How We Learn from TED 2009

TED is an annual conference, first held in 1984, which started with aim of bringing together people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design (hence TED) to share ideas. It challenges some of the finest minds in these fields to stand up and “give the talk of their lives” in just 18 minutes. Perfect for the diminishing attention spans in our ADD world.

The TED’s website, whose tagline is “ideas worth spreading”, provides access to many of these talks at no cost. At the moment there is something like 400 talks archived and accessible. You can download them and use them providing you keep within the boundaries of the Creative Commons Licence (as I have with the Seth Godin video below), and you can subscribe and get the latest videos sent straight to your inbox.

One of the categories that you can currently access is titled How We Learn and includes 42 video from speakers like Steven Pinker, Bill Strickland, Dave Eggers and Michael Merzenich.

Incidentally, and related to yesterdays post, I found this talk from this year's TED by Seth Godin about "Tribes".

Seth Godin on "Tribes" at TED 2009

.

Tribes

Seth Godin is an author and a leading voice on how to make your marketing more effective in the modern, digital, connected age. He's been described as 'the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age'

His latest book, Tribes, looks at how you go about building a movement that people will want to follow:

"...to bring together a tribe of like-minded people and do amazing things. There are tribes everywhere, all of them hungry for connection, meaning and change. And yet, too many people ignore the opportunity to lead, because they are "sheepwalking" their way through their lives and work, too afraid to question whether their compliance is doing them (or their company) any good... if you have a passion for what you want to do and the drive to make it happen, there is a tribe of fellow employees, or customers, or investors, or readers, just waiting for you to connect them with each other and lead them where they want to go."

By way of a freebie, Seth has collaborated on a list of 100 tactics you can use to help build your Tribe.

100 Ways to Build your Tribe

He's also produced a free e-book on the subject of Tribes, a sort of wisdom of the crowds piece with stories and ideas from members of his Ning group. The link is on his regularly updated Blog.

Tribes e-book
.