The World According to TED
Posted on:: August 14th, 2016
Here’s some info about the 2,200 TED Talks based largely on the tags that TED supplies on its Web site; the data are a few months old. Keep in mind that I am grossly incompetent at this, so I’ve included the SQL queries I used to derive this information so you can see how wrong I’ve gone and can laugh and laugh.
Number of unique tags
378 of ’em
SELECT count( DISTINCT(tag) ) FROM tags
Most popular tags
|
# of talks tagged |
Tags |
| 628 | technology |
| 481 | science |
| 472 | culture |
| 454 | global issues |
| 368 | design |
| 363 | TEDx |
| 308 | business |
| 286 | entertainment |
| 201 | arts |
| 175 | education |
| 165 | health |
| 164 | politics |
| 164 | creativity |
| 141 | art |
| 130 | economics |
| 127 | medicine |
| 125 | biology |
| 122 | music |
| 122 | TED Fellows |
| 118 | brain |
| 111 | social change |
| 108 | invention |
| 106 | storytelling |
| 105 | environment |
| 105 | cities |
| 103 | innovation |
| 103 | future |
| 101 | activism |
| 93 | children |
| 92 | history |
| 92 | health care |
| 91 | collaboration |
| 91 | war |
| 90 | communication |
| 88 | psychology |
| 86 | women |
| 83 | photography |
| 81 | animals |
| 80 | Africa |
| 78 | society |
| 78 | humor |
| 76 | performance |
| 74 | computers |
| 72 | exploration |
| 72 | life |
| 69 | architecture |
| 67 | nature |
| 66 | humanity |
| 64 | oceans |
| 63 | community |
| 59 | sustainability |
| 59 | Internet |
| 58 | film |
SELECT count(tag),tag
FROM tags GROUP BY tag ORDER BY count(tag) desc;
Tags used only once or twice
| 1 | Criminal Justice |
| 1 | refugees |
| 1 | South America |
| 1 | farming |
| 1 | Moon |
| 1 | Addiction |
| 1 | testing |
| 1 | 3d printing |
| 1 | vulnerability |
| 1 | grammar |
| 1 | augmented reality |
| 1 | Themes |
| 1 | Speakers |
| 1 | cloud |
| 1t | skateboarding |
| 1 | HIV |
| 2 | painting |
| 2 | mining |
| 2 | origami |
| 2 | evil |
| 2 | nuclear weapons |
| 2 | pandemic |
| 2 | conservation |
| 2 | funny |
| 2 | television |
| 2 | urban |
SELECT COUNT( tag ) , tag
FROM tags
GROUP BY tag
ORDER BY COUNT( tag ) ASC
Most viewed talks
Quite possibly wrong.
| 999910 | A new kind of job market |
| 999152 | How to grow a tiny forest anywhere |
| 998939 | I believe we evolved from aquatic apes |
| 998234 | Is anatomy destiny? |
| 998218 | Get your next eye exam on a smartphone |
| 997791 | How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place for li… |
| 997437 | Anatomy of a New Yorker cartoon |
| 997409 | How butterflies self-medicate |
| 996048 | A powerful poem about what it feels like to be tra… |
| 995980 | A Magna Carta for the web |
| 995836 | Seas of plastic |
| 995023 | How synchronized hammer strikes could generate nu… |
| 994892 | The lost art of democratic debate |
| 994208 | My wish: Protect our oceans |
| 993977 | Be passionate. Be courageous. Be your best. |
| 993519 | The sound the universe makes |
| 991659 | Creative houses from reclaimed stuff |
| 991413 | Our century’s greatest injustice |
| 991107 | How to read the genome and build a human being |
| 990965 | Watson, Jeopardy and me, the obsolete know-it-all |
| 990621 | The birth of Wikipedia |
| 989093 | Institutions vs. collaboration |
| 989009 | Are we ready for neo-evolution? |
| 988772 | How art, technology and design inform creative lea… |
| 988724 | The shrimp with a kick! |
| 988671 | How we cut youth violence in Boston by 79 percent |
| 988000 | Design for people, not awards |
| 98784 | Let’s bridge the digital divide! |
| 985947 | A mouse. A laser beam. A manipulated memory. |
| 985910 | Augmented reality, techno-magic |
select times_seen,title from talks
order by times_seen desc;
Tags of the most popular talks
.
