I'm just back from Tunisia where I attended (and spoke at) TEDxCarthage, held in Tunis. It has been a short visit, only two days (and this post is just a quick note without pretense). But it was a very intense visit, and I come back with a lot of hope and optimism for the future of this country, and -- despite the current events in Libya -- ...

“We use images like a weapon to fight for social causes,” says a man in the trailer for INSIDE OUT: The People’s Art Project, a new documentary that airs on HBO tonight. The doc tells the story of JR’s INSIDE OUT, a global art project in which anyone, anywhere, can send the artist a portrait and have a poster-sized version sent back to them f...

Today, YouTube's homepage spotlight features interviews with the creatives behind the campaigns that won TED's Ads Worth Spreading --  an initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising. The 10 winning ads were unveiled at TED2012 and representatives of each campaign attended the conference from Tunisi...

This spring, TED headed on the road, visiting 14 cities across six continents on the hunt for untapped talent. The idea behind the sweeping search: to let you, the TED community, weigh in and vote on which speakers you’d like to see ascend the stage at TED2013. After holding one-night salons in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Doha, Johannesburg, Londo...

Most of us take for granted that we can read, say, the street signs outside of our house. But for an overwhelming number of women in the Arab world, basic literacy is not a given. That’s why in 2009, photographer and TED Fellow Laura Boushnak (TED Talk: For these women, reading is a daring act) began “I Read, I Write,” a series that documents th...

Two years ago, waves of revolution swept through the Middle East. On February 17, 2011 -- two months after civil resistance began in Tunisia and less than a month after the people of Egypt rose up in Tahrir Square -- revolt began in Libya to oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Activist Zahra' Langhi was part of the "day of rage" that eventuall...

Artist eL Seed fuses the beauty of Arabic letters with the modern art of graffiti -- an art form he calls calligraffiti. He paints colorful, undulating messages of hope and peace on buildings all over the world -- from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to the bridges of Paris (the city where he was born), to the minaret of the mosque in Gabès, ...

"80% of deaf people in the world," says Mohamed Jemni, "do not have access to education." Jemni, professor of ICT and Educational Technologies at the University of Tunis, Tunisia, is working with new technology to find ways of helping the deaf to communicate. His team has developed WebSign, an extraordinary set of applications, to "break the...

The documentary INSIDE OUT: The People’s Art Project will premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in New York this Saturday, April 20, giving an intimate look into the courageous victories and heartrending challenges involved in creating the world’s largest participatory art project. In 2011, French street artist JR announced his TED Pr...

Crossposted from the TEDx Tumblr: An extraordinary online event for youth (and adults) — is happening around the world and on the web this weekend: TEDxYouthDay — a collection of nearly 100 different TEDx events for young people around the world — kicks off tomorrow, November 19, and runs through Monday, November 21. Live events w...

In 2011, a single email launched what became a worldwide movement calling out wealth inequality. Yet three years on, Occupy hasn’t delivered on its utopian promises. Why? In opening Session 2 at TEDGlobal 2014, techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci talks about the shortcomings of social movements galvanized by social media. To be sure, online...

We're thrilled to announce today the launch of TED Conversations, a new social platform on TED.com that connects people for conversation, collaboration and debate. TED Conversations was designed and built from the ground up to foster meaningful conversation among the global community who watch, share and discuss TEDTalks. Anyone who part...

Enjoy a sampling of the stories from around the internet that captured our interest this week: The gorgeous digital cookbook above, All Hands on Deck, contains innovative recipes from restaurants in Red Hook, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, that was flooded during Hurricane Sandy. Proceeds will go to the recovery effort. [AllHandsO...

A sick brick "I want to make my friends understand: China is too complicated," begins Michael Anti. "You can't tell a one-size story." According to some, China is a brick, helping the world economy. According to others, it's a sick country, with no access to Facebook. (The second phrase was as claimed in the Facebook IPO papers.) "If y...

Archaeology is a puzzle. For Sarah Parcak, trying to find ancient treasures is made exponentially easier by satellite imagery. Archaeologists have many tools at their disposal: shovels, trowels, satellites. If you are scratching your head at that final entry, check out how TED Prize winner Sarah Parcak uses satellite imagery to locate long-lost...

