Digital coming of age as Media Lab arrives in Dublin

As a digital institution, Prof Nicholas Negroponte ranks about as highly as the research laboratory he directs, the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Media Lab is easily the world's best known research laboratory because of its unlikely but compelling projects. The Media Lab does wearable computer "smart clothes", computerised "dance sneakers", intelligent roads that provide digital feedback, a virtual dog named Sydney the Cyber Terrier, and other intriguing things that emerge at the intersection of technology, creativity and the bizarre. Described by MIT as the place where "bits meet atoms", the lab's special interest groups include Toys of Tomorrow, Counter Intelligence (focused on "self-aware kitchens") and Gray Matter (which "considers the impact of computation and communication on the lives of older people").

Now, after discussions that apparently involved a fine display of brinkmanship on all sides, the Media Lab is coming to Ireland in the form of the £130 million (€165 million) Media Lab Europe (MLE), MIT's first independent spin-off. As a result, the digital visionary (or digital blatherer, depending on whether you enjoy or detest playful, futuristic prognostication), and premier member of the "digerati" will land in Dublin for part of each year.

Prof Negroponte almost immediately fulfilled the hopes of journalists at last week's MLE press conference by issuing a classic Negroponte-ism. "We are just now at the beginning of what it means to be digital," he says. No one asks what, precisely, that means. But then, he's explained it all already in his bestseller Being Digital, generally considered a must-have on the bookshelf of self-respecting "Netizens". He has a reputation for being difficult - his reference during the press conference to MLE's tough negotiations draws knowing laughter. But in person, he proves to be something of a pussycat.

He notes that MLE is part of an expansion process, and will be followed eventually by Latin American and Asian counterparts. "The Media Lab is at a stage where it is becoming more global, and not just in terms of its sponsors," he says. Some 90 per cent of funding for the US lab comes from 170 industry supporters, 50 per cent of whom are non-US companies. In addition, 35 per cent of the lab's students are foreign. "So we have a foreign presence in the place, but the place doesn't have a foreign presence," says Prof Negroponte. Unsaid is the fact that the Media Lab has acquired the status of a premier brand, and is ripe for franchising. However, the lab expects to raise its £130 million, 10-year budget from industry. The Government is only putting up £28 million, making the lab a virtual bargain when compared to tax and grant incentives routinely provided to incoming multinationals. MIT's presence will be seen internationally as shorthand for capable infrastructure, good graduates, creative output, and advance thinking. In addition, MLE promises to attract top-level research and development cash. The MLE deal was put in motion after a discussion Prof Negroponte had with Esat chairman Mr Denis O'Brien in Dublin in September 1997. Mr O'Brien then introduced Negroponte to Mr Ahern on his next visit to Dublin. "When a prime minister encourages you and you have entrepreneurs like Denis encouraging you, it becomes very attractive," he says, although MIT went on to talk to five other countries (Sweden and Germany were the other main contenders). But in the end, after ups and downs where the deal nearly fell through, serious talks resumed in February. "Clearly this was the most serious and attractive of the countries," says Prof Negroponte. "They weren't being as adventuresome, bold and aggressive as you are here," he added at the press conference.

He's also effusive about the artistic and creative strengths of Ireland. "Quite frankly, there's more respect for that kind of activity here than in many other countries." That suits his intention of giving MLE a leaning towards the arts, which he feels is the forte of Ms Glorianna Davenport, a Media Lab film and mulitmedia specialist who will co-direct the provision of MLE. Warming to his subject, he describes how MLE will be "like a 17th century painter's atelier where a student will work with a master."

But at MIT: "One of the things we have had trouble doing is finding value in art itself. I've always found that artists break engineering deadlocks because they look at things differently. We've never really done things at the Media Lab where digital expression itself was the focus. To make something with your hands is often seen as a lower level of activity. Actually, making something with your hands is a major aspect of digital activity." Most of academia "doesn't respect building and making and getting your hands dirty. Most scholarly activity is a white-glove thing."

The other challenge he faces is to focus MLE on incubating Irish companies. "We have to look at different models, at how this might be made to be more of an incubator because the Media Lab has been more the place that big corporates go to outsource creativity," he says. "We can take projects that are extraordinarily innovative. That doesn't necessarily lend itself to becoming an incubator."

Both Prof Negroponte and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, were careful last Friday to stress MLE's intention to mesh closely with Irish universities and colleges - MLE will be a collaborative institution offering, at least in its initial years, collaborative degrees. "We have a real interest in collaboration," says Prof Negroponte. "What we'd like is new ideas, new momentum, a new style of thinking." He also admits another concern from the Irish side was how much time the (literally) high-flying director would devote to MLE (he is acting MLE director for now and chairman for at least five years). He flies a million miles a year and only spends a single day a week at MIT. He's pledged "somewhere between 30 and 50 per cent of my time" to Dublin, he says - "but mostly in cyberspace". The notion of a director who describes himself as living "a 100 per cent electronic life" and who insists "physical presence is not important" may take some adjustment for Irish people.

But then again, that's precisely what being digital means.