Nicholas Negroponte





Introduction
Nicholas Negroponte is a computer scientist and architect who is best known for four major activities that have made and are making major contributions to education throughout the world.


 * In 1967, Negroponte founded MIT's Architecture Machine Group, a combination lab and think tank which studied new approaches to human-computer interaction.
 * In 1985 he co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and he was the first director of the Media Lab.
 * He was the first investor in Wired Magazine and wrote a column for the magazine 1993–1998.
 * He is the Founder and Chairman of The One Laptop per Child association (OLPC).

Demographics
Negroponte was born on December 1, 1943. Quoting from the Wikipedia:


 * Negroponte was born to Dimitri John, a Greek shipping magnate, grew up in New York City's Upper East Side. He is the younger brother of John Negroponte, current United States Deputy Secretary of State.


 * He attended many schools, including Buckley (NYC), Le Rosey (Switzerland) and Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut where he graduated in 1961. Subsequently, he studied at MIT as both an undergraduate and graduate student in Architecture where his research focused on issues of computer-aided design. He earned a Master's degree in architecture from MIT in 1966.

MIT Architecture Machine Group
Quoting from http://www.arch.columbia.edu/index.php?pageData=65204:


 * The precursor to the MIT Media Lab, the Architecture Machine Group, ArcMac for short, was founded in October 1967 by MIT architecture professor Nicholas Negroponte to create an architecture machine that would help architects design buildings. Inspired, to some degree, by Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad design interface, Negroponte hoped his architecture machine could allow architects to deal not only with problems of great complexity that exceed their grasp but also with those trivial problems of everyday construction that might otherwise be too boring to pursue. The Architecture Machine would be an active partner, intelligent, capable of learning and able to understand human idiosyncrasies such as hand gestures.




 * If the Architecture Machine Group did not directly produce a machine that could design buildings, its ultimate accomplishment was far more significant, for the group’s research turned the computer into a spatial machine, a legacy that lasts to this day. Into the early 1980s computers had been dominated by textual interfaces. At the Architecture Machine Group, a spatial metaphor for the graphic user interface was developed not merely for localized applications such as Sketchpad but as an essential means of interacting with the computer on all levels. In doing so, the Architecture Machine Group made the computer accessible to all but while fostering creativity and design as part of the everyday experience. This was Negroponte’s intention all along. Inspired by Bernard Rudofsky’s 1964 book Architecture Without Architects, the Architecture Machine Group created machines that spread creativity from the avant-garde to the everyday

MIT Media Lab
Quoting from: http://www.media.mit.edu/?page_id=16:
 * The Media Lab was conceived in 1980 by Professor Nicholas Negroponte and former MIT President and Science Advisor to President John F. Kennedy, Jerome Wiesner. It grew out of the work of MIT’s Architecture Machine Group, and remains within MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. The Lab opened the doors to its I.M. Pei-designed Wiesner Building in 1985.


 * In its first decade, the Lab pioneered much of the technology that enabled the “digital revolution,” and enhanced human expression: innovative research ranging from cognition and learning, to electronic music, to holography.
 * In its second decade, the Lab literally took computing out of the box, embedding the bits of the digital realm with the atoms of our physical world. This led to expanded research in wearable computing, wireless “viral” communications, machines with common sense, new forms of artistic expression, and innovative approaches to how children learn.
 * Now in its third decade, the Lab is focusing on “human adaptability”–work ranging from initiatives to treat conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and depression, to sociable robots that can monitor the health of children or the elderly, to the development of smart prostheses that can mimic–or even exceed–the capabilities of our biological limbs.

Being Digital
Negroponte, Nicholas (1995). Being Digital. Viking Publishing. ISBN 0-679-43919-6.

The flavor of this book is captured in the following two paragraphs quoted from the book:


 * The best way to appreciate the merits and consequences of being digital is to reflect on the difference between bits and atoms. While we are undoubtedly in an information age, most information is delivered to us in the form of atoms: newspapers, magazines, and books (like this one). Our economy may be moving toward an information economy, but we measure trade and we write our balance sheets with atoms in mind. GATT is about atoms.


 * I recently visited the headquarters of one of America's top five integrated circuit manufacturers. I was asked to sign in and, in the process, was asked whether I had a laptop computer with me. Of course I did. The receptionist asked for the model and serial number and for its value. "Roughly, between one and two million dollars," I said. "Oh, that cannot be, sir," she replied. "What do you mean? Let me see it." I showed her my old PowerBook and she estimated its value at $2,000. She wrote down that amount and I was allowed to enter the premises. The point is that while the atoms were not worth that much, the bits were almost priceless.

One Laptop Per Child
Nicholas Negroponte has long been a world leader in advance the ideas of Information Age Education. His most recent project—which he feels will keep him busy for the rest of his professional career—is called the "$100 Laptop Project." The goal is to design a rugged and easy to use networked laptop computer that can be sold for $100 or less, and to get it widely distributed throughout the world.

Inherent to this project is the idea of children learning from each other. A laptop, connectivity, and access to educational software empowers students.

