Results tagged “nicholasnegroponte”

The Boston Book Festival is coming up on Saturday. We already talked to an organizer; now it's time for a participant. Nicholas Negroponte is perhaps most famous for founding the MIT Media Lab and One Laptop Per Child, but he's also written his share of content. We talked to him about the role of technology and the future of books. He will be on the Digital Inclusion panel Saturday at 3pm. more ›

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative that was born from the mind of Nicholas Negroponte when he was heading up the MIT Media Lab is nearing a significant milestone – shipment of the first machines to their intended recipients. Back in the end of November it was reported that the prototypes had come off the production line and had already been loaded up and played Doom. The AP reports today that the program is now looking at a predicted July delivery of some of the first laptops to the children who might use them. more ›

The announcement came out around this time last year that MIT Media Lab Co-Founder and former Director Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization were nearing a working prototype of a $100 laptop to get to more children around the world. The OLPC would help break down the digital divide by providing the poor with access to the tools of the digital age. Our post on the matter may have set the... more ›

Have you ever walked down Boylston and seen weird people with funny accents and large tote bags? These people from all over the country come to the Hynes Convention Center to pay large sums of money and hear important people talk. Nothing upsets Bostonist more than an event too expensive to attend, and for once we have found a different solution than charging the guards at the front gates. AIGA has decided to podcast all of their main stage content in addition to a number of back stage interviews. more ›

Don't get us wrong - Bostonist loves killer robots, time-traveler conventions, and throwing pianos off buildings as much as the next guy. But sometimes, we'd like our resident cadre of nerds at MIT to come out with something so obviously and immediately useful that it requires no imagination on our part to see its real-world applications. Enter Nicholas Negroponte, head of MIT's media lab (who used to appear on TV with the awesomest title ever: "Futurist"), and a non-profit called One Laptop Per Child. They have developed a super-low-budget laptop that can be manufactured and distributed for around $100 (!). The idea is that the governments of developing countries will buy these computers and distribute them to kids for free, facilitating their access to porn educational materials. The machines will have some kind of high-tech, low-cost, super-pimptronic screen, USB ports, wi-fi connectivity, Linux operating systems, and, of course, they'll be incredibly cheap and will run off a plug, batteries, or a hand crank (!). Although we can imagine lots of cool stateside, consumer applications for this technology, it's nice that Negroponte et al. are focused on charitable endeavors (also, Radio Shack has some sort of super-chintzy internet computer in the works, if you absolutely must have something like this). So let Bostonist say, "Thanks, MIT, for making us proud. You may now return to building cyborgs and breaking stuff." more ›