History
1984–1999: Founding and early years
TED was conceived in 1984 by Emmy-winning broadcast and graphic designer Harry Marks, who observed a convergence of the fields of technology, entertainment, and design (that is, "TED"). He approached architect and graphic designer Richard Saul Wurman for assistance, who agreed on the condition that he were to be a co-founder. The first conference, organized that same year by Marks and Wurman with help from Dr. Frank Stanton, featured demos of the compact disc, co-developed by Philips and Sony and one of the first demonstrations of the Apple Macintosh computer. Presentations were given by famous mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot and influential members of the digerati community, like Nicholas Negroponte and Stewart Brand. The event was financially unsuccessful; hence, it took six years before the second conference was organized. TED2 was held at the Monterey Conference Center in California in 1990. From 1990 onward, a growing community of "TEDsters" gathered annually with Wurman leading the conference in Monterey until 2009, when it was relocated to Long Beach, California, due to a substantial increase in attendees. Initially, the speakers had been drawn from the fields of expertise behind the acronym TED, but during the 1990s, the roster of presenters broadened to include scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, philanthropists, and many others.2000–present: Recent growth
In 2000, Wurman, looking for a successor at age 65, met with new-media entrepreneur and TED enthusiast Chris Anderson to discuss future happenings. Anderson's UK media company Future bought TED. In November 2001, Anderson's non-profit TheTED Prize
The TED Prize was introduced in 2005. Until 2010, it annually granted three individuals $100,000 and a "wish to change the world". Each winner unveils their wish at the main annual conference. Since 2010, in a changed selection process, a single winner is chosen to ensure that TED can maximize its efforts in achieving the winner's wish. In 2012, the prize was not awarded to an individual, but to a concept connected to the current global phenomenon of increasing urbanization. In 2013, the prize amount was increased to $1 million. TED Prize winners in previous years: TED Conference commissioned New York artist Tom Shannon to create a prize sculpture to be given to all TED Prize winners. The sculpture consists of an aluminum sphere magnetically levitated above a walnut disc. As of 2018 the TED Prize has been recast as The Audacious Project.TED.com
In 2005, Chris Anderson hired June Cohen as Director of TED Media. In June 2006, after Cohen's idea of a TV show based on TED lectures was rejected by several networks, a selection of talks that had received the highest audience ratings was posted on the websites of TED, YouTube, and iTunes, under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0. Initially, only a handful of talks were posted, to test if there was an audience for them. In January of the next year, the number of TED Talks on the site had grown to 44, and they had been viewed more than three million times. On the basis of that success, the organization pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into its video production operations and into the development of a website to showcase about 100 of the talks. In April 2007, the new TED.com was launched, developed by New York and San Francisco-based design company Method. In subsequent years, the website has won many prizes, among which are seven Webby Awards, iTunes' "Best Podcast of the Year" (2006–2010), the '' Communication Arts'' Interactive Award for "Information Design" in 2007, the OMMA Award for "video sharing" in 2008, the Web Visionary Award for "technical achievement" in 2008, The One Show Interactive Bronze Award in 2008, the AIGA Annual Design Competition (2009), and a Peabody Award in 2012. In January 2009, the then number of videos had been viewed 50 million times. In June 2011, the number of views totaled 500 million, and on November 13, 2012, TED reached its billionth video view. in In March 2012, Chris Anderson said in an interview: In March 2012,Related projects and events
TED conferences
TEDGlobal
In 2005, under Anderson's supervision, a more internationally oriented sister conference was added, under the name TEDGlobal. It was held, in chronological order: in Oxford, UK (2005), in Arusha, Tanzania (2007, titled TEDAfrica), in Oxford again (2009 and 2010), and in Edinburgh, UK (2011, 2012, and 2013). In 2014, it was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Additionally, there was TED India, in Mysore (2009) and TEDGlobal London inTED Translators
TED Translators, formerly known as the Open Translation Project (OTP), started as the TED Open Translation Project in May 2009. It intends to " eachout to the 4.5 billion people on the planet who don't speak English", according to TED Curator Chris Anderson. The OTP used crowd-based subtitling platforms to translate the text of TED and TED-Ed videos, as well as to caption and translate videos created in the TEDx program. (Until May 2012 it worked with its technology partner dotSUB, and then with the open source translation tool Amara). When the project was launched, 300 translations had been completed in 40 languages by 200 volunteer transcribers. By May 2015, more than 70,000 sets of subtitles in 107 languages had been completed by (an all-time total of) 38,173 volunteer translators. The project helped generate a significant increase in international visitors to TED's website. Traffic from outside the US has increased 350 percent: there has been 600 percent growth in Asia, and more than 1000 percent in South America. Members have several tools dedicated to knowledge management, such as the OTP Wiki OTPedia, Facebook groups, or video tutorials.TEDx
