TEDTalks 5 Years of Ideas
Source: rathausartprojects.com
27 June 2011: TEDTalks online celebrates its five-year anniversary today. The purpose of Ted.com video is to spotlight great speakers, thinkers and doers. Speakers continue to use TEDTalks as an open platform to passionately communicate and spark connections around the world. In turn, people who watch the imaginative video content, use the site to exponentially spread ideas through viral distribution.
TED’s video website broadcasts lectures online for free and is home to about 1,000 videos. Since posting its first video, the site has received about 500 million total video views, 1 million Facebook followers, and 1 million iPad app downloads. They’ve been more successful than anyone at TED imagined they would be.
Director of TED Media June Cohen thought the 18-minute videos that were primarily about esoteric topics would mostly appeal to a “small, geeky audience.” The impact has been much wider proving that engaging, smart video content can go viral, no matter the length. Releasing the talks online for free has changed TED’s culture from one of closed, exclusive content, to a platform for spreading ideas.
Today, TED will also release its first non-English TED talk online, part of its goal to expand their reach to feed the growing desire for knowledge and smart content in developing countries. Recorded in Mexico at a TEDx event, the talk will be broadcast in Spanish with English subtitles.
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