Every once and a while, you find something on the internet and think, "this is what the internet is for." I found this yesterday. I would have been watching it all day today but Jane was doing her Ebay stuff so I spent the day: walking dogs, shopping, cooking stir fry, watching tv and picking my toes. (time for a another computer so we can both geek out at the same time.) That's why I'm blogging at 1:30 in the morning after spending a couple hours on ted.com. I feel obligated.
Ted.com is what the internet was made for. I feel like I've created some repetitive web surfing habits and am regretting not finding this site sooner. Apparently the conferences have been around, gaining popularity in the last 5 yrs.
I don't know when they started open-sourcing the keynote speakers of their conferences, but this is the greatest collection of scientists, artists, engineers, developers, designers, performers, and thinkers of our time! All presented via a smooth video interface in excerpts 15-20 minutes long. I'm not sure how long the speakers actually have on stage but every one of them has been rapid fire presentations as if they don't have nearly enough time to say what they have to. For the viewer, enough to rip the lid off your brain. Stick a fork in it, turn it over, it's done.
I've only been watching the "inspired by nature" and the "design" themes. The list of speakers is awe inspiring. I've read their books, I've read interviews with them, I've seen their work, I've heard of that thing... But here they are, on stage, usually with nice visuals to back them up, in all of their glory and power and passion over the subject they invented and know best. All of the speakers have the same thing in common, changing the world with ideas.
I've watched presentations on organic design, happy design, underwater life, food industry diversity, why ants work so well together, simplicity, human evolution and technology, Spore the game. I'm seeing my heroes up close and discovering scores of others.
Have I sold it enough? Gonna watch a couple more before I fade off to bed. link
