Video: TED Talks USC – Rodney Mullen –“How Context Shapes Content”

Rodney Mullen is the bomb, no other skater has done as much for street skating as Mullen and his vast bag of original tricks. Notoriously shy and also kind of goofy it is with excitement that we share this TED talk with the skate innovator at USC campus. Rodney discuss’ inventing some of the most fundamental tricks used today as well as (as the title suggests) how context shapes content. Rodney also likens skateboarding to hacking and open source computing communities where individual’s take something and through a deeper understanding of it make improvements and give it a new context. 

“What do skateboarding and innovation have in common? More than you might think. A successful entrepreneur and innovator, Rodney Mullen is widely considered the most influential street skater in history, inventing most of the tricks used today. By the time he was 23, Mullen had already set new milestones for skateboarding winning 35 out of 36 freestyle competitions. He studied engineering at the University of Florida before co-founding World Industries, the largest skate company of the 90's, which was acquired for more than $20m. He continues to skate, innovate, and design some 30 years after he won his first world championship at the age of 11. Mullen spends his spare time thinking about open source communities, hacking the urban terrain, and transforming the mundane into something new. He'll be featured in the upcoming documentary, "The Bones Brigade: An Autobiography."