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

Categories: misc dw