TED - My Ephemerae

Posted in Freebies, Personal Interest, TED
Friday, April 20th, 2007 by James S. Huggins

Recently, I stumbled upon TED. TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design”. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The TED Conference, held annually in Monterey, is the heart of TED. More than a thousand people attend. The event sells out a year in advance. And the content has expanded beyond Technology, Entertainment and Design to include Science, Business, the Arts and all the Big Global Issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot - only 18 minutes! - to give their presentation.

There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience.

The TED site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 100 talks with more added each week.

Not only that, these videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

TED is owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation, a 501(c)3 organization (USofA). It was created in 1996 by Chris Anderson, at that time a magazine publishing entrepreneur.

“The goal of the foundation is to foster the spread of great ideas. It aims to provide a platform for the world’s smartest thinkers, greatest visionaries and most-inspiring teachers, so that millions of people can gain a better understanding of the biggest issues faced by the world, and a desire to help create a better future. Core to this goal is a belief that there is no greater force for changing the world than a powerful idea. Consider:

An idea can be created out of nothing except an inspired imagination.
An idea weighs nothing.
It can be transferred across the world at the speed of light for virtually zero cost.
And yet an idea, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.
It can reshape that mind’s view of the world.
It can dramatically alter the behavior of the mind’s owner.
It can cause the mind to pass on the idea to others.”