1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology lip@mit.edu May, 2007
Communications Futures Program
Structures and opportunities for
Communications
This program is all about changing the MIT and Cambridge environment to make a “communications-free” zone for invention.
We make life better by giving you control over identity, transactions, your environment and you entertainment.
We place the person in the center of the network.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology May, 2007

2. HDL A platform for expression between phone and Desktop
Portable configuration
Community infrastructure
Indoor/Outdoor display
24 hour power
Open system
Open Organizations bypass the process: no IP, grassroots appeal, rapid adoption
Viral Ideas: Moving technology to the edges. Can’t take profit early
Far Horizons: Gold is not where you think

3. OLPC/HDL 800x600 color; 1200x900 B&W 258 MB memory; 1024 MB flash
433MHz Geode (or more)
5 million of 47 million
Workspace, ebook, communicator
Scratch
Open Organizations bypass the process: no IP, grassroots appeal, rapid adoption
Viral Ideas: Moving technology to the edges. Can’t take profit early
Far Horizons: Gold is not where you think

4. HDL (green) those countries we plan to pilot
Open Organizations bypass the process: no IP, grassroots appeal, rapid adoption
Viral Ideas: Moving technology to the edges. Can’t take profit early
Far Horizons: Gold is not where you think
5/07
(green) those countries we plan to pilot
(red) those countries we plan to include in the post-launch phase
(orange) those countries who have expressed interest at the Ministry-of-Education level or higher
(yellow) those countries who are currently seeking government support

5. Open Organizations bypass the process: no IP, grassroots appeal, rapid adoption
Viral Ideas: Moving technology to the edges. Can’t take profit early
Far Horizons: Gold is not where you think

6. The best way to invent the future is to live it.
Living the Future
The best way to invent the future is to live it.
This program is all about changing the MIT and Cambridge environment to make a “communications-free” zone for invention.
We make life better by giving you control over identity, transactions, your environment and you entertainment.
We place the person in the center of the network.
SENSEable City Lab, MIT

7. Vision The best way to invent the future is to live it.
MIT, through close collaboration with a small number of Living the Future sponsors will transform life on MIT’s campus and in the Cambridge Community into a blueprint for the future of connected life with the person in the center.
The underlined words are the key:
Close collaboration: You really should send someone here, and we will arrange space. This is not a program you “tune into” every six months to manage. It is hands-on from day 1.
Sponsors: We are deliberately assembling an eclectic group of sponsors and collboratorsso that it become vastly different from yet another telco program. This is about sponsors and particiapnts leading the way.
Campus and Cambridge: This is how we get diversity both to drive invention and to debug ideas
There are a great many breakthroughs for which we have no model -- they require impossible joint-ventures, regulatory changes, or user-based innovations that we cannot predict. MIT and its community can invent and explore them. It can also become a test platform for sponsor ideas and ventures.

8. Proto-LTF organization
PCS
Carrier
Campus
Carrier interface; portable platforms; development env
WiMax testbed; portable processing
Carrier integration; MIT-MVNO; local net
Net integration: Backbone sysems, intelligent net; ; MIT-wide systems
We see three legs on this to base the program: the personal, the architectural, and the strategic.
The amulet is an early embodiment of a device that (1) manages identity, establishes and interfaces to proximate networks, and is the nexus for sensors attachment. This device has no user interface and is controlled through other things you already have. It is open and programmamble and can serve as a basis for transactions and security. Note that transactions is far more than money -- it may be minutes, or broadband Gbytes, or even study hours. We want this to grow to become a model for personal control of identity that can lead society and the corporate world, neither of which grapple with this especially well.
The anymode phone is an example of not saying no. There are many lifestyle experiments that can begin immediately with a programmed phone, and we will certainly include them.
At least some people are interested in problems such as local display. They seem easy but are hard. We may build a protocol and embed it in a fixed version of the amulet to simplify attaching bits of the world to our network.
Finally, we may start an “open MVNO” to make it easy to spread ideas through an infrastructure network. This program is predicated on personalizing the programmability and access, but it will work in the context of infrastructure networks.
Consumer: Cross-network platform; portable devices, sensor integration
Media: MIT access control; media interface
Verticals: Health; Live media

9. Starting points Amulet Identity and transactions
Network intermediary
MIT mobile virtual internet
Global network access via MIT-MVNO
trans-network mobility
Interior GIS
Real-world mashups
Instant data and computing
We see three legs on this to base the program: the personal, the architectural, and the strategic.
The amulet is an early embodiment of a device that (1) manages identity, establishes and interfaces to proximate networks, and is the nexus for sensors attachment. This device has no user interface and is controlled through other things you already have. It is open and programmamble and can serve as a basis for transactions and security. Note that transactions is far more than money -- it may be minutes, or broadband Gbytes, or even study hours. We want this to grow to become a model for personal control of identity that can lead society and the corporate world, neither of which grapple with this especially well.
The anymode phone is an example of not saying no. There are many lifestyle experiments that can begin immediately with a programmed phone, and we will certainly include them.
At least some people are interested in problems such as local display. They seem easy but are hard. We may build a protocol and embed it in a fixed version of the amulet to simplify attaching bits of the world to our network.
Finally, we may start an “open MVNO” to make it easy to spread ideas through an infrastructure network. This program is predicated on personalizing the programmability and access, but it will work in the context of infrastructure networks.
Preparation for health, entertainment and social experiments