My tour of TED.com continues with Nicholas Negroponte’s talk on his One Laptop Per Child program. (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_on_one_laptop_per_child_two_years_on.html)

It’s a great program and one that deserves wholehearted support from people in developed countries.  My comments focus on the talk and Negroponte’s delivery of it, not on the worth of the program.  In fact, to demonstrate that sentiment tangibly, I’ve just gone to the OLPC website and made a donation to give a laptop.  I figure that entitles me to speak freely. 

Negroponte’s talk represents a huge opportunity lost.  Were he to structure the talk properly, and deliver it with some panache, I guarantee that he would greatly increase donations and participation in the program.  As the talk stands, it’s badly structured and badly delivered.

First, the content.  Nicholas begins with two minutes of rambling nonsense about himself and his education.  It’s self-absorbed and disengaging.  At nearly three minutes in, he finally finds his way out of his solipsistic bubble and gets to the rest of the world.  But from there we get a series of random thoughts, prompted by a random assortment of slides, on this very important topic.  To say that it doesn’t do OLPC justice is an understatement.

We learn a little about the Ethiopian keyboard – remarkably, the first in that language.  We learn that when you offer a salary of $0.00, you get the best people applying.  We see a few pictures of kids and laptops.  We learn about the 4 design innovations that the laptop presents – sunlightmeshnetworklowpower – in such a slapdash way that if you didn’t know what they were beforehand you wouldn’t by the time Nicholas was done. 

We learn all this, but not in a way that allows us to decide that OLPC is a great idea or that we should contribute.  Negroponte does make several calls to action – including that we spread the world, that we contribute for one laptop, and that we contribute for many – but the 'asks' are made in passing, almost apologetically. 

The opportunity lost is to present a thoughtfully structured talk that leads the audience on a proper decision-making journey.  Negroponte should begin by engaging the audience, then describe the need, then the laptop and the program, then how the program would benefit the world.  Finally, he should close with one clear call to action. 

Nicholas’ mishmash of a talk is delivered in classic bad form.  He wanders around the room aimlessly just as his talk wanders around the point.  The only time he stops and delivers is when he utters the line “You get the best people.”  He’s completely withdrawn into his own head; his head posture is combined with self-protective arm and hand gestures that keep the audience away.  He talks to the screen, not the audience, and uses the slides to help him remember where he is.  His head posture is also coupled with an occasional pelvic move that is very disconcerting and distracting.  All in all, a performance that will lose as many donations as it gets.  A shame, because the cause is so good.