
Joi Ito Named Director of the MIT Media Lab - hornokplease
http://web.mit.edu/press/2011/ito-media-lab-director.html
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lian
Regardless of the Thiel Fellowship, this is the guy that I would want on the
inside taking academic ideas from research to revolution. Ito represents a
kind of energy and enthusiasm that higher education direly needs.

More creative, free-thinking skeptics of academia should definitely be
empowered to lead it. I see Ito as one of them, and I think this is an
inspired choice.

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Emore
I saw Ito on a panel debate, in the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford conference
-- incidentally the place where he was first approached regarding the position
[1].

If Biz Stone made the funny web-cowboy comments, Ito definitely made the
thoughtful ones. He came across as a thinker. Although a complete outsider's
view, I'm really looking forward to how he will run the Media Lab.

Of course, no other university would have nominated such a person for such a
position. Lead the way, MIT.

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davewiner
Unusual but interesting choice. Joi is a real networker and has lots of
friends in tech. Maybe the Media Lab under Ito will have more direct influence
on and be influenced by people who create outside academia.

~~~
gcb
Outside academia?

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wyclif
Ito dropped out of college.

~~~
gcb
Ah! Outside of academia. sorry.

Read that as some sort of underground academia

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hornokplease
Joi has posted to his blog about the announcement:

<http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2011/04/25/joining-the-mit.html>

Discussion:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2483392>

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aantix
>though he never completed a college degree

Interesting choice for such an academic powerhouse such as MIT.

~~~
3dFlatLander
His wiki page indicates he's a "doctoral candidate in Business
Administration." Also interesting, it seems he's a godson of Timothy Learys.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joi_Ito#Later_life>

[2] <http://www.leary.com/joiito/>

~~~
omnivore
He still never finished an undergraduate degree. He dropped out of Tufts and
U. Chicago.

~~~
_delirium
True, but his new job won't have much to do with undergraduate degrees; the
Media Lab is a research-only lab that doesn't have an undergraduate program
(some of the profs do also teach in MIT's undergraduate programs, but in that
capacity they'll report to someone other than Ito).

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amirhhz
I first heard of Joi when he made an impromptu visit to the Cambridge (UK)
Computer Labs during the "Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge" conference in
November. He really impressed me and my undergrad friends - here are some
choice quotes from him that won us over at his talk:

<http://twitter.com/#!/amirhhz/status/5611353515491328>

<http://twitter.com/#!/amirhhz/status/5616077065166848>

<http://twitter.com/#!/amirhhz/status/5610598578520064> (this one got claps,
heh)

~~~
gaius
That first one is nonsense, tho', and that's easy to prove: the existence of
the machine tools industry.

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imajes
Joi is a fantastic person -- he'll make for a real inspirational leader.
Looking forward to seeing what the lab will start to produce :)

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anactofgod
Hogwarts has a new Headmaster.