Will the societal shocks of 2016 lead to a bumper crop of art in 2017 and beyond? These TED Fellows channel the energy of activism into creative work that can change hearts and minds. There is a debate going on in artistic circles: Will the unsettling political era ahead push people to create more exciting art and music? But the real answer is:...

Lara Stein acknowledges TEDx organizers during TEDGlobal 2011, July 11-15, 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED All week during TEDGlobal, some TEDx Organizers -- many attending a TED Conference for the first time -- have been sharing their experiences, and reflecting on the TEDx Organizer community, on the TED...

Three fascinating speakers have been added to the lineup for TEDGlobal 2013, which kicks off in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 10 to 14. First, Anne-Marie Slaughter, who exploded the conversation about women’s work-life balance with her July/August 2012 The Atlantic article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” will join the conference to lend her e...

Nathalie Miebach, TEDGlobal Fellow, artist, speaking at TED University during TEDGlobal 2011, July 12, 2011. Photo: James Duncan Davidson / TED Jeremy Moon, "Anything Can Be Prototyped": "Creativity is the life force of the universe," says Jeremy Moon, the CEO and founder of Icebreaker Clothing, "and my passion is unlocking the creativity...

Across the globe, anyone can watch TED Talks through TED.com, our YouTube channel, our mobile apps or our iTunes podcasts. (Have you checked out TED Studies on iTunes U?) Most recently, our new SmartTV app showcases TED in beautiful high definition through television set manufacturers like Samsung and telephone IPTV providers like TELUS, letting...

The ancient al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez isn’t just the oldest library in Africa. Founded in 859, it’s the oldest working library in the world, holding ancient manuscripts that date as far back as 12 centuries. But modern life had taken a toll on the library, with its buildings falling into disrepair. That’s why in 2012, the Moroccan Ministry of...

In these bold, black-and-white images, unrecognized people from many countries get a chance to be seen, thanks to the work of French photographer and artist JR. In 2004, French artist JR found an abandoned camera on the Paris metro. Ever since, he’s been taking black-and-white portraits of people and pasting these oversized images on walls, sca...

We are thrilled to announce the new class of Fellows for TED2015. These 21 game-changing thinkers represent 15 countries—including, for the first time in our program, Vietnam, Romania and Tunisia. They work across disciplines, at the forefront of their fields. They include a South African physicist using lasers to target HIV and cancer; a Germ...

Former Deputy Prime Minister of Libya and engineering professor Mustafa Abushagur takes the stage at TEDGlobal 2013 to look at where the Arab Spring has been, and where it is going. The Arab world once led human civilization in culture, philosophy, mathematics and science, but in the last century the region found itself first under coloni...

On an unseasonably chilly Monday evening in Manhattan, hundreds stood in line in Times Square for up to two hours. As a city-dweller for seven years, I’ve seen queues this long for big Broadway openings or on New Year’s Eve. But this line was formed for a very different purpose -- for people to have their faces and stories featured in what J...

Dave Isay was shocked to learn he was in the running for the 2015 TED Prize. And yet, his TED Prize wish — to grow StoryCorps’ digital archive of the collective wisdom of humanity — was granted, fueled by $1 million and the vigor of TED’s global community. Could your idea win the TED Prize? In a word: yes. Nominations for the 2017 TED Pri...

If you look closely at the Lideta Mercato -- a shopping mall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, designed by TED Fellow Xavier Vilalta -- you will notice a unique pattern on its skin, inspired by the beautiful, bold patterns found on Ethiopian women’s dresses. But if you look closer, you will also notice something else: that the design is based on fra...

The stage is set. The lights are on. The audience of more than 600 people who have traveled from all over the world to be inspired is ready. And ready or not, the speakers are thrust onto the stage, one by one. This is the first session of TEDGlobal 2017, themed “a new map,” a phrase that suggests that in these first talks, we will catch ...

In Session 2 of the TED Fellows talks, we learn about the FBI's use of informants in counterterrorism operations, how giant pouched rats are helping to save lives, laser-delivered HIV drugs, how Silicon Valley companies are working to protect our privacy -- and that's not to mention the piano solo, percussive dance and opera! Sri Lankan o...

In his instantly recognizable, grandly sweeping style, eL Seed has painted Arabic calligraffiti murals everywhere from Tunisia to Paris. Recently, he created his most ambitious project yet: a mural that spans 50 buildings that can only be fully seen from a nearby mountain. eL Seed pursued this self-funded project as a way to make a political poi...