- John Arno
- Paris
- France
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Help for 'TED Conversations': Can you help understand this website?
I want to know makes this website special
Thank you so much for your time!
All the best
Fritzie Reisner 100+
For a start, it is very rare that commercial advertisements or pitches for money sneak past the filters, activities that can quickly come to dominate sites in which access is free. So it is a haven from what can sometimes seem in other settings like a relentless selling of services or merchandise.
Another thing that is absent is a single way of thinking. There is no expected party line or set of beliefs everyone is expected to believe.
Another thing you won't find is lots of personal chat, because it isn't that sort of site. People don't share where they are that moment or where they are going, there is no discussion of celebrities, there is no sharing of photos of family events, and so forth. It is social in the sense of people engaging with each other, but it is not personal interaction in the typical sense of social networks.
So it is not what everyone seeks in online communities.
Feyisayo Anjorin 50+
TED is a community of leaders, who make global and local impact by selfless service and humble contributions.
Welcome.
Feyisayo Anjorin 50+
TED is a community of leaders, who make global and local impact by selfless service and humble contributions.
Welcome.
Fritzie Reisner 100+
In the bottom left of this page, there is a place you can examine called About TED Conversations.
The most important thing I think you can do to find out what is special is to start listening to the talks. Few are more than fifteen minutes long, and they are well indexed so you can listen on topics you care about. A fifteen or twenty minute talk might show you some ideas you would never have considered. The focus of the talks is to do that rather than to make you an expert.
In the talks you will be in listening mode, so it is like hearing a short lecture by yourself, unless you choose to make a habit of listening together with peers. Some people do this. That allows you to discuss the ideas that came to you through the talk and in real time.
Lots of people listen on their own, of course. If you then want to interact with people who were also interested in that talk, you can respond to it on the website below and interact with others about that talk specifically.
The TED Conversations are different. Many questions are posed here in response to talks, though sometimes people have a question or idea and want feedback from people other than those who live next door or something. You are bound to get responses from people, though you cannot assume anyone here is an expert in what you are asking about.
So I wouldn't say this site at all replaces doing something like an internet search for information on a topic. But it is a good place to get reaction to an idea you are pondering.
What you find here in Conversations are people with different backgrounds and interests, but you cannot assume it is a random sample of the population anywhere, as some parts of the world's population are more likely to take the time and make the effort to talk about ideas in this sort of forum than others are.
I agree with Edward and Lejan that you will get your best idea by exploring yourself.
edward long 100+
Lejan . 30+