So, my guess is that lots of people already know about TED: Ideas Worth Spreading and so there are people who will read this and think that I am woefully behind the times. But what a cool organization and wonderful website.
www.Ted.comI haven't read or watched deeply enough--but this is what I know so far. This is an organization that holds conferences a few times a year and invites the most influential folks in design, science/technology and entertainment/arts from all over the world to come together to give the "Speeches of their lives."--no longer than 18 minutes in length about what they believe to be the most important topic available to them.
TED also selects TEDPrize winners every year who get $100,000.00 and, more importantly, the chance to make a wish that TED will work to help fulfill. And when you give Al Gore a wish, or Jill Tarter or Sylvia Earle or Jose Abreu, you can bet it's going to be a big one. . .
The website holds a collection of a TED films--short films of the many impressive speakers who have given talks on everything from design to music performance to the way the brain functions when making meaning to understanding social media or the ways that cults rewire the human brain. It's a website that makes available the very best college lecture series from the perfect nonexistent college campus from the last 50 years, compressed into one neat and tidy website.
This is good news, indeed. You can get smarter and happier by visiting and watching the films (because knowledge really is like joy). Plus, this organization is making the global community smaller and tighter and more interconnected while expanding our understanding of the complexity of that world.
It's good stuff.
