
Why TED just isn't "elitist" - nlwhittemore
http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/the_ted_open_tv_project_and_the_end_of_elitism
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ugh
I always thought of the TED conference attendees as generous donors who are in
return allowed to watch the taping of the content TED produces. The most
important thing about TED are the videos, not the actual event. If viewed that
way it’s hard to find elitism :)

~~~
Adaptive
Of course TED is elitist. Not elitist enough anymore for some of the founders,
trust me.

Looking in from the outside it may seem that attending TED is simply a chance
to view live the talks given there (many of which are informative and
genuinely interesting). This is like saying that going to MIT is the chance to
listen to the MIT OpenCourseWare lectures live.

Going to TED, much like going to an upper echelon school, is not about the
content/education alone. That's a big part of it, but the value is really the
attendees. TED is about elite networking. Many of the talks are interesting
people that TED attendees either want to meet or that add perceived value to
the event.

Tossing videos up online is great. I love some of them. But that's as much
promotion of how elite and awesome actual attendance is as it is "giving back
to the online community". Attending TED (while less exclusive than it used to
be) has greater positional-experience value (conspicuous participation,
establishing social dominance/hierarchy) if the rest of the world can look
into the windows of the TED restaurant, breath fogging up the windows, while
you order foie gras (or the TED equivalent of duck liver, Malcolm Gladwell).

(for the record I enjoy elitism, foie gras _and_ malcolm gladwell, though not
necessarily in that order)

~~~
ugh
And I don’t care. If I were part of the elite that’s what I would do, too.
That’s what elitists will do no matter what and I have no problem with it.
It’s nice that they publish some videos in the process.

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mbateman
I hope they are elitist. Elitism is good and elitism is true. If they keep
people from attending or speaking who "aren't quite good enough" (as the
linked techcrunch article alleges), then so much the better for them for
holding up their standards.

