Videos stemming from TED, the gathering of the brilliant, famous and influential, passed the billion-view milestone on Tuesday.
The
number continues to rocket with more than a million TEDTalks watched
daily, according to the organization behind the prestigious TED
gatherings that give rise to the presentations made available free on
the Internet.
"It's a thrill and, in some ways, a surprise that
this has happened," said entrepreneur Chris Anderson, who bought the
Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in 2001 and turned
it into a nonprofit operation devoted to "ideas worth spreading."
"It is a very hopeful sign for the world that there are so many people interested in serious content," he continued.
TED started in 1984 as a private gathering.
With
Anderson as its "curator," TED has become renowned for 18-minute talks
devoted to mind-bending perspectives on anything from music or dance to
climate change or futuristic technology.
The nonprofit Sapling
Foundation behind the conferences began making recordings of talks
available online as podcasts in 2006, then began streaming videos free
at a TED.com website the following year to reach a global audience.
"So
much of our civic landscape is about people barking without listening;
people head butting each other blindly trying to push their world view,"
Anderson said.
"These talks open the door to a different kind of
communication that starts with curiosity and admitting 'Maybe I don't
know everything about the world,'" he continued.
"Wonderful things can happen when people broaden their sense of what is possible."
In
tribute to passing the billion-view milestone, playlists of favorite
TEDTalks from famous "Tedsters" including Microsoft co-founder Bill
Gates; U2 singer Bono, and actors Ben Affleck and Glenn Close will be
released.
More than 1,400 TEDTalks can be seen online, with topics
ranging from saving oceans or exploring far away galaxies to global
politics or the genesis of inspiration.
Organizers of the
prestigious annual conference in California in 2005 launched a global
version of the event imbued with an international mindset.
TEDTalks have branched out to venues such as YouTube, iTunes, Netflix, and news website Huffington Post.