A multimedia expert discusses with 'Inc. Technology's editor how business and technology intersect.
Nicholas Negroponte, 50, is the guru of multimedia technology and the driving force behind the Media Lab at MIT. His mission to spread word of the Media Lab leads to extensive travel. During our E-mail conversation, he was at his home on the Greek island of Patmos, where he was finishing his forthcoming book, Being Digital (Knopf). But we also received messages from Tokyo, Chicago, Scandinavia, France, San Francisco, and a taxicab in London. He is also a columnist for and an investor in Wired magazine.
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Nicholas Negroponte, a professor of media technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1968, and Jerome Wiesner, president emeritus of MIT, in 1985 capped off a seven-year fund-raising effort that had yielded $40 million in corporate donations to build and equip the Media Lab at MIT. Today the lab, with an annual research budget of $10.5 million, is one of the country's leading research facilities exploring new information technologies. It attracts not only people with technical backgrounds but also those with experience in the arts. The only stated prerequisite: "Computer literacy is required."
Knowing of Negroponte's self-professed "E-mail imperative," Jeffrey L. Seglin, an Inc. magazine editor, corresponded by E-mail with him for the better part of three months this past summer. Throughout, the challenge was to explore the intersection of business and technology.
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From: Jeffrey L. Seglin jls@world.std.com
My goal throughout our conversation will be to get a sense of where you see the business of information technology heading, and of what opportunities there are on the horizon for Inc. readers.
From: Nicholas Negroponte nicholas@hq.media.mit.edu
I am in Greece at the moment and swamped with a book I have committed to deliver by 9/1. But as a starter, don't hesitate to send E-mail questions.
jls@world.std.com
Can I ask you the focus of the book you're working on now? And where are you in Greece?
nicholas@hq.media.mit.edu
You can ask me anything. I do not have any secrets. Try me.
I am on the Island of Patmos, which is where St. John wrote the Book of Revelation and which is where my wife and I have had a house for 25 years.
The book I am doing for Knopf is called Being Digital. About 40% of it is repurposed Wired stories; the rest is new and includes background and annotations galore. Since they (Knopf) will make a massive PR campaign, I do not have a clue as to what I should or should not be leaking to you. Anyway, saying too much is bad luck, because all too much of it is still between my ears.
Subject: Work and Play
jls@world.std.com
You know, sitting here typing this in Savin Hill, in Boston, on a rainy Friday morning, while I know you're basking in the sun while you compose on your notebook computer, just doesn't seem right.
How do you think people will spend their spare time in five years?
nicholas@hq.media.mit.edu
The divide between work and play will shrink. More people are likely to find their work and their passion to be the same or, at least, closer. In that sense, people will spend more time on Greek islands and more hours per week doing what they love, called work.
To basking in the sun, add drinking Chablis and eating fresh sea urchins on the back of my boat.
jls@world.std.com
You say the divide between work and play will shrink. How much of that will come as a result of new technologies? Does being able to bring along your portable computer and dial up your E-mail make you more able to work on your book in Patmos than you would have been 5 or 10 years ago?
nicholas@hq.media.mit.edu
I have been using laptops since 1978 and have had E-mail here in Patmos for over 10 years, so none of this is real new. But I do mean the technologies that free one of space and time. They will play a role in merging work and play.
jls@world.std.com
What's the effect of accelerated change on the way people work and play?
nicholas@hq.media.mit.edu
The effect is plural. For some people it will be working at home; for others it will be the opportunity to move among Greece, France, Switzerland, and the U.S.; for others it will be some simple self-esteem. For all it probably means more work (i.e.: play with a larger social purpose).
jls@world.std.com
On a day-to-day basis, what's the one thing that's enriched your life more than any other?
nicholas@hq.media.mit.edu
That's easy -- the E-mail/laptop combine. I wrote most of the Media Lab proposal on the Sony Typecorder, later the NEC 8201a. I have 10 Macintoshes, of all flavors, scattered around my life. I travel with 2 laptops -- I use a 180 and have a 170 as backup. Before that I used NEC 8201a's for about 10 years, and I have a graveyard of at least 10 of those. Before that it was the Sony Typecorder, of which I have a few, and I plan to sell them to the Museum of Modern Art, because they were wonderful designs (circa 1977). You'd be disappointed by what I have on them. It's mostly text preparation and communications software, some Excel to keep track of my wine cellar.
jls@world.std.com
What's your workday like while you're writing your book? How does it compare with your workday when you're at the Media Lab?
