Nicholas Negroponte is a world-renowned technology visionary with the keenest understanding of technology and its impact on business and society. An exceptional speaker, his broad range of experience and thorough understanding of digitization and its impact on industry make him the foremost authority on transformations that define our future. He is a pioneer of visionary technology, and the driving force behind One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit that seeks to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves via computers.
After earning two Professional degrees in Architecture from MIT, Negroponte joined its faculty in 1966. Based on his extensive research in computer graphics, computer aided design and human computer interface; he founded MIT’s Architecture Machine Group, a combination lab and think tank, which studied new approaches to human-computer interaction. He later also founded MIT’s legendary Media Lab (1985), one of the world’s leading interdisciplinary research centers that applies an unorthodox research approach to envision the impact of emerging technologies on everyday life.
Negroponte continued to demonstrate his big-picture thinking by becoming the first investor for Wired Magazine, for which he also contributed a monthly article. Combining and expanding upon those ideas, he wrote the bestselling book Being Digital, which solidified his status as an expert on how the worlds of interaction, entertainment and information would eventually merge. Being Digital has since been translated into 40 languages. He was the first speaker at TED and spoke over ten times thereafter.
Perhaps his most notable and controversial achievement is his current non-profit program, OLPC, a project to bring durable, affordable and innovative computers to children worldwide. Believing that a nation’s most precious resource is its children, Negroponte aimed to put low cost, robust, connected laptop technology into the hands that need it most – the nearly two billion children in developing countries. This revolutionary way to promote learning started with Negroponte building five schools in rural Cambodian villages that do not have electricity, telephone or television – but now have broadband wireless.
In 2005, Negroponte unveiled his latest creation, a $100 laptop computer, designed for children ages 6-12-years-old in developing nations. To date, the OLPC program has two million laptops committed and one million already in the hands of children in 19 languages, 31 nations, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Palestine.
In addition to his academic and philanthropic contributions, Negroponte also serves the private sector on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. (1995-2009) and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has also provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies including, Zagats, Ambient Devices, Skype and Velti.
See also:
TED follows Nicholas Negroponte to Department Del Meta, Colombia, December 2008
What if Every Child Had A Laptop, 60 Minutes, December 2007
Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, TED, 2006
Nicholas Negroponte’s XO-1 ($100 Laptop) in the Wild, Best of EG 2008
Articles:
Have Laptop, Will Travel, OLPC National Journal, April 11, 2009
Negroponte Seeks a Laptop CEO, BusinessWeek, March 6, 2009
Laptops bring lessons, maybe even peace, Cnn.com, March 5, 2009
The Sugar daddy for future generations, The Guardian, January 29, 2009
Why Microsoft and Intel tried to kill the XO $100 laptop, London Times, August 2008
Give One, Get One, Newsweek, December 1, 2007
Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience, The New York Times, October 4, 2007
Speaking topics:
- One laptop per child
- The future of telecommunications
- Where new ideas come from
To inquire about rates and speech availability for Nicholas Negroponte, please contact:
Daniel R. Stern
Stern + Associates
11 Commerce Drive
Cranford, New Jersey 07016
office: (908) 276-4344
danny@sternassociates.com
