TED Community » Phil Klein

More About Me

I'm passionate about

the evolving social self, intercultural openness, social software, philanthropy, community, education, philosophy, and transformation

An idea worth spreading

1) Ethnoglobalism over Ethnocentrism 2) The web, with engaged participation, is a social problem-solving platform and environment. Social problems that had been too complex and costly to solve can be addressed now, due in part to sociotechnological capabilities that can handle complex data, interdependent processes, distributed organizing and task management. Data analysis can handle deeper complexity, software development and science has given us skills in solution modeling, testing, iterative learning and practice producing results – KM and just-in-time production and better data integration, that melds data collection, analysis and process tuning allow solutions to evolve rapidly and continuously. And because we have new methods for solutions development and delivery (such as peer production, user-centric design, social entrepreneurialism, distributed expertise, and intercultural translation processes) social capital and globally distributed resources are apped, lowering costs

Talk to me about

philanthropy, survivor readiness and success, TEDx, KM, data, Lit, social software, Intercultural relations.

People don't know that I'm good at

appreciating the sunrise and other moments, caretaking memories, reading, crazy good day dreaming, listening to my daughters.

My TED Story

I met TEDster Siegfried Woldhek at a tech for nonprofits conference. (I'd seen Siegfried's talk on the Leonardo da Vinci self-portrait talk) and we spoke about his commuity tech project, NABUUR.com the global neighbor network, and he said I belonged at TED. A year later, while living in Martinique, I went to TEDGlobal 2009. I then spoke at TEDxAnchorage and TEDxTamaya and began attending TEDx events and returning to TEDGlobal. I've now organized TEDxRainier in Seattle, producing in 2010 and curating in 2011 and 2012.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +1524.30 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +3

  A comment on Talk: Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion

  May 8 2013: A few times, a teacher said to me, calling me by name, "You are on the ball today." A compliment like that can last a lifetime. This talk reminds me of that. Thank you to our teachers.

• A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 5 2013: Yes, the pulling of the license has only happened in these two cases. However, committed sponsors from many other events have cancelled their support, and often it's the result of a poor relationship between the event organizer and those sponsors, sometimes it's the result of unclear understanding or miscommunication. Each sponsor who chose not to maintain their sponsorship for this event could easily have chosen to keep their sponsorship. It's the event organizer's responsibility to keep those relationships with sponsors in good order, and to be able to cope with changes. I realize this event organizer is in a tough spot, however she deserves some of the responsibility as well as credit for the state of her event. For her to blame TED for her sponsorship failures overlooks the fact that all sponsorships for TEDx events are found and earned and retained by the organizer, not by TED. It's important to address this because people may get the completely false idea that TED plays some kind of active role in helping or securing sponsorships for TEDx events. TED's branding for TEDx events as Independently organized events is a big help because it's a recognized format and brand, yes, but the sponsorship asks and commitments are entirely the responsibility of the volunteer organizer and the organizing team.

• A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 5 2013: Suzanne, many other event organizers have struggled and overcome obstacles that are as great as you face in terms of finding sponsors. Every organizer deals with the potential loss of sponsorship at the last minute or due to a wide range of foreseeable and unpredictable circumstances. The reason organizers receive credit for the success of their events is because they overcome the challenges you are now facing. Speakers too have to overcome challenges to do well, and some of those are linked with the strengths of the organizing team which needs to distribute the load to make it manageable and to work together constructively. I have invited speakers who have been hesitant to participate in my event because they had had past encounters with low quality organized events which had serious techical, organizational, sponsorship, or management problems. As an organizer, blaming external factors is insufficient, instead, you need to be smart and resourceful and prove your value to your speakers by solving the problems you face with your supporters and your team of volunteers.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 3 2013: TED has the established and repeatedly discussed ability (and the editorial freedom) to choose which talks appear on the TED website, and which of it's licensed events fulfill it's expressed guidelines. That is absolutely not censorship. As has also been repeatedly said by a number of people, the event's license was revoked not on the basis of any speaker but on "the overall curatorial direction of the program."
• +3

  A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 3 2013: TED allow people of faith to speak. here's Rick Warren's talk http://www.ted.com/talks/rick_warren_on_a_life_of_purpose.html . TEDx events also do, I've had a Rabbi, a Priest, and an Imam speak at my TEDx event. Also, agnostics, and atheists.
• +2

  A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 3 2013: Gary, thank you for recognizing that TED can make curatorial decisions -- that is the point that Suzanne and maybe others are not understanding, because they continually raise the false claim that her speakers were the issue for TED in regards to her license revocation. The speakers were not the issue, the way the program was being curated was the issue. Maybe there are some clues as to why the program's curation was an issue in the crop circle films that she produced, or maybe it will remain another unsolved mystery.

• A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 3 2013: Suzanne, I believe TEDx Director Lara Stein's letter indicated you had been corresponding since December, and you might have had more flexibility earlier on, though I can see your change in plans has seemed very abrupt and I sympathize. There are countless events that are very successful without any support from TED, and I know of cases where people have simply chosen to move on to a new format than TEDx out of a desire for more freedom to include questions and answers, or longer interpretive sessions that run an our or more, or to have the host provide extended and improvised interviews, or to meld their TEDx into an unconference, all of which hold fascinating potential but are not possible within the TEDx guidelines.

• A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 3 2013: Lewis, I agree with your point that curatorial parameters both need to evolve, and in my experience they do. The change in theme from year to year is one obvious example of this.
• +7

  A comment on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 2 2013: What strikes me as somewhere between painfully ironic and a bit funny about much of this conversation is that we're only having this conversation because TED has built a strong media brand around making highly selective choices of speakers and for their events -- and now this is suddenly the trigger for complaints. Kindly remember, those often difficult curatorial choices are what has driven TED talks into the kind of well-known media that some of us are now squabbling over. If TED and TEDx were known as having the standards of the revoked TEDx event for speakers, it would never have achieved the widespread audience that it now has. Does everyone agree with TED and TEDx's choices? No. Should they stop making tough curatorial decisions and stop being highly selective? No. Will TEDx and TED learn lessons from this so they can more clearly identify and work through curatorial problems better going forward? I do expect so.
  
  As Lara Stein's letter put it "we made the curatorial judgment that the program was not appropriate for TEDx." She went on to offer well-wishes to the team with their event. I add my well wishes to hers.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Discuss the note to the TED community on the withdrawal of the TEDxWestHollywood license.

  Apr 2 2013: Thank you for stating these key points so clearly.