Perhaps this is a sign that people are taking it upon themselves to become more educated. TED announced that it has surpassed a billion video views.

“Our most recent metrics show that TED Talks are being viewed at a rate of 1.5 million times a day — which means that a new viewing commences 17 times a second,” TED Staff says on the TED Blog. “We in the TED office cannot thank you enough for helping us reach this milestone of 1,000,000,000 views — nine wonderful zeroes.”

“In 2006, when we first posted six TED Talks online as an experiment, internet video was a new form,” the post adds. “No one knew if people would take 18 minutes to watch ‘taped lectures’ online, and none of us could possibly have predicted the way in which TED Talks would take off over the next few years. What does this tell us? That people want to learn. That people want be inspired. That people are hungry for ideas, and that there’s a bubbling desire not to let the unfortunate truths of our world remain the status quo, but to look for creative solutions. The fact that you — and your fellow curious minds around the globe — keep coming back for talks day after day is truly astounding. Consider us humbled.”

The post itself includes an interactive “Great Moments in TED Talks” graph, which will point you to various, memorable videos (you’ll have to click over to the post to actually use it):

TED doesn’t discuss other channels through which its talks can be accessed (such as Netflix and the Science Channel), so there are likely plenty more video views that aren’t even being accounted for.

I’d like to see some new stats on Khan Academy video views.

TED has also launched a new section on its site called Playlists, which are curated collections of talks on topics that users have consistently shown the most interest in. If you sign in, you can start a playlist, and it will save exactly where you left off, so you can pick up from there the next time. There are lists curated by Ben Affleck, Jill Bolte Taylor, Reggie Watts, Bill Gates and Glenn Close, among others.