is a Japanese
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
and
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
ist. He is a former director of the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
, former professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT, and a former visiting professor of practice at the
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
.
Ito has received recognition for his role as an entrepreneur focused on
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and technology companies and has founded, among other companies,
PSINet
PSINet, based in Northern Virginia, was one of the first commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) and was involved in the commercialization of the Internet until the company's bankruptcy in 2001 during the dot-com bubble and acquisition by Coge ...
Japan, Digital Garage, and
Infoseek
Infoseek (also known as the "big yellow") was an American internet search engine founded in 1994 by Steve Kirsch.
Infoseek was originally operated by the Infoseek Corporation, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Infoseek was bought by The Wa ...
Japan. Ito is a strategic advisor to
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
Corporation and general partner of Neoteny Labs. Ito wrote a monthly column in the Ideas section of
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
.
Following the exposure of his personal and professional financial ties to sex offender and financier
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...
, Ito resigned from his roles at MIT, Harvard, the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the
Knight Foundation,
PureTech Health, and
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City.
History
The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. T ...
on September 7, 2019.
Early life and education
![Joi Ito, circa 1981](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Joi_Ito%2C_circa_1981.jpg)
Ito was born in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. His family moved to Canada and then to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, when Ito was about three, to a suburb of
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, where his father became a research scientist and his mother a secretary for Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., now
Ovonics
Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) was an American photovoltaics manufacturer of thin-film solar cells made of amorphous silicon used in flexible laminates and in building-integrated photovoltaics. The company was also a manufacturer of rechargea ...
. The founder of his mother's company,
Stanford R. Ovshinsky, was impressed with young Ito, whom he thought of almost as his son. Ovshinsky mentored the boy's interests in technology and social movements, and when Ito was 13, gave him work with scientists, saying, "He was not a child in the conventional sense."
Ito and his sister
Mizuko Ito
is a Japanese cultural anthropologist who is a Professor in Residence at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine. Her main professional interest is young people's use of media technology. She has explored the w ...
, called Mimi, spent summers in Japan with their grandmother, who taught them about traditional Japanese culture.
At age 14, he returned to Japan, when his mother was promoted to president of Energy Conversion Devices Japan. He studied at the
Nishimachi International School
Nishimachi International School (西町インターナショナルスクール), established in 1949, is an international school located in the Azabu area of Tokyo, Japan. Co-educational, non-sectarian, private K-9 day school. The main language o ...
and, for high school, the
American School in Japan
The American School in Japan (ASIJ; ja, アメリカンスクール・イン・ジャパン) is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
. In that phase of his life, Ito also learned "street language, street smarts, and computers." One of the few Japanese using
modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...
s before networking
deregulation
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
reached Japan, in 1985, Ito had found
The Source
''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...
and the original
MUD by his teens (and by 26, was working on his own
MUD).
Ito returned to the United States to attend
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
as a
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
major, where he met, among others,
Pierre Omidyar, later founder of
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
.
As he deemed his course work too rigid and believed that learning computer science in school was "stupid,"
Ito dropped out of Tufts to work briefly for
Ovonics
Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) was an American photovoltaics manufacturer of thin-film solar cells made of amorphous silicon used in flexible laminates and in building-integrated photovoltaics. The company was also a manufacturer of rechargea ...
. Ovshinsky encouraged him to return to school. Ito enrolled at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
but later dropped out as the program was overly oriented towards producing practical engineers rather than teaching an intuitive understanding of physics.
In the fall of 1985, Ito became the first student to register for a pioneering program of online courses, offered by
Connected Education Connected Education - also known as Connect Ed - was a pioneering online education organization founded and administered by Paul Levinson and Tina Vozick. Operating from 1985 to 1997, Connect Ed offered the M.A. degrees in Media Studies (through Th ...
, Inc., for undergraduate credit from
The New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSS ...
. Ito also attended
Hitotsubashi University
is a national university located in Tokyo, Japan. It has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda. One of the top 9 Designated National University in Japan, Hitotsubashi is a relatively small institution specialized solely in social science ...
, according to his essay in Japanese.
From
Keio University
, mottoeng = The pen is mightier than the sword
, type = Private research coeducational higher education institution
, established = 1858
, founder = Yukichi Fukuzawa
, endowmen ...
, Ito earned a PhD in Media and Governance in 2018. His dissertation was titled ''The Practice of Change''.
Ito is one of
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
's godsons—a close, nontraditional familial relationship that Leary reportedly developed for a few of his friends' children. Ito's sister,
Mizuko Ito
is a Japanese cultural anthropologist who is a Professor in Residence at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine. Her main professional interest is young people's use of media technology. She has explored the w ...
, is a
cultural anthropologist
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...
, studying media technology use, and the musician
Cornelius is his second cousin. Ito currently lives in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, with his wife Mizuka Ito (née Kurogane). Joi and Mizuka's daughter, Kio (輝生), was born on May 11, 2017.
Career
Ito became a disc jockey working in nightclubs in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
such as
the Limelight
The Limelight was the name of a chain of nightclubs owned and operated by Peter Gatien. It had locations in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hallandale.
Context
During the 1980s, club culture had died down because of the AIDS e ...
and Smart Bar, also working with Metasystems Design Group to start a
virtual community
A virtual community is a social network of individuals who connect through specific social media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. Some of the most pervasive virtual communi ...
in Tokyo.
Later, Ito ran a nightclub in
Roppongi,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, called XY Relax, with help from
Joe Shanahan of
Metro Chicago
Metro (formerly the Stages Music Hall and Cabaret Metro) is a concert hall in Chicago, Illinois, United States, that plays host to a variety of local, regional and national emerging bands and musicians. The Metro was first opened in 1982. The ...
