TED (conference)
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design[7]) is an American-Canadian non-profit[7] media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading".[8] It was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in February 1984[2] as a technology conference, in which Mickey Schulhof gave a demo of the compact disc that was invented in October 1982.[5] Its main conference has been held annually since 1990.[6][9] It covers almost all topics—from science to business to global issues—in more than 100 languages.[7]
Type of business
Conference
English, multilingual subtitles, transcript
February 23, 1984
- New York, New York, U.S.
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Canada
- United States
Sapling Foundation (1984–2019)
TED Foundation (2019–present)[1]
US$66.2 million (2015)[4]
Optional
Active
TED's early emphasis was on technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins. It later broadened to include scientific, cultural, political, humanitarian, and academic topics.[10] It has been curated by Chris Anderson, a British-American businessman, through the non-profit TED Foundation since July 2019 (originally by the non-profit Sapling Foundation).[1][11][12]
The main TED conference has been held annually in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at the Vancouver Convention Centre since 2014. The first conferences from 1984 (TED1) through 2008 (TED2008) were held at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, California.[13] Between 2009 and 2014, it was held in Long Beach, California, United States.[14] TED events are also held throughout North America and in Europe, Asia, and Africa, offering live streaming of the talks. TED returned to Monterey in 2021 with TEDMonterey. The talks address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling.[15]
Since June 2006,[3] TED Talks had been offered for free viewing online, under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license, through TED.com.[18] As of December 2020, over 3,500 talks are freely available on the official website.[19] In June 2011, TED Talks' combined viewing figures surpassed 500 million,[20] and by November 2012, they had been watched over one billion times worldwide.[21] While the talks are available free online, sharing TED content in commercial contexts (such as corporate learning and talent development) requires a license.[22]
Criticism[edit]
Pricing[edit]
Speakers and performers at official TED events are not compensated.[196]
Journalist Frank Swain refused to participate in a TEDx event without being paid. He said that it was unacceptable that TED, a non-profit organization, charged attendees $6,000 but prohibited organizers of the smaller, independently organized TEDx events from paying speakers.[197]
Sarah Lacy of BusinessWeek and TechCrunch wrote in 2010 that TED attendees complained of elitism from a "hierarchy of parties throughout the LA area with strict lists and security" after the sessions. She gave credit for freely live-streaming and posting videos of its talks.[198]
TED Talk content[edit]
Disagreements have also occurred between TED speakers and organizers. In her 2010 TED Talk, comedian Sarah Silverman referred to adopting a "retarded" child. TED organizer Chris Anderson objected via his Twitter account, leading to a conflict between them conducted over Twitter.[199][200]
Also in 2010, statistician Nassim Taleb called TED a "monstrosity that turns scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers". He claimed TED curators did not initially post his talk "warning about the financial crisis" on their site on purely cosmetic grounds.[201]
In May 2012, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer spoke at TED University, challenging the belief that top income earners in America were the engines of job creation. TED attracted controversy when it chose not to post Hanauer's talk on their website. His talk analysed the top rate of tax versus unemployment and economic equality.[202] TED was accused of censoring the talk by not posting it.[203][204]
On May 7, 2012, TED curator Chris Anderson, in an email to Hanauer, commented on his decision and took issue with several of Hanauer's assertions in the talk, including the idea that businesspeople were not job creators. He also made clear his aversion to the talk's "political nature":[205]
The National Journal reported that Anderson considered Hanauer's talk one of the most politically controversial they had produced, and they needed to be careful about when they posted it.[203] Anderson responded on his personal blog that TED posted only one talk each day, selected from many.[206] Forbes staff writer Bruce Upbin noted that Hanauer's claim of a relationship between tax rates and unemployment was based entirely on falsified unemployment data,[207] while New York magazine condemned TED's move.[208]
Following a TEDx talk by parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake, TED issued a statement saying their scientific advisors believed that "there is little evidence for some of Sheldrake's more radical claims", and recommended that it "should not be distributed without being framed with caution". The video was moved from the TEDx YouTube channel to the TED blog, accompanied by such framing language. This prompted accusations of censorship, which TED rebutted by pointing out that Sheldrake's talk was still on their website.[209][210] A 2013 talk by Graham Hancock, promoting the use of the drug DMT, was treated the same way.[211][95]
According to professor Benjamin Bratton at University of California, San Diego, TED Talks' efforts at fostering progress in socio-economics, science, philosophy and technology have been ineffective.[212] Chris Anderson responded that some critics misunderstood TED's goals, failing to recognise that it aimed to instill excitement in audiences in the same ways speakers felt it. He said that TED wished only to bring awareness of significant topics to larger audiences.[213]
In popular culture[edit]
The Alien franchise features a fictional portrayal of a 2023 TED Conference, in the form of a short film called "The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023".[214] It was a part of the viral marketing campaign for the franchise's film Prometheus (2012).
Episode 08, season 20 of the animated TV show Family Guy features a cutaway scene of Peter Griffin giving a TED talk about birthdays.
Australian alternative rock band TISM parodied TED talks at their 2 March 2024 concert in Launceston, Tasmania as "TISM Talks", which included a skit parodying TED talks running behind the band for the duration of the show.
