TED decided to grow up recently (might be a couple of years back, actually), in the franchise manner. There are now TEDx events which have nothing to do with the organizers of he TED itself.
You need a license to be able to host a TEDx event, but it looks like it is easy to get those -- just look at the criteria listed at the TED's website. Not difficult to adhere to their rules either. Basically, anyone can get a license. Once you get one, you also get access to lots of videos of the main TED talks, their experience (advices?, know-how?), etc.
Ideas Worth Spreading is TED's main product -- in fact, it is right next to the logo. Really bold slogan! But again, I have nothing against the TED itself, which obviously delivers on this promise.
By problem is with the TEDx events. Those are also supposed to spread the ideas which are worth the spreading, right?
Now, I decided to right this blog just now, when I saw the whole bunch of Japanese TEDx messages in my Google+ stream:
They are there for a reason -- because a couple of months ago I looked into it and even contacted TEDxTokyo directly. More about this later on.
Now, whose ideas are TEDxFukuoka and TEDxTokyo spreading? I did not forget about TEDxSapporo, but left it out because it does not touch me directly. TEDxFukuoka touches me directly because I live nearby and TEDxTokyo is in this because I contacted them and got no reply.
Now, let's see who is behind the two events. The above pages will not tell you that directly, but you can go to the main TED page and search there. It actually gives you details on who's in charge of each event. I could not find TEDxTokyo but I found the person in charge of TEDxFukuoka -- Joe Okubo. If you trust the page, TEDxFukuoka is his full-time employment. The page also says that his credit rating is +4225 across the entire TED space.
Now, if you are an academic person, you should know the concept of CFP -- Call for Papers. One might think that TEDx events would have a similar concept -- a CFI -- Call for Ideas. But NO. You will be surprised that you can only register at TEDx as a participant which means you are on the listening side. TEDxTokyo at the bottom of this page actually thanks some unknown community about the proposals on who to invite for talks. So, it sounds like there is a Nobel-like panel of specialists (?) who ... I would guess ... go through all the thinkable sources of information to pick current ideas which are worth spreading? At least with the Nobel panel we know the people... and the candidates. In TEDx* cases we are completely in the dark about he entire process.
You know what I think? I think they just pick arbitrary people. I looked at the list of talks for this year and confirmed that much of it is garbage -- from the viewpoint of the "ideas worth spreading". This explains why I got no reply when I sent an email -- in Japanese -- to the authors@* contact email at TEDxTokyo website, with the neatly explained idea and even a PDF file with a fully written paper on it. I do know for a fact that the idea is neat, fundamental in nature, versatile in applications including everyday life, and generally "worth spreading".
The lack of reply makes me think that the "business model" behind TEDx events is similar to the algorithms used by Twitter to decide whether or not your tweets are worthy or including in a hashtag stream -- their tech support also chooses the convenient strategy of not replying to emails.
I will write more on this interesting business model later. I am also seriously thinking about organizing an online community under the title "ideas wroth shredding" -- whose sole purpose will be to rummage through each TEDxTokyo or TEDxFukuoka event, and rip to shreds talks which deserve the ripping.
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