We're proud to announce the launch of TED Conversations, a new social media platform on TED.com that connects people for conversation, collaboration and debate. The platform gives people access to engage notable TED speakers, and the broader TED community, in conversations that -- for the first time on a social network -- have a time limit. TED Conversations was designed and built from the ground-up to foster meaningful conversation among the global community -- more than 15M monthly users -- who visit TED.com and watch TEDTalks online.
TED Conversations marks a major step in TED.com's evolution as a social platform. Through the popularity of TEDTalk videos, TED.com has amassed a vast global audience of engaged, intellectually curious members who are eager to participate in meaningful conversation and action. TED Conversations aims to capture the passion of these visitors and get the entire community -- speakers, Fellows, translators, and global audience members -- talking, brainstorming and collaborating in real-time.
TED Conversations was made possible by support from TED partner GE, who provided underwriting as well as product inspiration. One new feature of TED Conversations is that it allows a TED partner to engage in a conversation directly with the TED community. At launch, GE will hold a conversation soliciting the TED community for insight on sustainable energy solutions, which will inform GE's Ecomagination Challenge.
Key features
The features unique to TED Conversations include:
- Conversation categories -- Questions, Debates and Ideas: By asking a question, you can tap into the expertise of the TED community. By proposing an idea, you can elicit constructive feedback. And by initiating a debate, you can lay out a key issue for spirited discussion.
- Time-boxed conversations: Whether it's one day or one month, TED Conversations are assigned an expiration date to keep the discussion sharp and on-topic. Designed to promote participation among time-pressed users, including TED speakers and conference attendees, the conversations will end on a preset date, at which time the user who initiated it can summarize the discussion with a closing statement.
- Link conversations to one of the 800+ TED Talks on TED.com: So users can ask a question, debate an issue or propose an idea that was sparked by watching one or more TED Talks. This allows a thoughtful exchange among a global community with a shared experience and knowledge base.
- Tag assignments: To ease navigation, users can search for specific topics such as "architecture," "alternative medicine" or "clean energy."
Future
Later this spring, Conversations users will have the ability to start or participate in conversations in any language, track them over time with email notifications, and see what conversations their friends are participating in.
Feedback
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