TED

The TED (Technology Entertainment Design) logo and slogan

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an academic organization owned by The Sapling Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation.^[1] TED is well-known for its annual, invitation-only conference devoted to "ideas worth spreading."^[2] TED is famous for its lectures, known as TED Talks, which originally focused on technology, entertainment and design, but have now expanded in scope to a broad set of topics including science, arts, politics, education, culture, business, global issues, technology and development. Speakers have included such people as former U.S. President Bill Clinton, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, molecular biologist James D. Watson, physicist Murray Gell-Mann, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Zoologist Jane Goodall, and Evangelist Billy Graham.^[3]

Background

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton at TED in 2007.

Chris Anderson, curator addresses TED in 2007

TEDxParis in 2009, one of the many events organized under the TEDx Program.

The TED staff is headquartered in New York City and Vancouver. The conference has been held in Monterey, California, since its founding, but as of 2009 is being held in Long Beach, California due to an increased number of attendees.^[4] The TED conference also has a companion conference, TEDGlobal, held in varying locations. This year, TEDGlobal 2009, "The Substance of Things Not Seen," was held in Oxford, UK on July 21–24, 2009. The next event is TEDIndia which takes place in Mysore, India on 4–7 November, 2009. "What the World Needs Now, TED2010," will be held in Long Beach, California on February 9–13, 2010.^[5]

More than 500 TED talks are provided for free viewing online. As of April 2009, talks had been viewed over 100 million times by more than 15 million people.^[6][7]

From the TED website^[8]:

"We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."

Attendees of TED are called “TEDsters,” a list of whom was uncovered and published for the first time on February 28, 2008 by tech blog Valleywag^[9]. Valleywag’s sister site, Kotaku, further promoted the list and videogame-related executives in attendance on their site.

History

TED was founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in 1984, and has been held annually since 1990. Wurman left after the 2002 conference; the event is now hosted by Chris Anderson and owned by his non-profit organization The Sapling Foundation,^[10] devoted to "leveraging the power of ideas to change the world". In 2006, attendance cost $4,400 and was by invitation only.^[11] The membership model was shifted in January of 2007 to an annual membership fee of $6,000, which includes attendance of the conference, club mailings, networking tools and conference DVDs.

Since June 2006, TED Talks have been made available online on the TED website, youtube and iTunes.^{[12] [13][14]}r The TED website recently won the Webby Award for Best Use of Video or Moving Image at the 13th Annual Webby Awards.^[15] TED Talks are transcribed and translated in a number of languages as part of the TED Open-Translation Project, which aims to "[reach] out to the 4.5 billion people on the planet who don't speak English," according to TED Curator Chris Anderson. At the time of the launch, over 300 translations were done by volunteer transcribers in over 40 languages.^[5]

Conference

TED Speakers

TED Prize

The TED Prize was introduced in 2005. Each year, three individuals are each given $100,000 and granted a "wish to change the world", which they unveil at TED.

Programs

TED Fellows

The TED Fellows fellowship program brings together young world-changers and trailblazers who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage.^[21] The program targets individuals from the Asia/Pacific region, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East, though anyone from anywhere in the world, age 18 and over, can apply.

TEDx

TEDx is a program that enables schools, businesses, libraries or just groups of friends to enjoy a TED-like experience with TEDx Events they themselves organize, design and host.^[22]

See also

• Clinton Global Initiative
• Poptech
• World Economic Forum
• TEDxDubai 2009
• Global Ideas Bank
• Opencourseware

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: TED

• TED.com: Official website
• Official TED YouTube channel
• TED India Updates, TEDIndia Program (TEDIndia official web site), Karmapa to speak at TEDIndia conference