Ted's Guide to TED Talks

Hello, my name is Ted. I am a cuddly character, with a simple attitude to life, and well read. I tell it like it is, in simple plain language. So you will not need your encyclopedia of jargon: "Jar be gone".

Instead of lolling around in the bedroom all day I decided to write a few short guides to business and other stuff.

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This is one of my guides ... Ted's Guides are not TED Talks. So if you are thinking what are TED Talks, here we go. There are two aspects to that: TED and Talks.

TED

TED aims to spread ideas. It began as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged (hence, I guess, the name TED). Now it covers many topics.

TED Talks

These are usually short, inspiring, talks. The speaker typically has good presentation skills, and expert knowledge or unique experience.

There are over 4200 TED Talks, covering topics from A to, erm, Y. There is probably something for everyone here.

However, under "A" there is no topic called "accessibility", and that lack seems to be reflected in aspects of their web site design and functionality too. On a positive note, you can often find a transcript link - this is good for accessibility, and allows you to get the gist of a talk much faster than watching the video. [No, I'm not doing a talk on "accessibility" - but someone should.]

TED Talks are a great resource and you might learn something worthwhile; unlike wasting your time on social media :-)

More

There is now more to TED than the talks: like many organisations, it has bloated out to include the following:

» Student Talks that are free, customisable activities, for educators to support their students in developing and sharing their ideas

» TEDx is for local community events

» TED Ed is the youth and education initiative, which aims to spark ideas and the knowledge sharing of teachers and students

» The Audacious Project has a goal to make research and philanthropy more collaborative, inspiring and effective

» TED at Work - go on, have a guess :-)

Have you got an idea?

If you have your own idea that you want to pursue then this might help you: Ted's Guide to Ideas.

And, if it involves innovation see: The Innovative Innovation Book.