John Travers

The best web information site I have seen over the last year is TED. Just put ted in Google and it is the top entry. TED (Technology Entertainment Design) has the slogan, ‘Ideas worth spreading’. It revolves around a conference held in California once a year. They invite some of the brightest people in the world to speak for just 14 minutes each. This is videoed. and the resulting audio and video podcasts or downloads are freely available.

So what do you get from some great achievers in just 14 minutes – stimulated, excited, inspired. That’s what has happened to me over an over again. It helps if you have a video ipod, but you can watch them on a computer. Most of them would work fine in just audio format because while they do use some presentation images, most are just a very stimulating person talking about their achievements.

When you look at the list of speakers, few are recognisable to most of us, but I found that by listening to the first few minutes of each speaker you soon find out whether the topic is of interest to you. I watch about two thirds of them all the way through.

I suggest starting with Ken Robinson (on the importance of educating for creativity – very wise and very funny) and Julia Sweeney (very funny, on religion).

Apart from the intrinsic interest in the content of the talks, what the have done with TED is an inspiring example of the power of the new technologies. They have found a way to present very powerful ideas in a very accessible way to a vast number of people. I could go on and on about individual talks. Have a look, and add comments on your favourite. Don’t miss E O Wilson, a delightful old chap who I have discovered since is considered by some to be Darwin’s successor, one of the world’s greatest scientists and who’s accompanying video on the mini world of biology is a delight.