The WWW Conference: improvised conversation

August 9, 2011 7:42 AM

Simply pairings of amazingly interesting individuals prompted by a question, generating a conversation. For 10 minutes to 50 minutes. And so it will go – conversations interlaced with threads of improvised music. An astrophysicist & a microbiologist. An actor & a playwright. A jazz musician & a classical one. An energetic exploration of the lost art of conversing.

Thirty years after launching the original TED conference, Richard Saul Wurman seeks to reinvent the typical conference format with The WWW Conference.
posted by Foci for Analysis (15 comments total)

amazingly interesting individuals

the greatest, most interesting & curious minds in the world

If among all the buttons on your remote control there was one button called truth, wouldn't you push that button?

So the idea here is to create a National Strategic Ego Reserve to be tapped in times of perilously low collective self-esteem?
posted by RogerB at 7:54 AM on August 9, 2011 [14 favorites]

Hands up who tried to go to www.www
posted by therubettes at 8:15 AM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sounds like a traditional salon.
posted by The Whelk at 8:17 AM on August 9, 2011

But without the blow dryers.
posted by Ahab at 8:21 AM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think this sounds great.

Unlike most people, though, I like improvised music.
posted by box at 8:23 AM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Introverts' Moderately Popular Front is teaming up with the League of Silent Exploders to blow these dens of extroversion sky-high.
posted by scruss at 8:26 AM on August 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I can see this working out if there's an open bar, or at least table service. Some traditions are important.
posted by bonehead at 8:40 AM on August 9, 2011

Seems cool but C'MON.. fucking Yo-Yo Ma and Herbie Hancock? That's like the tiniest notch above using Joshua Bell and Wynton Marsalis.. or Sarah Chang and Pat Metheny. Terrible choices. Oh well.
posted by ReeMonster at 9:26 AM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is intriguing but it doesn't do anything about TED's fundamental flaw, classist separation between presenters & audience. From what I understand about TED is that there's presenters & intellectuals who all stay on one side & rich & famous people who stay on the other, rarely mixing. I can't find it but I believe it was a previous MeFi post or comment where I read that. Not a healthy environment for exchanging ideas beyond the presentations themselves. Systems that work best are participatory (IMO). This does nothing to break down that barrier, at least from what I can tell.
posted by scalefree at 9:28 AM on August 9, 2011

I can see this working out if there's an open bar

Well as my grandma used to say, conversation always peaks with two-and-a-half drink glow. Then it's either time for dinner or fights break out.

I'd love to see something like this with both open bar and a focus on individuals who, though amazingly interesting, also have rage issues.

And free jazz, of course.
posted by philip-random at 9:30 AM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I thought jazz was intellectual jazz.
posted by activitystory at 10:02 AM on August 9, 2011

Seems cool but C'MON.. fucking Yo-Yo Ma and Herbie Hancock? That's like the tiniest notch above using Joshua Bell and Wynton Marsalis.. or Sarah Chang and Pat Metheny. Terrible choices. Oh well.

Wat. All of those people would be fine. You wanted Black Dice and John Zorn? Nobody else does.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:34 AM on August 9, 2011

Well ok maybe Black Dice as played by 5 year olds.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:36 AM on August 9, 2011

But without the blow dryers.
posted by Ahab at 8:21 AM on August 9 [+] [!]

Plenty of hot air being blown around, though.
posted by basicchannel at 10:55 AM on August 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is it possible to actually attend? There doesn't seem to be any mention of how to do so on the website.
posted by macrael at 6:21 PM on August 9, 2011