TED Announces Fellows for TEDGlobal 2009

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-05-26 08:09:00 UTC
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TEDGlobal 2009: The Substance of Things Not Seen

For the uninitiated, TED is one of the greatest modern gatherings of thinkers, doers, and general polymaths. Their 20-minute TED talks, framed to presenters as the "speech of their lives" have produced some of the most brilliant nuggets of wit and inspiration this side of YouTube. The TED Fellows program gives creative innovators from around the world the chance to attend, cost free, one of the world-reknown TED conferences.

Today, TED announced its first class of TEDGlobal fellows, each of whom will join speakers like The Second World author Parag Khanna, musician Imogen Heap, and child-soldier-turned-rapper Emmanual Jal at the  TEDGlobal program in Oxford in July. I was thrilled to see a few familiar names on the list:

"Jonathan Gosier (US/Uganda) — Founder, Appfrica, an organization nurturing and investing in East African software startups...

Peter Haas (US/Haiti/Guatemala) — Founder, Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, bringing appropriate technology to the developing world; tinkerer...

William Kamkwamba (Malawi/South Africa) — Inventor; student, African Leadership Academy"

As regular readers know, I think Jon's model of African entrepreneurship incubation is a little glimpse of the future and the smart money should be betting on him. Peter Haas' model of supporting community driven appropriate technology has been an inspiration for young changemakers since he founded the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group a few years ago. He served as one of the earliest keynotes of the Global Engagement Summit that got me started in this crazy world. William I haven't yet met, but along with so many others, I've been inspired and touched by his story of ingenuity and inspiration.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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