Hot Tub

I started attending the spectacular TED conference in 2002 and, every year, my time at TED fills my head with great ideas and hope for the future.

You can find moments of brilliance from every person who gets on the TED stage. You can bump into people where a conversation over dessert can change your life.

Some of the 2010TED Talks are already online, so you can see the great thinkers yourself. This year, there were inspiring talks and game-changing technological advances that blew my mind.

Here are my top six designer picks:

1: Microsoft is Cool
As a life-long Apple lover, I never thought I would utter those words. The biggest technology game-changer for me was watching Blaise Aguera y Arcas demo Microsoft’s new Bing augmented-reality mapping application that seamlessly integrates user-generated content of photographs and even video clips from multiple vantage points. You can watch the Ted Talk here:

To see it live, go to bing maps, click on “explore 3d photo experiences,” and choose Photosynth. You’ll be presented with photo icons on the map you can dive into.

Check out Pike Place Market in Seattle to get you started.

2: Pivot is making the complex visually clear
Microsoft Live Labs is inviting people to test drive their new application that makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data through visualization and contextualization of information in new, insightful ways.

Watch the demo here:

Download the application here.

3: Wolfram Alpha brings numbers to life
Ask a mathematical question, any question, and feel free to use natural language. Chances are you’ll find your answer in a visual and easy to understand format. Calculators have suddenly become passé.

Visit the site and check out the visual gallery of examples. Or make your own query.

4: Google meets Oprah
Google takes the stage to demo some of the features on the new Nexus One phone. There were two applications in particular that got my design mojo flowing.

Google Goggles lets you use pictures taken with your mobile phone to search the web. It’s ideal for things that aren’t easy to describe in words. There’s no need to type or speak your query – all you have to do is open the app, snap a picture, and wait for your search results.

Google Translate allows the user to type in a question and get a translation in return, including audio playback. The barriers of communication in a foreign country are forever changed with a tool like this in your pocket. Although it’s not perfect, feel free to throw away those Berlitz guides and tapes.

After winning over the audience, the Oprah moment occurs. Everyone in the audience, as well as Palm Springs and Associate Members all over the country, received a free mobile phone. For this audience, it’s better than getting the car.

5: Gamer’s paradise
People spend 3 billion hours a week playing online games. Why? Because in the online world, as Jane McGonical explains, gamers are super-powered hopeful individuals whose online feelings cannot be replicated in the real world. What if that was possible? “Reality is broken,” says IFTF’s Jane McGonigal, “and we all need to tap into a collective sense of urgent optimism—as well as the ability and capacity to act now—to make the future.”

Learn more about Jane and check out her latest game Evoke.

6: Leadership is overrated; be a first follower
A 3-minute video on how to create a movement. The first follower can turn a lone-nut into a leader.

See it for yourself.

What does the world need now? Times are bad. Are they getting worse? What do we need to do to put us back on the right course? This year at TED, the speakers and attendees were asked to answer that question.

A time-honored TED tradition is to wrap up the conference borrowing references from speakers throughout the week.

Humorist Ze Frank was the last speaker to sum up the conference. His answer to the question?

What the world needs now is… YOU.