I don’t know how  familiar you are with the Reith Lectures. They have been running  for 60 years now. This  years Lectures were actually presented last month, but  I have only  just managed to find the time to listen to them. The first lecture was presented at the British Library. Which is an intuition that Microsoft has also  run a number of projects with including the Turning the Pages On line Gallery.

This year’s lectures were on the subject of China given by Professor Jonathon Spence.  There is a wealth of comment and observation to be found on these lectures online. My own observations lead me to focus on the lecture concept and its delivery  itself, as something we all could learn from.

There are some fascinating lecturers and locations  we can all leverage. The first lectures I can ever recall watching are the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. These were always, and still wonderfully inspiring  and well presented lectures. Indeed the 2008  Lectures will be sponsored by Microsoft Research, and in the UK Channel 5  will be televising them. ( you can see an outline of the 2006 lectures here).

To me, this level of lecturing far outstrips any text book  or web site. It forces you to be in the moment, to  stretch to comprehend what is being said.

The value the web brings, is its ability  to share at any time in any place with anyone. Another fascinating set of lectures  which I often  find time to watch are the TED lectures. You will also find Blaise Aguera y Arcas giving an overview of photosynth. You can watch the brief lecture below.

 

I often wish that more of us were in the mode of lecturing rather than just presenting.