TED2011 is Now

In addition to the last post, I thought you guys might want to know that TED2011, is now on. Follow one of the world's most amazing conferences on their blog.

To get some idea of what it's like, here's a video wrap up of last year's conference.

From 800 People a Year, to 750,000 People a Day

TED, is a conference people pay $6000 to attend to hear others speak about remarkable ideas. A few years ago, it did what was at that time considered counter-intuitive. It put all its speeches online. Streamed for free at high speeds. This was when you often had to pause a Youtube video to let it load before you got a smooth stream.

It made sense to say why would one buy a $20 music CD when its available for free. But when it's a $6000 conference available for free, I think the question becomes rhetorical.

What happened however, was that the free videos became incredibly popular. So much so that instead of not wanting to come to the conference anymore, more people now knew of it and wanted to go to the conference.

TED, I think proved that giving away content for free is a viable way to go. Since then, musicians have wisened up and most of them now have a huge catalogue available online for free. Record companies, launched VEVO to stream even more free music. Magazines are putting their articles up for free.

Despite this, there are still many content generators still stuck in the traditional form of copyright. While the TED motto is "Ideas worth spreading" I think the internet has proved that Ideas are meant to be spread.

I'll let TED, who invited Youtube's head of user experience to talk about the issue demonstrate how everyone can win by choosing not to sue off each others pants.

Chris Anderson who curates for TED said, "when you give something away sometimes, it's the very smartest thing you can do." He should know. He turned an annual conference for 800 into a global phenomenon.