A significant breakthrough in this project was announced in the following newspaper article:


 * Markoff, John (July 14, 2007). Intel, in Shift, Joins Project on Education. The New York Times. Retrieved 7/16/07: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/business/14chip.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.

Quoting from the article:


 * The Intel Corporation reversed ground Friday and joined the board of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, an ambitious effort to seed the developing world with inexpensive portable computers.


 * The about-face by the world’s largest chip maker is significant because the leader of the effort, Nicholas Negroponte, the former M.I.T. Media Laboratory director, sparred frequently with Intel’s chairman, Craig R. Barrett, over technology and educational issues.

Videos
TED talk 1984. This video shows a relatively young Negroponte talking about some of his research projects. It is quite interesting to see how some of these projects are related to products that are now common place. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_in_1984_makes_5_predictions.html

TED talk 2006. The vision behind One Laptop Per Child. 18 minute video. Retrieved 12/23/08: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_on_one_laptop_per_child.html.

TED talk 2007. One Laptop per Child, two years on. Retrieved 12/25/08: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_on_one_laptop_per_child_two_years_on.html

TED talk 2008. A 7 minute video talking about the One Laptop Per Child project. A heartwarming view of this project and what it is accomplishing. Accessed 12/23/08: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/nicholas_negroponte_takes_olpc_to_colombia.html.

Sad News in January 2009
Quoting from http://wiki.laptop.org/go/The_OLPC_Wiki:


 * Like many other nonprofits that are facing tough economic times, One Laptop per Child must downsize in order to keep costs in line with fewer financial resources. Today we are reducing our team by approximately 50% and there will be salary reductions for the remaining 32 people. While we are saddened by this development, we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries. We thank team members who are departing for their contributions to this important mission.


 * This restructuring is also the result of an exciting new direction for OLPC. Our technology initiatives will focus on:


 * Development of Generation 2.0
 * A no-cost connectivity program
 * A million digital books
 * Passing on the development of the Sugar Operating System to the community.


 * With regard to deployments:


 * Latin America will be spun off into a separate support unit
 * Sub-Saharan Africa will become a major learning hub
 * The Middle East, Afghanistan and Northwestern Pakistan will become a major focus


 * Separately, OLPC will be dedicated to bringing the cost of the laptop down to Zero for the Least Developed Countries — the $0 Laptop.


 * Restructuring brings with it great pain for some of our friends and colleagues who are being let go. These individuals are people who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of a noble cause, and to say that we are exceeding grateful for the time, the ideas, the energy and the commitment they have given OLPC does not — cannot — adequately express our admiration or our gratitude. The fact that there are 500,000 children around the world who have laptops is testament to their extraordinary work and is already a key part of OLPC's legacy.


 * The future brings with it some uncertainty, some difficulty, but also the excitement that comes with the rededication to a cause, and a new path that will allow us to realize the moral purpose of OLPC. I hope that each one of you will remain supportive of OLPC, and its mission of opening up a universe of knowledge to the world's poorest children living in the most remote parts of the Earth.


 * Nicholas Negroponte

Encouraging News May 2009
A 5/1/09 article from the Chronicle of Higher Education indicates that India intends to purchase 250,000 laptops. Quoting from the article:


 * After disparaging Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child program as too expensive, the Indian government has caved in. Following the embarrassment over its own $10 laptop — which turned out to be a computing device with a hard disk for storage — the nation signed an agreement to buy 250,000 OLPC laptops for distribution across the country, reported efytimes.com.


 * In turn, the struggling OLPC program — which has run into problems after large companies refused to cooperate with it — will get a much-needed financial boost from India’s contract. Intel resigned its membership from the project in January 2008, citing Mr. Negroponte’s request that the company stop selling its Classmate Personal Computers below cost.

News from Uruguay. See the 4:53 video at http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=glz2I84JafA. It concerns a project to deliver one computer per child and per teacher in public elementary schools in Uruguay.

A Change of Direction
5/28/2010. Quoting from http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hNAZtEWqjFxF-tcn-zlkZOL9Ks0wD9FVBDN01:


 * SEATTLE — The nonprofit organization that has tried to produce a $100 laptop for children in the world's poorest places is throwing in the towel on that idea __ and jumping on the tablet bandwagon.


 * One Laptop Per Child's next computer will be based on chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd.'s Moby tablet design. Marvell announced a prototype of the device this year and said it costs about $99.


 * Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop Per Child, is optimistic his organization will be able to keep the price under $100 in part because Marvell plans to market its tablets widely to schools and health care institutions.


 * "We want to see the price drop, and volume is the key to that," Negroponte said.:: The quirky green and white XO laptop sold by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) to governments and organizations in countries such as Afghanistan and Uruguay wasn't destined for such a broad audience. OLPC had to repeatedly scale back expectations for how many of the laptops it could produce, and it didn't get the price much below $200, twice the price specified by the device's "$100 laptop" nickname.


 * In 2005, Negroponte envisioned having built 100 million laptops in about two years. Today, 2 million of the machines are in use.

Author or Authors of this Page
The initial version of this Page was created by David Moursund.