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Chris Anderson (TED)
Encyclopedia
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
(Technology, Entertainment, Design), which hosts conferences in the US and Europe each year and an open-access website where TED talks can be viewed by the public. Previously he founded Future Publishing
Future Publishing
Future plc is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. Future is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufacturers...
.
Life and career
Anderson was born in PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in 1957, one of three children. His parents were medical missionaries, and he spent most of his early life in Pakistan, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. He studied at a boarding school in the Himalayan mountains of India, Woodstock School
Woodstock School
Woodstock School is a Christian, international, co-educational, residential school located in Landour, a small hill station contiguous with the town of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India....
, before moving to a boarding school in Bath, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. At Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, he studied Physics, then changed to Politics, Philosophy and Economics, to eventually graduate in 1978.
Anderson began a career in journalism, working on local newspapers, then producing a world news service in the Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
, and later working as an editor first on Personal Computer Games
Personal Computer Games
Personal Computer Games was a multi-format UK computer games mag of the early/mid eighties.-History:It is famous for launching the careers of several notable games journalists of the '80s including Bob Wade, Peter Connor and Chris Anderson. Anderson would later launch Amstrad Action, and Future...
, then on Zzap!64
Zzap!64
Zzap!64 was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 . It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact....
, both early computer magazines. In 1985 he launched a publishing company devoted initially to hobbyist computer magazines. Future Publishing (based in Somerton
Somerton
Somerton is a small town and civil parish in the South Somerset district of the English county of Somerset. It gave its name to the county of Somerset, was briefly, around the start of the 14th century, the county town, and around 900 AD was possibly the capital of Wessex...
and then Bath, UK) rapidly grew, expanding into other areas such as cycling, music, video games, technology and design, going public in 1999. In 1994 Anderson moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
and continued to launch magazines including Business 2.0
Business 2.0
Business 2.0 was a monthly magazine publication founded by magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, Mark Gross, and journalist James Daly in order to chronicle the rise of the "New Economy"...
. Future grew to more than 130 magazines and more than 1,500 employees.
In 2010 Anderson's Twitter handle i.e@TEDChris profile had over 1 million followers on twitter. In August 2010 he went back to his birth place of Pakistan with his wife Jacqueline Novogratz
Jacqueline Novogratz
Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture capital fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Acumen Fund has invested over $50 million of patient capital in 50 businesses that have impacted more than 40 million...
to distribute 300 LifeSaver jerry cans in aid of the floods there.
TED
In 2001, Anderson left Future and, through his non-profit foundation, acquired TEDTED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
. Under his stewardship, the mission of TED shifted to "ideas worth spreading". As of January 2011, over 850 talks are available free online. By January 2009 they had been viewed 50 million times. In July 2010, the viewing figure stands at more than 290 million, attracting a still growing global audience. He also oversaw introduction of the TED Prize, the TED Fellows Program, the TED open translation program, and the TEDx program, allowing hundreds of independently organized TED-like events to be held around the world. Anderson spoke about the power of visual media at TED Global 2010 and its central role in the future of internet based learning.
Family
He is married to Jacqueline NovogratzJacqueline Novogratz
Jacqueline Novogratz is founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture capital fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Acumen Fund has invested over $50 million of patient capital in 50 businesses that have impacted more than 40 million...
, founder and CEO of Acumen Fund
Acumen Fund
Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. Its aim is to help build financially sustainable and scalable organizations that deliver affordable critical goods and services that improve the lives of the poor...
, a venture capital fund that supports social enterprise
Social enterprise
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals. Social enterprises can be structured as a for-profit or non-profit....
s and has three daughters, Elizabeth, Anna, and Zoe (1986-2010).
External links
- Chris Anderson's TED Talk on Crowd Accelerated Innovation
- Chris Anderson shares his vision for TED. TED talk 2002 before Anderson takes over curation. Accessed 2010-07-18
- Essay on A Web-Empowered Revolution in Teaching, section by Anderson. The Edge. Accessed 2010-07-18
- Essay on The Rediscovery of 'Fire'. Accessed 2010-07-18
- Transcript of Anderson's talk on 'Global Souls'. Accessed 2010-07-18