Heard from Shannon today that a self-organizing alternative to TED, the supremely expensive annual conference, is also taking place in Monterey this weekend.

The new event, BIL (get it?), has a site and a wiki (BIL = Beauty, Intelligence, Levity; TED = Technology, Entertainment, Design).

In similar fashion a few years back,  Chris Messina, Tara Hunt, Ross Mayfield, Matt Mullenweg, Tantek Celik and others started the first barcamp the same weekend as O’Reilly Media’s invitation-only FOO (Friends Of O’Reilly) Camp. Now barcamps are popping up all over, making open-space-style events commonplace.

Local duties will keep me from BIL, but I love the idea.