‘Digital evangelist’ says key to new products is ease of use

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‘Digital evangelist’ says key to new products is ease of use

During a speech on digital convergence and the future media at the 2004 Seoul Digital Forum yesterday, Nicholas Negroponte said the digital industry should be aiming for simplicity and common sense in making new products. Mr. Negroponte, who is the founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Laboratory, gave Microsoft’s Windows as an example. He said the Windows system itself is getting smarter but general users find it difficult to use the system. For that reason, users think the system is getting slower every time a new version is out, and so customers’ confidence in the product drops. Mr. Negroponte said such developments are not limited to Microsoft. The MIT professor said various add-ons, such as attaching a camera to cellular phone, only makes customers feel more uncomfortable because they have to learn other functions that are unnecessary. Mr. Negroponte stressed that digital equipment in the future needs to develop as a simply and conveniently as possible, on common sense. Also during his speech, he said he will develop a computer that will cost less than $100 and will run on the Linux operating system within six months. The goal is to expand shared information, Mr. Negroponte said. By adopting the open source code of Linux, other low-priced computers based on open-source hardware will become available, he said. Mr. Negroponte said during the speech that as the digital world advances, it would be possible for people to gain media where people can share opinions with each other freely. He has been a faculty member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1966 and was the founder of the school’s Architecture Machine Group, which is a lab and a think tank for human-computer interface. Mr. Negroponte, who has been dubbed the “digital evangelist,” is known for his prediction about the Internet revolution in the 21st century. Mr. Negroponte is also the author of the book “Being Digital,” which describes the coming digital revolution and its implications. by Yoon Chang-hee
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