Nicholas Negroponte (2 Parts)

Synopsis

Two special editions of the US-produced television programme NetCafé, featuring Nicholas Negroponte, director of MIT Media Labs and author of ‘Being Digital’.

Language

English

Country

United States

Year of release

2002

Year of production

2002

Subjects

Information technology

Keywords

digital telecommunications; Internet; privacy; technological innovation; telecommunications; computer security; Negroponte, Nicholas; broadband

Distribution Formats

Type

VHS

Format

NTSC

Price

$19.95 each part

Availability

Sale

Duration/Size

26, 27 minutes

Year

2003

Sections

Title

Part 1

Synopsis

Negroponte starts off by discussing the kind of work done at the MIT Media labs, such as shoes that teach you how to dance with gyroscopes. He also describes how the labs got started as a place for PC and Human Computer Interface research. He says technology and applications come together at the lab which can act as a home for a counter culture that often explores far-out ideas and is at the root of much of the multi-media technology today.

Views of the current user interface are discussed including Negroponte’s claim that we need a deeper understanding of common sense and intelligence to advance in this area. He also addresses the Digital Divide and points to cultural barriers in some foreign countries that have prevented equal access to technology. As someone who sees Nationalism as a disease, Negroponte sees the world getting smaller with the Internet, and comments on how globalism will affect advances in technology.

Finally, what is next in the future of digital? Negroponte says researchers are pushing the envelope in the ideas of transferring atoms to bits and back to atoms, and that the digital format will become more and more natural in our lives.

Notes

First broadcast in the US on 29/3/2001

Duration

26 mins

Distributors ref

Episode 613

Title

Part 2

Synopsis

Stewart Cheifet and Nicholas Negroponte talk about what can be learnt from the recent ups and downs of the Internet cycle and what the Internet means to other cultures and third world nations. Negroponte says the use of computers is more of a public event in the third world and uses Costa Rica as an example of a country that has incorporated technology into its education system and now is experiencing economic success exporting integrated circuits.

Negroponte goes on to give his opinions on broadband and how it will be the driving force behind the next generation of the Internet with 802.11 changing the landscape and affecting broadband. He says the future of the Internet will be that things, not people, will be the primary users of computers with devices like refrigerators connecting with other devices in the house and having more intelligence.

Experiments concerning privacy and security are discussed as well as the evolution of the television and print media, with Negroponte claiming that more and more words and ideas will soon be transmitted electronically. Negroponte ends by talking about the next15 years, with bits and atoms coming together and hardware that will be imbedding information into applications.

Notes

First broadcast on US television on 12/4/2002

Duration

27 mins

Distributors ref

Episode 615

Distributor

Name

Netcafé

Email

http://www.netcafe.org/contact/index.asp

Web

http://www.netcafe.org/ External site opens in new window