“Once a year 1000 remarkable people gather in Monterey, California, to exchange something of incalculable value. Their ideas.” This used to be the old intro to a video from the TED conference. Since then, they have moved the conference from Monterey to Long Beach and changed the video intro, but the concept behind the main event remains the same.
TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, started as early as back in 1984, as that annual conference in Monterey. In recent years the concept has been greatly extended and now spreads across the globe, across the Internet and across different social media. They now host TED events in other locations world wide, they simulcast the main event to different venues, you have a TED blog, a TED Facebook group, a TED online community site, and so on, and so on.
So, who are the people sharing their thoughts on TED? They are actually some of the most important people in this world today, from a wide variety of fields, like science, technology, business, politics and cultural life. They are mankind’s movers and shakers, thinkers and dreamers. They are the people in positions to see their ideas actually come to life. Therefore, TED should be among the bookmarks of everyone interested in what tomorrow will bring us. TED is also a great source of inspiration and motivation for everyone. I could watch their videos for days, and with almost 500 of them, on average approximately 20 minutes long, that is true both literally, as well as metaphorically.
I have included a sample of four different videos from pretty different fields. Those of you who would like to see more can follow the links at the end of this article. A warning should be issued at this point. These videos can be very addictive 
The first video is almost mandatory to include in a sample made by the admin of a green tech site. Here inventor Saul Griffith talks about using kites in wind turbine systems to generate electricity.
The second video deals with something completely different. Garrett Lisi is developing his own grand unifying theory as an alternative to super string theory. Apart from that, he seems to live a life that most people could envy him, living on an exotic island, practicing his other great passion, surfing.
Clay Shirky has been mentioned before on this blog. Here he is again, from TED, with a lecture about the effects of social media on people’s ability to self organize in groups.
The last video shows Michael Shermer, the director of the Skeptics Society. This lecture is a healthy and refreshing antidote to the anti scientific sentiments, that unfortunately have taken such a strong hold on the mind set of many western people the past decades.
Links
Disclaimer
The sites mentioned in the website review category are sites ran by people that do things we find worth mentioning. That their sites are mentioned here, does not imply that the people behind these sites are associated with Green Life Innovators in any way. And it especially does not imply that they publish their information “the open source way”.
Further reading:
- Website review : Green Power Science
- Website review: Open courseware, bringing higher learning to everyone
- Must see: Transition movement’s Rob Hopkins on TED-talks
- Book review : Here comes everybody
- Website review : byexample.com
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