I just came across this excellent illustration posted by Dan Sellars of the way that storytelling traditions have evlolved over time to reflect and utilise the technology available:
If you like that, you will no doubt also like another image he posted (in 2009) ‘Characters for an Epic Tale’. Check it out!
Kelli McGraw 
#1 by Jewlz wright (@crinkle_pop) on September 6, 2011 - 8:12 pm
Although picture is called the ‘evolution of storytelling’ I like the way it is depicted as a tree. To me this indicates that any of the fruit it bears is still available to us to use. You could say the evolution of TED is delving back into the narrative deep in oral traditions in the trunk of our human history.
#2 by kmcg2375 on September 7, 2011 - 9:44 pm
Thanks Jewlz – I like the extension of the image to ‘bearing fruit’. This gives me other ideas too, like the idea of a ‘pedigrees’ or ‘hybrids’ for genres and mediums. And of processes of ‘grafting’…there is potential in this metaphor!