Best of the Web

• Posted By: Kathy M.Y. Pyon
• Posted On: 2:56 p.m. | April 26, 2012

Best of the Web this week peruses the annual Time 100 list of the world’s most influential people, broken up into four catagories: leaders, artists, heroes and thinkers. The online presentation offers a variety of entry points.

These videos explore each person, painting a portrait of why they made the Time 100 list. Each story is inspiring.

Educator Cami Anderson is presented in a nice profile piece. There is a good flow from start to finish and you get a good introduction to Anderson. The video starts with a startling statistic that is echoed in other videos on this topic.

The piece on veterans advocate Barbara Van Dahlen is different from the one of Cami Anderson because Van Dahlen is the subject of the video, though the backbone is Jennifer Crane. Crane’s story illuminates the current state of veterans in a raw and realistic way.

Then there is Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Her story made me think twice about what one person can do to unite a group of people.

The videos:

Cami Anderson

Barbara Van Dahlen

Ai-jen Poo

Explore the series as the influential speak about those who influenced them.

And there is a gallery of portraits.

Photos: Screen grabs from the Time 100 honorees videos, clockwise from top left, from the video of Cami Anderson; from the video of Ai-jen Poo,  Henrik Schärfe and his robot (photographed by Joachim Ladefoged/VII) and from the video of  Barbara Van Dahlen.