There’s a very good chance I got the sql wrong on this.
|
Tag |
Total times viewed |
| culture | 838422406 |
| technology | 786923853 |
| science | 643447348 |
| business | 502015257 |
| global issues | 496430414 |
| TEDx | 455208451 |
| entertainment | 454656101 |
| design | 438630037 |
| education | 300884017 |
| psychology | 254105678 |
| creativity | 253564686 |
| brain | 247466263 |
| arts | 237680317 |
| health | 229849451 |
| economics | 170768562 |
| politics | 167696727 |
| music | 156026971 |
| happiness | 152902998 |
| storytelling | 152901475 |
| art | 150698303 |
| biology | 150041947 |
| medicine | 148259678 |
| children | 145085756 |
| humor | 135238512 |
| TED Fellows | 132508655 |
| innovation | 131199988 |
| invention | 131005556 |
| work | 128498631 |
| social change | 126931374 |
| performance | 126748070 |
| communication | 123383482 |
| photography | 117563973 |
| women | 112713285 |
| TED Brain Trust | 112432190 |
| society | 110938282 |
| future | 107266930 |
| leadership | 105273096 |
| environment | 105248603 |
| activism | 102566309 |
| life | 101140951 |
| cities | 101137670 |
| demo | 99763884 |
| history | 99190820 |
| animals | 97888183 |
| evolution | 96694769 |
| computers | 96482674 |
| collaboration | 95467954 |
| health care | 89321143 |
| humanity | 86872761 |
| writing | 83887498 |
| war | 82927410 |
| nature | 82570058 |
| success | 82167936 |
SELECT DISTINCT tags.tag , sum(talks.times_seen) FROM tags
INNER JOIN talks ON tags.talkid = talks.talkid
GROUP BY tags.tag
ORDER BY SUM( talks.times_seen ) DESC
LIMIT 3,53;
Tags of least popular talks
| HIV | 425898 |
| refugees | 600837 |
| skateboarding | 636577 |
| chautauqua | 685869 |
| South America | 750182 |
| grammar | 798075 |
| cello | 1067130 |
| vulnerability | 1161544 |
| Criminal Justice | 1169914 |
| augmented reality | 1173622 |
| vocals | 1294926 |
| painting | 1458681 |
| 3d printing | 1533524 |
| Moon | 1648828 |
| cloud | 1722064 |
| nuclear weapons | 1770997 |
| oil | 1881325 |
| pandemic | 1916790 |
| One Laptop Per Child | 2041228 |
| glacier | 2152056 |
| conservation | 2292578 |
| urban | 2298278 |
| origami | 2356218 |
| television | 2400358 |
| microfinance | 2473192 |
| mining | 2548989 |
| charter for compassion | 2820656 |
| street art | 3166364 |
| TED-Ed | 3192662 |
| wind energy | 3235963 |
| epidemiology | 3266959 |
| ants | 3295524 |
| state-building | 3479554 |
| solar | 3548619 |
| Guns | 3575760 |
| apes | 3595746 |
| Addiction | 4216103 |
| mobility | 4229741 |
| code | 4428049 |
| geology | 4581536 |
| New York | 4614232 |
| Brand | 4661846 |
| rocket science | 4669955 |
| cyborg | 4689850 |
| capitalism | 4745782 |
| primates | 4771987 |
| machine learning | 4915396 |
| natural disaster | 4990286 |
| nuclear energy | 5001603 |
| meme | 5066551 |
| novel | 5120690 |
| immigration | 5350061 |
| Vaccines | 5374354 |
same as above, but ascending
