MIT Sloan

Technology TestbedDraft Proposal v.0.7

26 August 2002

Joost Bonsenjpbonsen@alum.mit.edu

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 Project Oxygen

http://oxygen.lcs.mit.edu/

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/