Alexis Ohanian changed the shape of the Internet as a co-founder of Reddit. Naturally, this TED speaker is fascinated by talks about the global idea flow.
Ohanian writes, “Throughout history, there have always been awesome people with great ideas who never had a chance to share them because of some bullshit reason — they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time or to the wrong gender or race. But finally, we have a platform that is a true level playing field. I fight for Internet freedom because on an open Internet, where all links are created equal, good ideas win. Anyone, anywhere can share an idea that can be seen by millions by the end of the day.
"Stories like William Kamkwamba's inspire me. I had the chance to meet him the year I spoke [at TED] and was humbled by a young man who learned engineering from old textbooks in a foreign language, and was able to turn scrap metal into a functioning windmill. When he finally got access to a computer with the Internet and Googled windmills, he wondered where the Internet had been the whole time he was teaching himself physics in an old library. Think of all the Williams whose genius we've missed out on.
"If we do it right, the Internet will be the platform that allows us to benefit from the ideas of people around the globe. But none of this is guaranteed, and there's still tremendous work to be done, which is why I'm fascinated by the TEDTalks that touch on the issues that hold back and boost our Internet industry.”
Christina Xu: The importance of being awesome
Drew Curtis: How I beat a patent troll
Christopher “moot” Poole: The case for anonymity online
William Kamkwamba: How I built a windmill
Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education
Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight
Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius
Bonnie Bassler: How bacteria "talk"
Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders
Mike Rowe: Learning from dirty jobs