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| TED Talks - with Limited Vision on Granville Street Bridge - Bill Tieleman photo |
Bill Tieleman's 24 Hours Vancouver / The Tyee column
Tuesday March 11, 2014
By Bill Tieleman
"Each
new 'big idea' to 'inspire the world' and 'change everything' pitched from the
TED stage reminds me of the swamp root and snake oil liniment being sold from a
wagon a hundred years past."
- Nathan Jurgenson,
social media sociologist
TED
Talks, money glistens. And now it's here in Vancouver, selling what may be snake oil solutions to the
well-heeled and well-intentioned.
Who in
their right mind would attend for U.S. $7,500 per person for the five-day TED Conference starting
March 17 at the Vancouver Convention Centre when many speakers' talks get
posted online for free?
But
don't worry about TED -- the 1,200 seats for the non-profit Technology,
Entertainment, Design extravaganza are long sold out.
However,
you can try to be a "TEDster" at next year's Vancouver "Truth
and Dare" event, where the price jumps to U.S. $8,500 -- but good luck
getting in, because you have to "apply"
to attend -- along with having a big credit card limit.
Or
become a TED Donor
next year for just U.S. $17,000 and get more networking benefits. And you could
go all in for U.S. $150,000 Patron status for five years.
There's
also the chance to become a corporate sponsor like
Walmart, Target, Citibank, Lincoln Motor Car Company, Google, Walt Disney,
Toyota and other corporations are this year for even bigger money.
And
don't forget general TED Talks corporate partners like Gucci,
Rolex, American Express, Samsung, Sony and Intel.
How
TED's spread
"Ideas
worth spreading" is TED's slogan -- but are they really?
Or do
TED Talks instead promote corporate technology solutions to problems that
require far more fundamental, difficult and political change?
As
Jurgenson wrote: "TED and the larger TED-like world of Silicon Valley
corporatism have far too much importance."
"There
are consequences to having this style of discourse dominate how technology's
role in society is understood. Where are the voices critical of
corporatism?" Jurgenson asks.
Well,
not likely here in Vancouver speaking at the TED Conference. Somehow I don't
think Bill Gates -- the world's richest man and Microsoft
founder -- will spend his 18 minutes starting that revolution!
And in
reality, some very powerful technology barons and venture capitalists finance
TED through the Sapling Foundation that puts it on, business people with direct
real economic interests in solutions their companies just might supply or ideas
they might buy.
For
example, check the Internal Revenue Service reports
for the Sapling Foundation major donors and you'll find names like Jeff Bezos, founder of
Amazon.com, venture capitalist Brook Byers, David Cowan of Bessemer
Venture Partners, Arjun Gupta
of Telesoft Partners and many, many more all making five, six and even seven
figure donations.
Nothing
wrong with them supporting TED and giving up a Bentley or two to do so but it
does raise questions about the organization's focus.
Political
gatekeepers
When
one of those mega-rich entrepreneurs goes rogue -- like Seattle's Nick Hanauer did in a TED
Talk saying the rich don't actually create jobs -- then TED stops the talking.
It refused to post Hanauer's speech online, perhaps because of statements in it
like this:
"If
it were true that lower tax rates and more wealth for the wealthy would lead to
more job creation, then today we would be drowning in jobs. And yet
unemployment and under-employment is at record highs," Hanauer said.
Sounds
plausible but TED Talks "curator" Chris Anderson claims that
Hanauer's presentation was too political.
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| TED Talks Curator Christ Anderson |
Now
despite all this, not everything about TED Talks is bad -- far from it.
Interesting
speakers, diverse ideas, potentially game-changing ideas all dynamically and
convincingly delivered in 18 minutes or less, then most made available to the
entire world free online.
And for
the Vancouver TED Conference titled "The Next Chapter" as it
relocated here for possibly three or more years, there is some free access
to TED Talks online for accredited community centres, non-governmental
organizations, high schools, universities, or libraries. That may explain the
number of TED Talks lamppost banners around the city.
But is
it really worth all the attention?
Take
one of the most popular TED Talks from psychologist Shawn Achor, titled: "The happy
secret to better work."
It has
over seven million views since 2011 and tells us if we think positive thoughts
and use the "Happy Advantage" you'll be better at securing and
keeping jobs, have superior productivity, more resilience, less burnout,
greater sales and more.
Great
-- I'll be sure to tell everyone working for minimum wage at Walmart and Target
to lighten up!
'Blatant
pseudoscientific garbage'?
Psychobabble
to make rich people happier at their non-menial jobs may be obnoxious and not
deal with most of the world's crushing reality but it's not any more harmful
than Tony Robbins' self-improvement empire.
However,
it is disturbing to read writer Llewellyn Hinkes-Jones easily destroying some
TED Talks in The Awl
earlier this year for their "blatant pseudoscientific garbage."
"These
aren't nebulous meanderings on where ideas come from or the contentious talks
on new age and quantum energy seen at the smaller TEDx events (kookiness that
the organizers have already tried to clamp down on)."
"These
are the main stage talks on subjects with wide social implications. These are
the TED Talks that simply repackage right-wing talking points for the stoned
California tech elite with a gloss of technological innovation and a contrarian
interpretation of how the world actually works," Hinkes-Jones concluded.
As
Jurgenson put it: "At TED, 'everyone is Steve Jobs' and every idea is
treated like an iPad."
In the real
world, TED Talks can be simply tedious, but the money definitely glistens.
.
.
4 comments:
sounds like one big jerk off session, and all the rich are willing to pay $7,500 to do it. Its tax deductible no doubt, so we the rest who can't afford to attend, pay for it anyhow.
Not much will be accomplished. Its the rich speaking to the rich, its circle jerk for the rich.
So here we go with another whine festival against those who want to come out with ideas.
So why is being successful and rich all that bad?
being rich and successful isn't bad, its just boring for the rest of the population when there is such disparity between the 1%ers and the rest of us. Many of those in attendance will be able to write off the $7,500 as a tax deduction. This impoverishes the government and we the rest of the tax payers get to pick up the bill.
That convention centre they are hold this in, along with B.C. Place has run over a $234,000,000 deficit in the past 5 yrs. Who makes up that deficit, we the taxpayers.
Its nice to have these conferances, it would be even nicer if others could attend and it wasn't being done in tax payer funded buildings. Just another example of corporate welfare.
So here we go with the tired old 1% vs "the rest of us".
Did it ever occur to e.a.f that the TED conference paid fees to the Convention Centre?
Depends how the $7500 is written off and if it qualifies. Many of those TED people are from the States, not here so there wouldn't be much of a "hit" to BC's fiscal revenue. In fact the opposite as these TED people spend tourist dollars which offset any perceived losses through tax write offs.
It's also interesting that the NDP holds its conventions in taxpayer funded buildings and you will see
that again during the NDP leadership show in September.
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