History of the Media Lab

This page will contain an interesting collaborative history of the MIT Media Lab.

Walter's reunion talk provides a terse history of the Lab.

=== Pre-history (before 1983) ===

=== Lab formation (1983-1986) ===

=== The 1980s ===

=== The 1990s ===

=== The 2000s ===

=== The future ===

Media Lab startups One mechanism for getting ideas out into the world is to create a company. There have been numerous startups by Media Lab alumni over the years (please add missing entires):


 * 3001 (Natasha Tsarkova)
 * Acme Holograpny (Betsy Connors)
 * Agents, Inc/formerly Firefly Network, Inc. (Maes, Metral, Lashkari)
 * Alchemy 3d (Ali Azarbayejani)
 * Ambient (Ben Resner)
 * Art Technology Group, Inc. (Joe Chung)
 * BuildingBlocks Interactive (Shawn Becker)
 * Cambridge Stereographics Group (Benton)
 * Diffraction, Ltd. (Bill Parker, Julie Walker)
 * E-Ink (Joseph Jacobson)
 * Facio Reco (Alex Pentland)
 * Firetide (Tareq Hoque)
 * First Mile Solutons (Fletcher, Omojola)
 * Flat Black Films (Bob Sabiston)
 * Frictionless Commerce (Rob Guttman)
 * Futuretense, Inc.(BC Krishna)
 * Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. (Alex Rigopoulos, Eran Egozy)
 * Interplay Media Consulting (Kevin McGee)
 * InTouch (Chris Schmandt)
 * Kovio (Joe Jacobson students)
 * Light Intertainment, Inc. (Brent Britton)
 * Liti Holographics (Paul Christie)
 * MaMaMedia, Inc. (Harel)
 * Medical Media Systems (Mike McKenna, David Chen, Steve Pieper)
 * Method Software, Inc. (Steve Strassmann)
 * MicroDisplays Corporation (Jepsen)
 * Nearlife (Tinsley Galyean)
 * Netmosphere, Inc. (Ly)
 * Network Sound & Light, Inc. (Donoghue, Gant, Halliday)
 * Open Ratings, Inc./formerly Fairnetworks (Pattie Maes, Giorgos Zacharia, David Wang)
 * Perspecta (Rennison, St-Arnaud, Strausfeld)
 * Persistent Vision (Kim Foley)
 * Pocketscience (Irene Shen)
 * Presto Technologies (Hawley, Holtzman, Lippman)
 * Razorfish, Inc. (Craig Kanarick)
 * Runaway Technology (Rob Silvers)
 * Salient Stills (Laura Teodosio. Mike Massey)
 * Saybot (Pengkai Pan)
 * Swim Interaction Design Studio, LLC (Gitta Salomon)
 * Thinking Pictures (Stephan Fitch)
 * Tramline (Kim Foley)
 * Veltinet (Mixalis Bletsas)
 * Virage (Bradley Horowitz)
 * Vitality (Josh Wachman)
 * WatchPoint Media (Jon Dakss, Josh Wachman, Mike Bove)
 * Zebra Imaging, Inc. (Mike Klug, March Holzbach, Alex Ferdman)