We spend time thinking about ‘social networks’, and happily attend ‘networking’ events. And when we look at networks from a more academic perspective, we explore social graphs, mapping the connections between nodes. And yet, there is much more to networks. This talk makes a distinction between network infrastructure and network flows – the traffic that […]
Continue readingTEDxKrakow Talk is back again! ‘How Things Spread’
For some reason my talk was one of 20 or so on the TEDx YouTube channel that got removed a month ago. Fortunately the TEDx team were able to repost my video. It meant I lost a lot of views that I had the first time the video was released, but I’m just happy the […]
Continue readingHandling People with Negative Opinions
I’ve had several conversations in the last month or so with people expressing negative – or super-negative viewpoints – on things like humanity, specific human traits, and technology. “Facebook is stopping people going out and having social experiences” “I’m worried about all this information available on the Internet – it’s making everyone stupid” … And […]
Continue readingTedXKrakow: ‘How Things Spread’ – Mark Turrell
How do things spread? Ideas? Behavioral change? A brief run through the fundamental components of spread, and then some unusual examples of how to apply the concepts in oppressive societies – namely Zimbabwe and Libya. Presentation made in Sept 2012 at TedXKrakow and video produced by the TedX team.
Continue reading1. Introducing The Spread Papers
How do you spread things? How do you spread ideas? How do you spread behavioral change? How do you spread products and services? The Spread Papers is a collection of papers written by Mark Turrell that describe the emergent ‘Science of Spread’. In each paper, Mark develops a concept that underpins Spread, and highlights the […]
Continue readingTedXKrakow – my script for talk on “New Lens” plus Libyan Revolution
[holding glass / water bottle] In 1660, a ‘crazy’ Dutch scientist called Anton van Leeuwenhoek started writing scientific papers about how he saw small things moving about in water. The man was clearly mad. Because if you look at a glass of water with the naked eye, even if you really squint, you can’t see […]
Continue readingWhy ‘Americans are Self-Centered’ is Wrong
A thought piece on how to shape the attitudes of the masses – the importance of linguistics in shaping potential strategies People other than Americans are also self-centered, and the phrase ‘Americans are self-centered’ has an availability effect so that hearing it creates the impression that they are the only ones. Better would be to […]
Continue readingWorking on sanitation and rural development in India – my interest in the Great WASH Yatra
Although I might have a reputation more on innovation, technology and revolution, I am deeply interested in applying my skills – and the science of spread – to all types of social challenge. So, when I came across WASH United, and their goal of improving human lives through better sanitation, I was very interested both […]
Continue readingSerial Dating Problem and the Switch to Monogamy #MayFail
Human beings are charming. We see the world around us in an instant, and project that this world will carry on the same forever. And we either forget the past entirely or edit the past so that we only think about the bits that fit today, and erase the rest. I always get reminded of […]
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