I feel privileged to be able to go along and listen to someone whom I had only before seen present a talk on the TED forum last Friday evening. Given that it was a packed lecture theater, I feel doubly privileged to have been able to secure a seat close to front but not too close to have to strain my neck to see the slide show that I have to say, was very much like some of the online presentations that I have seen such as this one. I guess an inevitable consequence of having such great content online is that the quality presentations that must have taken a lot of time and effort to prepare, especially for the Lessig presentation style, is that we are likely to not be treated to brand new presentations when we see such a “big name”. There is an interesting side issue here about what we are wanting to see when we see a “name” speak. I guess if we don’t expect Bono or Mick Jagger to present new and different material that is incredibly engaging at each performance, should we expect it of a speaker? But that discussion is perhaps for another day.

The one thing that I would have asked as a question, had I had the opportunity amongst the many asking, is “how are you going to get the message to the Hong Kong schools where it needs to go?” I am almost glad that I did not get the opportunity as I probably would have been told something a little different to what I read in the next morning’s South China Morning Post which contained an article in the Education Section titled “Licensing Platform Opens”. It had a great one line explanation saying “Licensing enables educational works such as textbooks, worksheets, supplementary course materials and presentations to be shared freely and legally by students and educators.” Unfortunately, it also contained the sad statement “So far, no Hong Kong educational institutions have joined the initiative.”

Now there is a challenge for some Hong Kong schools to shift if ever there was one!