TED2009 as seen through the eyes of twitter

 I’m not at TED 2009. I’m sitting here in San Francisco, about 500 miles north of Long Beach, and I’m kind of “geeking out.” Thanks to Twitter, I feel like I've had a pretty good seat to many of the incredible minds and talent convened at TED this past week. Sure, there are a lot of ways to follow TED happenings. The TED blog has great reports on the latest conference happenings, there's the Flickr Photostream, and even interviews with TED speakers – but it seems that most of those are being controlled by TED staff. What’s fascinating to watch is the trail of Twitter followers (using #TED hashtag) reflect on some of the major TED happenings like these:

• @davidkinard: Bill Gates makes Malaria eradication real for TED audience - releases mosquitoes. What could your cause [safely] do? http://bit.ly/17WCi
• @onepinktee: #TED2009 - Day 1 reflections : TED represents a great paradox - how can something be so mentally exhausting and .. http://inmycopiousfreetime.typepad.com/in_my_copious_free_time/2009
•  @Common_Breath: At this year’s #TED Conference photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand showed a preview of his new movie Home. http://common-breath.com/?p=198
• @gever: #TED day 1 - war, famine, pestilence, art, and hope. Bill G. is smart and kind, Saul G. makes me jealous, Regina S. made me cry.
• @StoneGreg: #TED Matt of http://www.whereinthehellismatt.com just taught us some Bollywood dance moves. I'm ready to perform them for anyone that asks.
• @ashdonaldson: Check Hans Rosling's amazing data mining graphs that dispel common myths at http://www.gapminder.org/ #TED
• @timoreilly: Running theme here at #TED is turning out to be how sensors are pushing the frontiers of human-computer interaction.
• @intradink_feed: TED: Jose Antonio Abreu's TED Prize wish: Help 50 young musicians: Above: Maestro José Antonio Abreu, founde.. http://tinyurl.com/clcd8z
• @tracifenton: Speaker Golan Levin, “What if art was aware that we were looking at it? How would it respond if it could?” http://flong.com #TED
• @tedtalks: #TED The TED balloon escapes! http://tinyurl.com/dl8ayv

In it’s 25th year, TED has brought together some of the world’s most talented thinkers and doers - whether or not you were there...what's your favorite TED moment? Update: In perhaps one of the most talked about TED Talk’s of 2009 Bill Gates offers his perspective on philanthropy and the role that we all have in changing the world. He does this while releasing a jar of mosquitos into the audience and quipping, "Not only poor people should experience this." This is one of the first talks from TED 2009 that was released on their site and youtube today. You can see it in full length below.