BlogAbout CLC Libraries: TEDTalks. Free Videos by Smart People.

TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to Ideas Worth Spreading that began in 1984 as an invitation only conference to bring together people from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. Since then its purpose has expanded and to include other conferences, and the award-winning TEDTalks video site, featuring all of the best talks and performances freely on their website for users to watch and share.

TEDTalks currently offers 450 videos, and includes videos from individuals including former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Ray Kurzweil, and Peter Gabriel. Starting out, TEDTalks featured speakers from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design, but this has been expanded to include business, science, and global issues. These videos are offered freely through a Creative Commons license and can be shared and posted as longs as TED is referenced as the original source of the material, the talks are not used for any commercial purposes, and the videos are not edited or altered in any way. For more information on the Creative Commons License, please see the official website. TED has also started offering the videos in other languages as part of the TED Open Translation Project, and currently offers published video translations in 52 languages, with 1744 published translations.

Try out this resource, and let us know what you think...

Here is a selection of videos from their YouTube Channel.