Action Projects

As part of the Digital Nations initiative, the Media Laboratory will organize and coordinate a set of Action Projects that make use of Media Lab ideas and technologies in real-world settings. The Media Lab will help Digital Nations members create similar projects in their own communities and countries. The Action Projects will include:

• Learning Hubs. Building on existing collaborations in Costa Rica and Thailand, the Media Lab is establishing a worldwide network of organizations committed to deep change in learning and education. These Learning Hub sites will serve as working models of “out-of-the-box” learning, based on ideas developed by Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert over the past 30 years. At each site, Media Lab researchers will work closely with a group of local “learning activities” who will develop, guide, research, and help others appropriate successful models of learning.

• Lincos: Little Intelligent Communities. Economically sustainable Internet connectivity is a prerequisite for e-development. The Media Laboratory has joined with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (founded by former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres) to create a flexible, economically-sustainable connectivity solution that provides health care, learning technology, government services, banking, soil and environmental testing, as well as culture and entertainment in one package known as Little Intelligent Communities, or Lincos. In 2000, Lincos was awarded the Alcatel III Award for Technology Innovation.

• Computer Clubhouses. The Media Lab has helped establish a network of after-school learning centers, called Computer Clubhouses, where youth from underserved communities explore their own interests and become confident learners through the use of new technologies. In 1997, the Computer Clubhouse project won the prestigious Peter Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. Intel recently agreed to invest $20 million over the next four years to open 100 new Computer Clubhouses in the US and around the world.

• Silver Stringers. In many countries, senior citizens are among the most digitally disenfranchised. Silver Stingers taps into the wisdom and strength of the older generation, providing senior citizens with new digital tools so that they can act as reporters, photographers, illustrators, editors, and designers of online publications about their local communities. These projects have been enormously successful in connecting seniors to one another and to their communities, supporting new forms of grass-roots communication and new models for media coverage.

• Health Nets. The Media Laboratory has developed a strong program in the creation of health technology, including development of low-cost sensing devices and Internet health information technology. These efforts place special focus on tools and strategies that enable people to take more control of their own health care, especially in preventing illness before it occurs. The Digital Nations consortium will provide members with software, technical designs and expertise, health-systems design expertise, and aid in the creation of state-of-the-art health systems.

• Museums and science centers. The Media Laboratory has a long history of developing technology-based exhibits and activities for museums, cultural exhibitions, and science centers. Previous partners included Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Science, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; new partners include museums in Denmark, Ireland, and Japan. Recently, the Media Lab established the PIE Network of museums, developing a new generation of hands-on workshops in which participants use new technologies to invent and explore, bringing together art, science, and engineering.