MIT's Tomorrow
Credit Walter Bender with a solid working definition of "technology." "Technology is anything invented after you were born," said Bender, associate director of information technology of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. "While it might seem frightening or intimidating, it's just part of history."
Showcasing tools served as a wake-up call for NEXPO attendees at the opening-morning workshop. The high-tech widgets presented by MIT researchers represent "not only harbingers of what's to come, but a catalyst for change," Bender said.
Among the tools demonstrated:
Electronic ink. Following the demise of the flat-panel newspaper, the concept of placing a printer in every household to download and crank out the morning paper emerges. Assistant Professor Joseph Jacobson asked the next question: Why use a printer?
MIT researchers are developing an "electronic book" of reusable paper sheets coated with electrodes and a special ink that changes color in response to voltage pulses. An electronic spine downloads and transmits information to each page, resulting in an entirely new publication each day.
Doing so allows personalization and daily printing without consumables, Jacobson asserts. And compared to the $1,000 cost of equipping every household with a liquid-crystal display, the book would likely cost "a fraction of your yearly subscription costs," he said.
Audio notebooks. Imagine flipping through handwritten interview notes, touching any sentence and immediately hearing the corresponding audio. Using a digital tracking pen with traditional ink, the system synchronizes notes with an audio recording. The appeal? "Rather than replacing familiar objects, like paper and pen, we can augment them," Research Assistant Lisa Stifelman said.
One reporter found it took only 15 minutes to play back the audio he wanted from an hour-long interview. Using a tape recorder to manually transcribe quotes took six hours, Stifelman said.
KASBAH. Searching online classifieds is nothing new. Having a system e-mail or push classifieds that meet pre-specified criteria, a little newer. But MIT students now use a system allowing them to buy and sell textbooks and music among themselves--and have software agents hash out the deals.
Buyers and sellers give their agents an ideal price and a "realistic price"--one they are willing to pay or receive, explained research assistant Robert Guttman. They also pick one of several haggling strategies instructing agents to drop an asking price quickly if there are no takers, or to hold out for longer periods.
NewsPRISM. Imagine an online newspaper called the Flexible Gazette. A story on a survey gauging public support for Hillary Rodham Clinton appears on the front page. But push a "content-controlling knob" to the left, and the headline changes to "Hillary: Ideal First Lady." Turn it the other way, and it shifts to "Hillary Pilloried by Public."
Research Affiliate Shawn O'Donnell acknowledged that writing multiple versions of stories remains time-consuming and could further fragment mass audiences. But thanks to the vast amount of information on the Internet, and increasingly powerful search tools, he cautioned publishers not to ignore the concept despite their discomfort. "We think this is going to happen whether or not you are planning to do it," he said.
Whether planned or not, also expect such tools sooner than you might think, Bender warned: "These things are going to impact news, and not just in the next century."
-Mark Toner, Presstime staff writer. E-mail, tonem@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1684; fax, (703) 902-1690.