Negroponte with child's laptop
Photo by Matthew Mahon
Nicholas Negroponte is 79 years old today.
Negroponte is a Greek American architect best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC).
Born to Dimitri John Negroponte, a Greek shipping magnate, he grew up in New York City's Upper East Side. He is the younger brother of John Negroponte, former United States Deputy Secretary of State.
Negroponte attended Buckley School in New York City, Le Rosey in Switzerland and The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, from which 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.
Negroponte joined the faculty of MIT in 1966. For several years, he divided his teaching time between MIT and several visiting professorships at Yale, Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley. 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, Negroponte created the MIT Media Lab 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 agents and personalized electronic newspapers, for which he popularized the term, Daily Me. 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 Digital (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 unveiled the concept of a $100 laptop computer, The Children's Machine, designed for students in the developing world. The price has since increased to $180, however. The project is part of a broader program by One Laptop Per Child, a non-profit organization started by Negroponte and other Media Lab faculty, to extend internet access in developing countries.
Negroponte is an active angel investor and has invested in over 30 startup companies over the last 30 years, including Zagats, Wired, Ambient Devices, Skype and Velti.
Photo by Frank Beacham
Nicholas Negroponte: A Personal Remembrance
Sometimes people say just the right words to you at the right moment.
That happened to me with a comment Nicholas Negroponte made to me in a New York City hotel room in January, 1995 during the publication of his book, Being Digital.
Prior to the book, I had known Negroponte and written about him for years at the MIT Media Lab. He had invited me to functions there and already knew and read my work. But this time, we were away from the lab and talking about digital technology in big picture, layman’s terms.
Negroponte gave me a good interview on the book. As I bid him a goodbye and was leaving his New York City hotel room, he asked:
“Frank, when will I get to read your stuff without a middle man publishing it?”
“What do you mean?,” I asked.
“I mean when are you going to put your writing directly online, so anyone can read it whenever they like? It’s time you did that, you know. You need to get ahead of the game. Publishers are a dying breed.”
Pow! Negroponte’s words hit me like a brick. I told him I would think about it.
When I went home, I began looking into publishing my work on the internet. Soon, thanks to Negroponte, I was doing it and have not stopped since.
There is no doubt being online early saved my writing career. If I had waited, like so many others, I wouldn’t have made it.
For saving my writing career, I thank Nicholas Negroponte.