Online Extra: Q&A With MIT's Nicholas Negroponte
The cyber-soothsaying author of Being Digital looks at what's next: Peer-to-peer is key
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Nicholas Negroponte, founding chairman of MIT's Media Laboratory, has long been a leading analyst of the Digital Age. The Media Lab has been a trailblazer in the area of study and experimentation on human communication. And Negroponte's 1995 book, Being Digital, was a best-selling guide to the coming era. He responded, via e-mail from Europe, to questions from BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker. Edited excerpts from their exchange follow:
Q: Which new products or services are likely to make the biggest splash?
A:
Peer-to-peer is key. I mean that in every form conceivable: cell phones without towers, sharing leftover food, bartering, etc. Furthermore, you will see micro-wireless networks, where everyday devices become routers of messages that have nothing to do with themselves.