Mission
Media Lab Europe's mission was to expand human potential through
invention.
Status
Media Lab Europe was an independent, not-for-profit, international
research institute.
Origin
Media Lab Europe was founded in July 2000 as a collaborative venture
between the Irish Government and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT). Modeled on the Media Laboratory at MIT, Media Lab Europe was
established as a hybrid between academia and the corporate world, to
create a unique new centre of excellence in digital technologies.
Partners
Working with partners from industry, academia and civil society, Media
Lab Europe drew on a wide variety of viewpoints in developing its
activities. The results of its work were made available to its
partners so that ideas that transform the way we live and work could
move from the laboratory to implementation.
Diversity
Media Lab Europe brought together scientists, engineers and artists
from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures and nationalities to
create technologies and explore applications that had barely been
dreamt of before. With the research it engaged in and the tools it
invented, the Lab aimed to advance science, increase knowledge, extend
boundaries and improve human life.
MIT partner
Media Lab Europe was the European research partner of the MIT Media Lab,
which was founded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte and the late
Jerome Wiesner (former President of MIT and former Science Adviser to
President John F. Kennedy), who foresaw the convergence of computing,
publishing and broadcasting, fuelled by changes in the communications
industry. Since opening in 1985, the Media Lab has helped create now-familiar
areas such as digital video and multimedia.
Closure
On 14 January 2005, the Board of Directors of Media Lab Europe
announced that the company would go into voluntary solvent
liquidation. The decision was taken because its principal
stakeholders, the Irish Government and MIT, had not reached agreement
on a new funding model for the organization. (Full press release)
Download the Media Lab Europe brochure (in
circulation at the time of the Lab's closure).
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