TEDx are independent events similar to TED in presentation. They can be organized by anyone who obtains a free license from TED, and agrees to follow certain principles. TEDx events are required to be non-profit, but organizers may use an admission fee or commercial sponsorship to cover costs. Speakers are not paid and must also relinquish the copyrights to their materials, which TED may edit and distribute under a Creative Commons license. As of January 2014, the TEDxTalks library contained some 30,000 films and presentations from more than 130 countries. As of October 2017, the TEDx archive surpassed 100,000 talks. In March 2013, eight TEDx events were organised every day; raised up from five in June 2012, the previous year, in 133 countries. TEDx presentations may include live performances, which are catalogued in the TEDx Music Project. In 2011, TED began a program called "TEDx in a Box", which is intended to enable people in developing countries to hold TEDx events. TEDx also expanded to include TEDxYouth events, TEDx corporate events, and TEDxWomen. TEDxYouth events are independent programs set up for students who are in grades 7–12. These events usually have audiences of people close to the age of the students and sometimes show TED Talks. According to TEDxSanta Cruz, "as of 2015, over 1,500 EDx eventshave been scheduled all over the world." TEDx events have evolved over time. Events such as TEDxBeaconStreet created TEDx Adventures for participants. People may sign up for free, hands-on experiences in their local communities, led by an expert. A TEDx youth event license follows the same format as the standard event license and falls within the same TEDx event rules, except this event is oriented towards youth. TEDxYouth licenses may be held by youth, adults, or a combination of both. For events held at schools, the license must be held by a current student, faculty, or staff member. The first TEDxYouth event was held by TEDxYouth@Tokyo in JapanTED Fellows
TED Fellows were introduced in 2007, during the first TEDAfrica conference in Arusha, Tanzania, where 100 young people were selected from across the continent. Two years later, during TEDIndia, 99 Fellows were recruited, mainly from South Asia. In 2009, the Fellows program was initiated in its present form. For every TED or TEDGlobal conference, 20 Fellows are selected; a total of 40 new Fellows a year. Each year, 20 past Fellows are chosen to participate in the two-year Senior Fellows program (in which they will attend four more conferences). 2019 marked the tenth anniversary of the TED Fellows program. Acceptance as a Fellow is not based on academic credentials, but mainly on past and current actions, and plans for the future. Besides attending a conference free of charge, each Fellow takes part in a special program with mentoring by experts in the field of spreading ideas, and he or she can give a short talk on the "TED Fellows" stage. Some of these talks are subsequently published on TED.com. Senior Fellows have additional benefits and responsibilities.TED-Ed
TED-Ed is a YouTube channel from Ted which creates short animated educational videos. It also has its own website. TED-Ed lessons are created in collaboration with educators and animators. Current advisers for Ted-Ed lessons include Aaron Sams, Jackie Bezos, John Hunter, Jonathan Bergmann, Melinda French Gates, and Sal Khan. It has over 17.8 million subscribers and over 3.3 billion views as of November 2022.TED Interview
The TED Interview is a weekly podcast launched on October 16, 2018, during which Chris Anderson holds conversations with speakers who have previously given a TED talk, providing the guest a chance to speak in greater depth about their background, projects, motivation, re-evaluation of past experiences, or plans for the future. Each interview lasts between 45 minutes and about one hour. All podcasts are available on the TED website, in part together with transcripts, as well as through platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn,TEDMED
TEDMED is an annual conference concerned with health and medicine. It is an independent event operating under license from the nonprofit TED conference. TEDMED was founded in 1998 by TED's founder Ricky Wurman. After years of inactivity, in 2008 Wurman sold TEDMED to entrepreneur Marc Hodosh, who recreated and relaunched it. The first event under Hodosh's ownership was held in San Diego in October 2009. In January 2010, TED.com began including videos of TEDMED talks on the TED website. The second Hodosh-owned edition of TEDMED took place in October 2010, also in San Diego. It sold out for a second year and attracted notable healthcare leaders and Hollywood celebrities. In 2011, Jay Walker and a group of executives and investors purchased TEDMED from Hodosh for $16 million with future additional payments of as much as $9 million. The conference was then moved to Washington, DC.TEDWomen
TEDWomen is an annual three-day conference. Established in 2010, TEDWomen features speakers focused on women-oriented themes, including gender issues and reproductive health. There are over 130 TEDWomen Talks available to watch on the TED website. Past speakers include former president Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg, Madeleine Albright, Nancy Pelosi and Halla Tómasdóttir.TEDYouth
TEDYouth talks are aimed at middle school and high school students and feature information from youth innovators.Other programs
* TED@Work — A program that leverages TED content to inspire new ways of working in professional settings. This program provides ways for organizations and companies to license TED content for use in learning and talent development contexts. *TED Books — These are original books from TED. The initiative began in January 2011 as an ebook series and re-launched in September 2014 with its first book in print. * TedEd Clubs — An education based initiative to get young people (ages 8 to 18) to share their ideas with peers and others by giving a TED-like presentation on a topic. TED provides curricula and limited support for the Clubs free of charge. * TED Salon — Smaller evening-length events with speakers and performers. * '' TED Radio Hour'' — A radio program, with audio downloads and a podcast RSS feed, hosted by Manoush Zomorodi, previouslyCriticism
Pricing
Frank Swain, a journalist, refused to participate in a TEDx event without getting paid. He said that it is unacceptable that TED, which is a non-profit organization, charges TED attendees $6,000 but prohibits organisers of the smaller, independently organized TEDx events from paying anything to speakers. Speakers and performers at official TED events are not compensated for their talks. 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 TED credit for making talks free online or live streamed.TED Talk content
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 Twitter skirmish between them. 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. In May 2012, venture capitalistIn popular culture
The ''Alien'' franchise features a fictional portrayal of the year 2023 edition of the TED Conference in the form of a short film called "The Peter Weyland Files: TED Conference, 2023". This was a part of the viral marketing campaign for the ''Prometheus'' film.See also
* List of educational video websites * List of TED speakers * ChautauquaReferences
External links
* * * {{Authority control 1984 establishments in the United States Academic conferences American educational websites Business conferences Education-related YouTube channels International conferences Non-profit organizations based in New York City Organizations established in 1984 Peabody Award-winning websites Recurring events established in 1984 Technology conferences Universal Windows Platform apps YouTube channels Public speaking