Tapscott’s framework set the stage for NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis to share his vision for “open source security.” The leader of the alliance said that security in the 21st century won’t be delivered “solely through the barrel of a gun,” calling on more cooperation between nations, agencies, and the public and private sectors, linked together through “strategic collaboration on the Internet.”
Starvidis described how NATO now collaborates with volunteer organizations for disaster relief missions, works with groups like Major League Baseball and the Department of State for goodwill projects, and teaches reading and writing in places like Afghanistan. While not necessarily “open source” in the way we think of it in technology terms, Starvidis compared his organization’s efforts to those of Wikipedia, saying “No one of us is as smart as all of us thinking together.”
Looking to add a visual twist on the “radical openness” theme, futurist and filmmaker Jason Silva created this rapid fire video looking to capture the rate at which society and technology are evolving:
Underscoring all of these ideas, of course, is the far reaching impact that social media has had on everything from business, to governments, to media and entertainment. It now seems as if the next frontier may be in applying the tenants of social media -- transparency, crowdsourcing and the democratization of media -- to solve a wide array of global problems.
We expect many speakers to continue to touch on these themes throughout the week at TED Global, and will have ongoing coverage of the conference on Mashable.