‘Tis the season for Social Good and music. These are definitely two of my favorite things in the world and Horn Group has brought both of them together in an event called “Tech The Halls” to benefit an extremely worthy cause.

On December 16th from 1-5pm ET, DJ’s representing the biggest Tech publications in the world will face off on Turntable.fm, all in the name of great music and raising money for One Laptop Per Child.

Here’s how the Horn Group describes the event:

Tech the Halls is a nationwide holiday listening party, with the biggest names in tech journalism coming together to throw down on turntable.fm in head-to-head DJ battles. And there’s more than just bragging rights on the line: the battles are the finale to a month-long fundraising campaign for One Laptop Per Child, and the money raised will be donated in the winning DJ’s name!

The company hopes to raise $10,000, which will buy 50 laptops for kids all over the world. The company has already raised $4,215, so please go and donate now.

Now onto the entertainment. DJs will fight it out in 30 minute battles on turntable.fm, and you’ll be the judge on who spins the hottest tracks. The DJ with the most points, wins.

Here’s the final list of match-ups with The Next Web’s very own Brett Petersel set to duke it out with Sam Biddle from Gizmodo:

John Capone (Mediapost) v. Corey Kronengold (Digiday)
Lauren Goode (AllThingsD) v. Chris Heine (ClickZ)
Tyler Gray (Fast Company) v. Kunur Patel (Advertising Age)
Tom Taulli (Forbes) v. Erin Griffith (AdWeek)
Josh Constine (TechCrunch) vs. Seth Porges (Maxim)
Brett Petersel (The Next Web) v. Sam Biddle (Gizmodo)
Jordan Burchette (Men’s Fitness v. Peter Rubin (Wired)

It truly is great fun for a great cause, so you should mark December 16th down on your calendars, donate some money, and listen to some killer music from Tech’s finest. Just a tip, if you dig 80′s music, then be sure to watch Brett spin.

➤ Tech The Halls

Everyone needs a little inspiration now and again, and there is usually no better place to go than to TED to catch up on what the world’s real visionaries are working on. TED regularly hosts brilliant people from around the globe to talk about their ideas for the future.

Fast freight via low orbit space travel? Yes, they are working on that. Reading brainwaves to see what you are thinking? It’s not science fiction, it’s just young science. TED even has an ace up its sleeve for you and me, a whole library of talks on technology.

We went through and picked five of our absolute favorites to pass along to you, but strongly recommended that you don’t just take our word for it, be sure and sample around. TED will make you see the whole world in new light.

Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia

Watch the talk here. Wikipedia is one of the most important parts of the internet, comprising an information stack in the world’s languages that can only be rivaled by Google’s index and the larger internet. How did it all come together, and who is its famous founder? If you can’t live without Wikipedia this talk is for you.

Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation

Watch the talk here. Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, is all about openness. He thinks that the internet is ushering in the biggest revolution since the invention of mass printing. Why? Because the internet is bringing “crowd accelerated innovation” to the masses, creating a virtuous cycle of information swapping and learning that is going to change the way people grapple with the world.

This talk is a great follow-up to the Wales talk.

Eric Giler demos wireless electricity

Watch the talk here. Oh yes, wireless electricity. It could be that in just a few short years your internet is not going to be the only thing in your house that no longer needs a cord, it could be nearly everything in your house, period.

Eric Giler wants to make science fiction reality, and details just how far a new MIT concept has come, so close in fact that it could be charging your cellphone before you can say iPhone 6.

Evan Williams on listening to Twitter users

Watch the talk here. We could not leave this one out, could we? Watch @Ev lay down how as Twitter grew, the company watched how their users took command of the product and came up with their own use-cases for it.

Evan looks a little nervous, but the talk is rather fascinating.

Negroponte takes OLPC to Colombia

Watch the talk here. To wrap up this post of great procrastination for the rest of the day we bring you the One Laptop Per Child project and Nicholas Negroponte, the man with the plan making it happen.

He worked with Colombia’s Defense Department to spread the laptops, the Colombian DD claiming that they were an “investment in the region.”

There you have it folks, now get watching and learn! A tip of the hat to Reddit for the idea.