofit stock market itself was a social game or had some kind of game dimension one of the fundamental challenges and working with %HESITATION motivating people inviting them to invest in the nonprofit organization is some in house just motivation time of the day or whatever it is and I think if you made it more fun like even if you just had ranking or points or some
sense of competition with the call gamification these days even if you just made what would look like the trade but made a little bit more fun maybe that would be enough for some people but I also think would be worth asking what if you just made it Sacha and enjoyable experience some people might play just for fun maybe it's like monopoly but you called philanthropy or
