You can see the future best through peripheral vision.
Foreword of Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance (Harvard Business School Press, Revised edition March 2000) ISBN 1578512611
MIT is governed by a second, even higher rule: the inalienable right of academic freedom.
The Internet for us was like air. It was there all the time - you wouldn't notice it existed unless it was missing.
I've spent my whole life worrying about the human-computer interface, so I don't want to suggest that what we have today is even close to acceptable.
I think the Net is scaling very well. Because of the way it was designed, I don't think it will come to its knees and crash. I see it as very organic in the way it's capable of living and reproducing itself.
Cyberlaw is global law.
Unlike television - at least as it currently exists - the Internet is a medium of choice.
If you think about it, being digital is Italian. It's underground, provocative, interactive. It has humor, discourse, and debate. It has a kind of liveliness to it.
ISBN 0679762906
Nicholas Negroponte is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architectAn architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
's
Media LabThe MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
, and also known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC).
Early life
Negroponte was born to Dimitri John Negroponte, a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
shipping magnate, and grew up in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's
Upper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
. He is the younger brother of
John NegroponteJohn Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. He is currently a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs...
, former
United States Deputy Secretary of StateThe Deputy Secretary of State of the United States is the chief assistant to the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State resigns or dies, the Deputy Secretary of State becomes Acting Secretary of State until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a replacement. The position was...
.
He attended Buckley School in New York City,
Le RoseyInstitut Le Rosey, commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is a school, in Gstaad, Switzerland. It is described as one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the world. The school was founded by Paul-Émile Carnal in 1880 on the site of the 14th-century Château du Rosey near the town...
in Switzerland, and
The Choate SchoolChoate Rosemary Hall is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut...
(now Choate Rosemary Hall) in
Wallingford, ConnecticutWallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 43,026 at the 2000 census.- History :Wallingford was established on October 10, 1667, when the Connecticut General Assembly authorized the "making of a village on the east river" to 38 planters and freemen...
, from which he graduated in 1961. Subsequently, he studied at
MITThe MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
as both an undergraduate and graduate student in
Architecture The MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
where his research focused on issues of
computer-aided designComputer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
. He earned a Master's degree in architecture from
MITThe MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
in 1966.
MIT
Negroponte joined the faculty of
MITThe MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
in 1966. For several years thereafter he divided his teaching time between
MITThe MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
and several visiting professorships at
YaleYale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
,
MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
In 1967, Negroponte founded
MITThe MIT School of Architecture and Planning is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA...
's Architecture Machine Group, a combination lab and think tank which studied new approaches to human-computer interaction. In 1985, Negroponte created the
MIT Media LabThe MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
with Jerome B. Wiesner. As director, he developed the lab into the pre-eminent computer science laboratory for new media and a high-tech playground for investigating the human-computer interface. Negroponte also became a proponent of
intelligent agentsIn artificial intelligence, an intelligent agent is an autonomous entity which observes through sensors and acts upon an environment using actuators and directs its activity towards achieving goals . Intelligent agents may also learn or use knowledge to achieve their goals...
and personalized electronic newspapers, for which he popularized the term the
Daily MeThe Daily Me is a term popularized by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte to describe a virtual daily newspaper customized for an individual's tastes. Negroponte discusses it in his 1995 book, Being Digital, referencing a project under way at the media lab, Fishwrap...
.
Wired
In 1992, Negroponte became involved in the creation of
Wired Magazine as the first investor. From 1993 to 1998, he contributed a monthly column to the magazine in which he reiterated a basic theme: "Move bits, not atoms."
Negroponte expanded many of the ideas from his
Wired columns into a bestselling book
Being DigitalBeing Digital is a non-fiction book about digital technologies and their possible future by technology author Nicholas Negroponte. It was originally published in January 1995 by Vintage Publishing....
(1995), which made famous his forecasts on how the interactive world, the entertainment world and the information world would eventually merge.
