Tuesday, October 9

WGBH Forum Network (Free Public Lectures!)

WHAT?
The WGBH Forum Network is an audio and video streaming Website dedicated to curating and serving live and on-demand lectures given by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders. These events are hosted by world-class cultural and educational organizations in Boston and beyond.

JUICE?
My favourite categories:

I suppose the information overflow will hit in when you see the amount of lectures available, but why not start with this one:

Five Minds for the Future
Howard Gardner speaks about his new book, Five Minds for the Future explaining
why it is becoming increasingly important to develop five kinds of thinking.

FACTS?
(As of October 2007)

  • 844,216 lectures streamed so far
  • 771,884 lectures downloaded so far
  • +35,000 unique visitors every month
  • Saturdays are the most popular streaming time
  • Fridays are the favorite time to download
  • 40% of the visitors are from lands outside of the United States
  • 49% of the visitors listen to than rather view the lectures
  • 88% of streams are via broadband
  • 43% of the traffic is MP3 downloads
  • 70% of the visitors listen to the entire lecture
  • Favorite topics are history, politics, and education
  • More than 1,500 academic institutions access their content
  • Their content is mentioned or linked to in over 300 blogs (One more added now!)

I know I will be busy watching, listening, learning and reflecting great lectures (I mean great minds and ideas!) in the weeks and months to come. Simply a gold mine of lectures too good to be true (but true!) :)

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