No matter how busy I am or how little time that I think that I have, the one website that I find myself frequently visiting/revisiting is TED. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and its genesis in 1984 was as a conference that brought together individuals representing those three worlds. The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

While I have never had the opportunity to attend one of the conferences, I have been able to reap many of the benefits through their website which makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free, called TEDTalks. TEDTalks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. Under the moniker “ideas worth spreading,” talks were released online. They rapidly attracted a global audience in the millions. In fact, the reaction was so enthusiastic that the entire TED website was re-engineered around TEDTalks, with the goal of giving everyone on-demand access to the world’s most inspiring voices.

As of today, more than 250 talks from their archive are now available, with more being added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. With 50 million views since the debuted online two years ago, TED talks have become a powerful cultural force. To celebrate this milestone, they have released a never-before-seen list: the Top 10 TED talks of all time, as of June 2008. You can watch the video below:

The top 10 TED Talks of all time include:

1. Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
2. Jeff Han: Touchscreen demo foreshadows the iPhone
3. David Gallo: Underwater astonishments
4. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo
5. Arthur Benjamin: Lightning calculation and other “Mathemagic”
6. Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
7. Hans Rosling: The best stats you’ve ever seen
8. Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better
9. Al Gore: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis
10. Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote

I have seen many of these Talks, but a few I had never seen and will be heading back over to TedTalks to watch them. What I like most about them is that they are intelligent, on-point, and full of wisdom and inspiration. They are perfect for getting an idea of what is going on in the world today and more importantly what is possible. If you have some time, I’d highly recommend spending it there.