The TED seminar series came to Beijing today, but..... it wasn't widely promoted. The venue, apparently, could only accommodate 200 people, and the tickets got a very narrow distribution in media circles. (A couple of people I know got some. I am jealous.)
There was talk of there being a live broadcast at several venues around town, but.... this never materialized.
Belatedly, I discovered that one satellite viewing venue - near my home - had been organized, but.... it was also ticketed, and also rapidly sold out.
There was supposed to be a live podcast on the Net, but..... it was on Chinese site, Tudou. I don't know if I'm missing a plug-in I need for this site, or victim of some other gremlin, but for me the page had only dead links! I am tempted to say, That's what you get for partnering with a Chinese Web company.... but I suspect it's more a case of That's what you get when you try to run a public speaking event in China. Much the same happened when Obama wanted to do his 'town hall meeting' with students when he visited last year; the authorities reluctantly acquiesced, but media coverage of it was squelched.
Ideas - even in the fields of "technology, entertainment, design" - are always potentially political, always potentially dangerous in this country. Live mass online broadcast?? I don't think so.
2 comments:
For what it's worth, I checked the sites involved. The links aren't dead, but there's no sign of a podcast anywhere yet.
Maybe you could do the end-run-around maneuver... If you could locate any of these people, they might have some first-hand knowledge of recordings available.
Greetings [ ] [ ] aka Froog,
I am doing a TEDx in March on water - 18 minutes and it may be hot or it may not. Interesting gang.
Yours aye,
David Owen
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