TedXOilSpill partners thinkers from around the country to solve oil spill and cleanup | 06.30.2010 | 08:13:15 | Views: 5198 | ID: June 2010: On Monday, June 28 dozens of TED (Technology, Education and Design Conference) speakers were "proposing solutions to the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico," National Geographic News Watch wrote on its blog. Called TEDxOilSpill, the conference gathered TED Talk speakers together to "tackle the tough questions raised by the recent and ongoing environmental catastrophe." Among those speaking in Washington on Monday was Frances Beland of the X Prize Foundation who said anyone who could invent a solution to help clean up the Gulf Coast would win close to $3 million, CNN reported. According to TED's website, "In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At TEDxOilSpill, live speakers will spark deep discussion and connection. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized." Concordantly, NatGeo reported, "Much of the best hope for addressing problems created by the BP Deepwater Horizon well rupture and the world's larger dependence on fossil fuels lies in large numbers of people collaborating through crowdsource tools such as social media websites, community built GIS map layers, and citizen reporter networks." Change.org wrote that at the conference, "We saw two tech-driven solutions that rely on the power of one person at a time: OilReporter, which empowers citizens to use their smartphone to alert officials of oil or injured wildlife, and MapMill, which allows you to help save the Gulf Coast without leaving town." According to Treehugger, participation in the conference included Oceanic activist Philippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, who said the challenges facing the Louisiana wetlands, the wildlife, the environment and the communities living on the coast were vital to solving. In addition to TEDxOilSpill's website, the conference has a Facebook and with up-to-date information.
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