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TED and TED Talks

Behind the scenes at the TED Talks: Two extraordinary people who shared the stage at the 2010 TED Conference.

TED- Ideas Worth Spreading

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) was originally designed as a one-time conference to share science and technology news, environmental science news, and new discoveries in science. TED has grown into a global set of conferences that covers a much more diverse set of topics. TED is on a mission to deliver “ideas worth spreading.”

“There is no greater force for changing
the world than a powerful idea.”

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While many of us have heard of the TED Talks videos, what people might not know is that TED Talks organizes the best of the best (over 1500 as of the time of this posting) on the TED website.

The site hosts a daily podcast from videos taken at TEDx events, TED conferences, and of TED partners. Only one video is chosen per week day to be added to the current collection of viewable videos.

In addition to the TED Talks videos, TED also includes the annual TED Prize, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, TED Conversations, and the Open Translation Project.

The TED Talks

The great TED Talks address an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The various speakers, including such names as Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, educator Salman Khan, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners, are given up to 18 minutes to present the best TED talks for their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can.

the ted talks,ted talks video, great ted talks, best ted talks,TED’s Mission Statement

According to their website, TED‘s mission is “spreading ideas” and they say:

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

An exciting feature of TED is that they make the best TED talks and performances viewable for free to the entire world. They can also be freely shared and re-posted. To put in perspective how quickly the popularity of this perspective, as of November 2011, over 1050 videos were available to view for free online. By June 2011, the amount of video views was over 500 million, and as of October 2013, this increased to over 1500 videos and doubled to over a BILLION views which demonstrates an ever increasing global audience. Because of this global audience, all of the great TED talks can also be subtitled in various languages (see “The TED Open Translation Project” below).

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TED’s Other Branches

Surprising to many people, in addition to the TED Talks, TED has created a diversity of other ways to create positive and empowering world change. Here are some of TED’s other branches:

  • TED Prizes take a great idea each year and award someone seeking to achieve goals of global impact.
  • TED Fellows is a program that opens the door for extraordinary new voices to join the TED community.
  • TEDx supports the creation and execution of independent TED-like events in communities all around the world.
  • TED Conversations is an online social media platform to create or participate in questions, ideas, and debates.
  • TED-Ed allows you to take any YouTube video and create a lesson from it or to use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson already featured on TED-Ed.
  • The TED Open Translation Project brings subtitles, interactive transcripts and the ability for any talk to be translaTED by volunteers worldwide, in more than 100 languages.

These and the other TED Initiatives can be found by clicking here.

Here is a fun introductory video from the TED-Ed website:

TED Prizes

Three $100,000 TED Prizes were awarded annually from 2005-2009 to help its winners vision to change the world become a reality. Since 2010, the selection process changed to only award a single winner so that TED can help achieve the winner’s wish much more effectively. Then, during the main annual conference, each of the winners can unveil their vision to the audience.

The Organization Behind TED Talks

the ted talks,ted talks video, great ted talks, best ted talksTED Talks was founded in 1984 by architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman and his partner Harry Marks. They are now owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation.

TED’s current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher, and current Sapling Foundation owner, Chris Anderson.

The staff is currently headquartered in New York City and Vancouver.

Starting in 1990, the conference became an annual event starting in Monterey, California. It spread out to Long Beach and Palm Springs in the UniTED States. TED Conferences spread to Europe and Asia with live streaming availability.

TED as an Ethosolution

Thanks to the Sapling Foundation, the advancement of TED Talks was possible. The foundation aims to bring together the world’s greatest visionaries, smartest thinkers, and most-inspiring teachers to share knowledge and education to the world. The videos can be freely shared and reposTED because they are under a Creative Commons license “Attribution – NonCommercial – NonDerivative” license. Through this sharing, millions will have a greater understanding of the issues faced by the world and will have the desire to help create a better future. They share this vision on their website about the power of an idea:

  • new discoveries in science, recent scientific discoveries, breaking science news, environmental science news, An idea weighs nothing.
  • Can reshape the mind’s view of the world.
  • Can alter the behavior of the mind’s owner.
  • Can cause the mind to pass the idea to others.
  • Can be creaTED out of nothing but imagination.
  • Can go across the world at light speed for no cost.
  • And yet, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.

We thank TED and the Sapling Foundation for continuing to provide these inspirational TED Talks and other beneficial resources! To find out more about TED and TED Talks visit: