MIT Sloan Technology Testbed Draft Proposal v.0.7 26 August 2002 Joost Bonsen [email protected] 617.930.0415
Jan 05, 2016
MIT Sloan
Technology TestbedDraft Proposal v.0.7
26 August 2002
Joost [email protected]
617.930.0415
Proposing MIT Sloan as Premier Technology Testbed
• An organized MIT Sloan Initiative to attract Companies and Labs deploying latest prototypes & products in a “Tech Testbed”
• MIT Sloan students as an “Early-Adoptor Microcosm”
• Allowing Sloan & MIT faculty to do rigorous social science, observing usage patterns, adoption rates, social networks, and more
• If not a testbed, at least new product showcase!
Example Technology Testbed Ideas
• Project Mercury – Latest wireless technologies; showcase for MIT Labs
• App Assessment – Fast feedback on new applications & usage patterns
• Premier Digital Infospace – Next generation libraries, info databases & visualization environments
• Evocative Architectural Innovations – Digital Glass, Organic HVAC, Ultra-Reconfigurability, Working Elevators
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2001/06/08/xircom_review.html
http://www.emperorlinux.com/acc_network.html
http://www.handspring.com/http://www.futurelooks.com/features/Lifestyle/Wearable_comps/page1_frame.htm
http://www-5.ibm.com/se/news/archive/images/computers/wearable-pc/wearable-pc-closseup-guy.jpg
Being a Tech Testbed
• Deploying latest prototypes, devices, etc AND tracking actual usage patterns
• Sourcing devices & systems from both MIT Labs and corporate partners
• Serving as “Neutral Ground” for cross-comparison
• Clearly useful for “Consumer InfoTech”, but not limited to it
Tech Testbed promises…
• We see the Future First
• Part of Comparative Market Research initiative
• Possibly part of larger effort to Observe Innovation broadly
• Basis for MIT Cross-Campus Collaborations
• Huge PR & Buzz for MIT Sloan
Existing Efforts Include…
• Sloan’s Virtual Customer Initiative• Sloan Product Development & Marketing Classes
– http://web.mit.edu/15.783j/www/
• MasterCard’s RFID PaymentCard• GSC’s SafeRide GPS• BCS’s Paperless Classroom• MIT’s New Grad Dorm Equipment• Newbury Network’s Location Enabled Networking
– http://www.newburynetworks.com/
Early-Adopter Microcosm
• Are MIT Sloan students representative of ultimate purchasers?
• Possibly predictive and therefore a method of advanced market research?
Project Mercury• Case example of Tech Testbed idea• A Wireless “Project Athena”
– Athena was a $100 Million Experiment in mid-80s
• Campus-wide broadband wireless networking
• Latest terminal devices– PDAs, padPC, wearable computers, watches
• Tracking Social & Applications Usage– Location, Communication, Collaboration, Games
• Multi-MIT Lab Collaboration• Social Systems Experiment
Go Dramatically Beyond Our Boilerplate IT Infrastructure
• We expect Laptops, Ethernet, WiFi 802.11b
• How about ReallyWiFi 802.11a, quivers of computers, wireless power, etc?
• Advanced applications
• Paperless workplace
…
What are some example emerging devices & systems?• Hand-helds
• New peripherals
• Wireless applications…
Palm & iPaq Variants…
http://www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/pocketpc/
http://www.palm.com/products/palmm515/3Ddemo/palmm515_3D.html
Wireless iPAQ Applications…
http://www.golfps.com/images/ipaq.gif
http://www.igisa.com/grafiken/ipaq.jpg
http://www.digital-doc.com/C2/images/wirele4.jpg
Sony clie w/ Camera!
http://www.sonystyle.com/home/item.jsp?hierc=9684x9744x9746&itemid=34011
What are MIT Labs & companies working on that
could be deployed?
MIT Media Lab Wearables
http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/mithril/index.html
http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/wearfolk-sam-big.jpg
Media Lab Smart Nametags
http://web.media.mit.edu/~fredm/projects/memetag/mtsmall.jpg
http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/papers/mres/lifelongk/Image26.gif
http://www.microopticalcorp.com/
MIT Labs
• LCS / AI Project Oxygenhttp://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/
• Media Wearable Computinghttp://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/
• House ‘n’– http://architecture.mit.edu/house_n/
• CMS– http://web.mit.edu/cms/
• eBusiness– http://ebusiness.mit.edu/
• Auto-ID– http://www.autoidcenter.org/main.asp …
MIT Media Laboratory
Potential Applications
• “Where are open meeting rooms?”
• Enhanced SloanSpace?
• “Where’s SafeRide?”
• Making most of Spare Moments.
• Seamless Collaboration
• No-Delay Resources
• Advancing Practice of Fast Iteration
Potentially Interested Social Science & Innovation Faculty (?)
• John Hauser / Sloan Marketing, Virtual Customer Initiative
• Jonathan Cummings / Sloan Innovation, Social Network Analysis
• Henry Jenkins / HASS Comparative Media Studies, Games-for-Learning
• Judith Donath / Media Lab, Sociable Spaces• Steven Eppinger / Sloan Product Design
• Plus all those developing technologies…
Resources Required
• Premier Industry Collaborators• Linkage to Sloan Technology Services & MIT IS• Prototype & Pre-production equipment donations• Institutional Commitment• Alumni & Industry Oversight Board• Operational Funds for administration, support,
and maintenance
Possible Sponsors
• I-Campus Project– http://swissnet.ai.mit.edu/projects/i-campus/
• Peer Testbeds– Cambridge-MIT Institute– Singapore-MIT Alliance
• Industry Consortia• Government: DARPA, NSF
– E.g. CIPD
• Foundations
Interested MIT Students
• Rutledge Ellis-Behnke – BCS Paperless Classroom
• Richard Lee – MBA Marketing Club
• Curtis Eubanks – MBA ex-Sony
• Ronak Bhatt – NukE Outback Dorm
• Various MIT Sloan Clubs
Likely Alums• Pascal Chenais – Project Canard, MessageMachines• Vanu Bose – Vanu Inc software radio• Bill Warner – Wildfire• Tim Rowe – Cambridge Innovations• Rob Poor – Ember• Yonald Chery – Newbury Networks• Matt Reynolds – ThingMagic• Fred Martin -- SmartTags• Mike Parduhn, John Muhlner, Paul Strasma, Matt
Rhodenhttp://www.mitwf.org/images/oct23_yc.jpg
Shouldn’t MIT Sloan be the Premier Tech Testbed?
Benefits
(a) Boosting MIT campus & student experience, (b) Envisioning the future by experiencing it, (c) Basis for cross campus research collaboration, (d) Prototype testbed for inventive developers to fast
iterate the next generation artifacts, (e) Experimental anthropology via predictive
microcosms, (f) Inspiring entrepreneurial new product and venture
development, (g) Capturing intellectual property for truly novel
Project-related inventions, and(h) Great PR around this “really MIT idea”.
References• Project Athena– http://wwwtech.mit.edu/V119/N19/history_of_athe.19f.html– http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1991/feb27/24322.html
• Research on Human Subjects– http://web.mit.edu/policies/14.3.html
• Project Notebook– http://web.mit.edu/is/np/projects/wireless/
• Cisco/Radiata's 802.11a Promises– http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000728S0021 – http://www.radiata.com/company/PDF/IEEE-802.11wp.pdf
• Project Oxygen– http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/
• MIT IS– http://web.mit.edu/is/
• Wearable Computing– http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/
• Product Innovation– http://web.mit.edu/cipd/
• MIT Sloan Virtual Customer– http://mitsloan.mit.edu/vc/Pages/vc.html
• MIT CMS– http://web.mit.edu/cms/