Jochen Wegner edits Zeit Online, the website of German weekly "Die Zeit," which prizes deep dives into cultural issues.

Drew Curtis is the founder and administrator of Fark.com.

When a freak tornado hit her Massachusetts hometown, Caitria O’Neill wasn't an expert in disaster relief recovery. But she learned quickly and is now passing her knowledge on through the website Recovers.org.

Dan Bricklin helped fuel the rapid growth of the personal computer industry.

Pursuing her PhD in atmospheric science did not prepare Morgan O'Neill for a freak tornado hitting her hometown. With her sister, she helped coordinate a local relief effort and is teaching other towns to do the same through the website Recovers.org.

Rick Falkvinge, didn’t plan on becoming a politician, but his dedication to civil liberties and internet sovereignty led to him founding the Swedish Pirate Party in 2006.

Developmental behavior studies spearheaded by Laura Schulz are changing our notions of how children learn.

When her hashtag #IfAfricaWasABar went viral, Botswana writer Siyanda Mohutsiwa triggered a lighthearted but electrifying discussion of some serious African issues.

Through his new project, MuckWork, Derek Sivers wants to lessen the burdens (and boredom) of creative people.

Researcher Johnny Lee became a YouTube star with his demo of Wii Remote hacks -- bending the low-cost game piece to power an interactive whiteboard, a multitouch surface, a head-mounted display ...

Using daring displays of algorithmic trickery, lightning calculator and number wizard Arthur Benjamin mesmerizes audiences with mathematical mystery and beauty.

In the next 30 years, two-thirds of our planet’s population will live in cities. Have you ever tried to envision the cities of the future? Cities are enlivened by people, and people enable change. So today, we are launching our redesigned website TheCity2.org, a gathering place for all urban denizens to share stories, videos, ideas and in...

Sometimes it’s easier to download a TED Talk as an MP4 than to watch it online through our streaming video player. The TED.com website offers two different ways to find and download a crisp and watchable video file of your favorite talk. One method allows you to download a video with automatic subtitles in English and several other languages...

Best known as the voice of Roger Rabbit, Charles Fleischer's multi-decade career includes work on stage and on screen, and an online emporium of unusual observations called MonkeyDog.

Kevin Bales is the co-founder of Free the Slaves, whose mission is to end all forms of human slavery within the next 25 years. He's the author of "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves."

As a director of the World Bank in Nairobi, Peter Eigen saw firsthand how devastating corruption can be. He's founder of Transparency International, an NGO that works to persuade international companies not to bribe.

Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library TV combines an irreverent approach to wine and a shrewd social media strategy. It won him web fame and the cachet to spin off book deals, new businesses and his own entrepreneurship consulting firm.

Sergey Brin is half of the team that founded Google.

Christopher "moot" Poole is founder of 4chan, an online imageboard whose anonymous denizens have spawned the web's most bewildering -- and influential -- subculture.

Carolyn Freiwald studies bones and teeth to understand what life was like in the past -- from questions as big as human migration patterns to what people had for dinner.

Ory Okolloh maintains the blog Mzalendo, providing an unprecedented look at the doings of Kenya's parliament -- information once unavailable to Kenyan citizens.

Ingrid Fetell Lee studies joy and reveals how we can find more of it in the world around us.

Alexis Ohanian is the co-founder an executive chairman of Reddit, a social-voting news website with geek allegiances, a small-town feel and a penchant for lighting up the memes your friends IM you about next week.

Armed with an 18th-century map, a GPS and reams of data, Eric Sanderson has re-plotted the Manhattan of 1609, just in time for New York's quadricentennial.

Inventor Saul Griffith looks for elegant ways to make real things, from low-cost eyeglasses to a kite that tows boats. His latest projects include open-source inventions and elegant new ways to generate power.

Writing is only his day job: Dave Eggers moonlights as a publisher, philanthropist and advocate for students and teachers.

As an actor, filmmaker and founder of the online community HITRECORD, Joseph Gordon-Levitt seeks to inspire creativity through collaboration.

As a cofounder of Upworthy, and the author of "The Filter Bubble," Eli Pariser leverages technology to help build better and more democratic societies.

Leslie Morgan Steiner is a writer and outspoken advocate for survivors of domestic violence -- which includes herself.

Richard Baraniuk founded Connexions -- now called OpenStax -- a free, open-source, global clearinghouse of course materials. Students and educators tap into its vast store of texts on everything from engineering to ornithology to music, adapting the content as they see fit.