TED Gives 2012 Prize To An Idea, Not A Person

Ideas organization TED has chosen an unusual winner for its annual award. The TED Prize for 2012 will be given to the idea of City 2.0 because Chris Anderson and his team believes that it’s a concept upon which our planet’s future depends. An email to their mailing list reads:

The City 2.0 has been the dream/goal of scientists, architects, urban planners, mayors and public policy folks for dozens of years. The TED Prize organizing team is bringing together a group of these visionaries to act as advocates on behalf of the City 2.0 and to collectively craft the wish. A wish capable of igniting a massive collaborative project among the members of the global TED community — and all who care about our planet’s future.

In the past, the TED Prize winner received $100,000 without any conditions on how it could be used. Most often, the winner either reinvested the money into the wish or into his or her foundation. This year, the money will be invested directly in seeding the Wish to be made on behalf of the City 2.0.

Why is TED awarding the 2012 TED Prize to an idea and not a person? Because this is an idea capable of inspiring collaborative actiion by millions of people. Urbanization is one of the century’s biggest issues. Over the next 90 years, we will build more urban living space than in all prior centuries combined. We had better get it right.

Great cities represent an incredible opportunity for a beautiful, sustainable future:
- they promote innovation through proximity
- they can reduce population growth
- they can radically reduce carbon footprint per person
- they can ease development pressure on rural areas
- they can offer economic opportunity, culture, education

It will be interesting to see how this spans out. $100,000 doesn’t seem to be a lot to donate for this concept: for an event that sells tickets at $6,000 a seat it would mean the revenue of less than 20 seats – and that’s before sponsorship dollars.
Numerous people in the TED community are playing critical roles in helping create better cities — through urban planning, architecture, design, technology, entrepreneurship and community activism.

This prize gives us all a chance to bring these efforts together and ignite something special.

TED Prize 2012