Being Digital was a bestseller and was translated into some twenty languages. Negroponte is a digital optimist who believed that computers would make life better for everyone. However, critics such as
Cass SunsteinCass R. Sunstein is an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics, who currently is the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration...
have faulted his
techno-utopianTechnological utopianism refers to any ideology based on the belief that advances in science and technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal...
ideas for failing to consider the historical, political and cultural realities with which new technologies should be viewed. Negroponte's belief that wired technologies such as telephones will ultimately become unwired by using airwaves instead of wires or fiber optics, and that unwired technologies such as televisions will become wired, is commonly referred to as the
Negroponte switchProfessor Nicholas Negroponte of the Media Lab at MIT originated the meme, which has since been associated with his name. As more mobile devices need connections to the data network, and bandwidths required and deliverable in wired or fibre-optic systems grow, it becomes steadily less sensible to...
.
Later career
In 2000, Negroponte stepped down as director of the
Media LabMedia lab is a term used for interdisciplinary organizations, collectives or spaces with the main focus on new media, digital culture and technology....
as
Walter BenderWalter Bender is technologist and researcher who has made important contributions in the field of electronic publishing, media, and technology for learning. Bender is on leave as a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab which he led as executive director between 2000 and 2006...
took over as Executive Director. However, Negroponte retained the role of laboratory Chairman. When
Frank MossFrank Moss is a researcher, technology and biotechnology entrepreneur, academician and author. Moss was the director of the MIT Media Lab from 2006 to 2011....
was appointed director of the lab in 2006, Negroponte stepped down as lab chairman to focus more fully on his work with
One Laptop Per ChildOne Laptop per Child is a project supported by the Miami-based One Laptop per Child Association and the Cambridge-based OLPC Foundation , two U.S. non-profit organizations set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational devices for use in the developing world...
(OLPC) although he retains his appointment as professor at MIT.
In November 2005, at the
World Summit on the Information SocietyThe World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
held in
TunisTunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
, Negroponte unveiled the concept of a $100 laptop computer,
The Children's MachineOne Laptop per Child is a project supported by the Miami-based One Laptop per Child Association and the Cambridge-based OLPC Foundation , two U.S. non-profit organizations set up to oversee the creation of affordable educational devices for use in the developing world...
, designed for students in the developing world. The price has increased to US$180, however. The project is part of a broader program by One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit organisation started by Negroponte and other
Media LabMedia lab is a term used for interdisciplinary organizations, collectives or spaces with the main focus on new media, digital culture and technology....
faculty, to extend
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access in developing countries.
Negroponte is an active
angel investorAn angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
and has invested in over 30 startup companies over the last 30 years, including Zagats, Wired,
Ambient DevicesAmbient Devices, Inc. is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA that designs and markets various ambient devices for display of information ranging from weather to traffic reports to stock quotes. The company was founded by David L. Rose, Ben Resner, and Pritesh Gandhi,...
,
SkypeSkype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
and
VeltiVelti is a provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology for brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators, and media groups...
. He sits on several boards, including
MotorolaMotorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
(listed on the New York Stock Exchange) and
VeltiVelti is a provider of mobile marketing and advertising technology for brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators, and media groups...
(listed on the London Stock Exchange). He is also on the advisory board of
TTI/VanguardTTI/Vanguard is an advanced technology conference series for senior-level executives. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, TTI/Vanguard explores emerging and potentially disruptive technologies and their global impact. Five times annually, corporate and government leaders, entrepreneurs,...
. In August 2007, he was appointed to a five-member special committee with the objective of assuring the continued journalistic and editorial integrity and independence of the Wall Street Journal and other
Dow Jones & CompanyDow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately...
publications and services. The committee was formed as part of the merger of Dow Jones with
News CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
. Negroponte's fellow founding committee members are
Louis BoccardiLouis D. Boccardi was President and Chief Executive Officer of The Associated Press , the world’s largest news organization, from 1985 until his retirement in 2003...
, Thomas Bray, Jack Fuller, and the late former Congresswoman
Jennifer DunnJennifer Blackburn Dunn was a prominent Republican member of the United States House of Representatives 1993–2005, representing .-Early life:...
.
External links