/Smart Bar. He helped bring
industrial music
Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...
from Chicago (
Wax Trax
Wax Trax! Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago. It began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado, opened by life partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who sold the store in 1978 and moved to Chicago. In November of that y ...
) and later the
rave scene, managing a DJ team and visual artists, including importing
Anarchic Adjustment to Japan.
![Ito Joichi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Ito_Joichi.jpg)
Ito was the Chairman of
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
from December 2006 until 2012. He is on the board of Digital Garage, Culture Convenience Club (CCC),
Tucows
Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian publicly traded Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and incorporated in Pennsylvania, United States. The company is composed of three independent busines ...
, and
EPIC, and is on the advisory boards of
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
and
WITNESS
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
. He is the founder and
CEO of the venture capital firm Neoteny Co., Ltd. In October 2004, he was named to the board of
ICANN for a three-year term starting December 2004. In August 2005, he joined the board of the
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation (stylized as moz://a) is an American non-profit organization that exists to support and collectively lead the open source Mozilla project. Founded in July 2003, the organization sets the policies that govern development, ...
and served until April 2016. He served on the board of the
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the steward of the Open Source Definition, the set of rules that define open source software. It is a California public-benefit nonprofit corporation,_with_501(c)(3).html" ;"title="110. - 6910./ref> is a type o ...
(OSI) from March 2005 until April 2007. He was a founding board member of Expression College for Digital Arts as well as the Zero One Art and Technology Network. In 1999, he served as the Associate to Mr. Mount (the executive producer) on the film ''
The Indian Runner
''The Indian Runner'' is a 1991 crime drama film written and directed by Sean Penn in his directorial debut. Based on Bruce Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman", the film depicts the relationship between two brothers who find themselves on oppos ...
''. Ito also served as a board member of
Energy Conversion Devices from 1995 to 2000.
Ito is a venture capitalist and
angel investor
An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
and was an early stage investor in
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
,
Six Apart
Six Apart Ltd., sometimes abbreviated 6A, is a software company known for creating the Movable Type blogware, TypePad blog hosting service, and Vox (the blogging platform). The company also is the former owner of LiveJournal. Six Apart is he ...
,
Technorati
Technorati was a search engine and a publisher advertising platform that served as an advertising solution for the thousands of websites in its network. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008, and at one time was one of the largest ad network ...
,
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...
,
Wikia
Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities before 2007 and later Wikia before 2019) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e. video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). Its domain is operated by Fandom, ...
,
SocialText
Socialtext Incorporated was a company based in Palo Alto, California, that produced enterprise social software for companies. It offered an integrated suite of wiki tools and social software applications, including microblogging, user profiles, ...
,
Dopplr
Dopplr was a free social networking service, launched in 2007, that allowed users to create itineraries of their travel plans and spot correlations with their contacts' travel plans in order to arrange meetings at any point on their journey. Addi ...
,
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...
,
Rupture
Rupture may refer to:
General
* Rupture (engineering), a failure of tough ductile materials loaded in tension
Anatomy and medicine
* Abdominal hernia, formerly referred to as "a rupture"
* Achilles tendon rupture
* Rupture of membranes, a "wate ...
,
Kongregate
Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 110,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchase ...
,
Fotopedia,
Diffbot
Diffbot is a developer of machine learning and computer vision algorithms and public APIs for extracting data from web pages / web scraping to create a knowledge base.
The company has gained interest from its application of computer vision te ...
,
Formlabs
Formlabs is a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer. The Somerville, Massachusetts-based company was founded in September 2011 by three MIT Media Lab students. The company develops and manufactures 3D printers and related software and ...
,
3Dsolve and other Internet companies. A vocal advocate of
emergent democracy and the
sharing economy, Ito is a
doctoral candidate in
Business Administration
Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...
focusing on the
sharing economy at the
Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy,
Hitotsubashi University
is a national university located in Tokyo, Japan. It has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda. One of the top 9 Designated National University in Japan, Hitotsubashi is a relatively small institution specialized solely in social science ...
. He is the author of ''Emergent Democracy''. Ito is Senior Visiting Researcher of Keio Research Institute at SFC. In May 2011, it was announced that Ito's company, Digital Garage, will provide PR, marketing, product marketing research and market research for
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
Japan.
Ito is a
PADI IDC Staff Instructor, an Emergency First Responder Instructor Trainer, and a
Divers Alert Network (DAN) Instructor Trainer.
In recent years, Ito has become critical of what he sees as Japan's inward focus. He stated in a 2011 interview that he thinks Japan needs to look internationally if it is to continue to be "relevant".
Journalism
Ito has written op-eds for the Asian ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and has published articles in numerous other magazines and newspapers. He has written regular columns in ''
The Daily Yomiuri
The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...
'', ''
Mac World Japan'', ''
Asahi
Asahi (朝日, 旭, or あさひ) means "morning sun" in Japanese and may refer to:
Cities
* Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards
* Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'')
* Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'')
Towns
* Asahi, Aichi (旭 ...
Pasocom'', ''Asahi Doors'', and other media sources. His photographs have been used in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' Online, ''
BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'', ''
American Heritage American Heritage may refer to:
* ''American Heritage'' (magazine)
* ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language''
* American Heritage Rivers
* American Heritage School (disambiguation)
See also
*National Register of Historic Place ...
'',
Wired News
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...
,
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
, and
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
. He was on the early editorial mastheads of ''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
'' and ''
Mondo 2000
''Mondo 2000'' was a glossy cyberculture magazine published in California during the 1980s and 1990s. It covered cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs. It was a more anarchic and subversive prototype for the later-founded ''Wi ...
''. He has authored and co-authored a number of books including ''Dialog – Ryu Murakami X Joichi Ito'' with
Ryu Murakami is a Japanese masculine given name and family name meaning "dragon", "noble", "prosperous", or "flow". Ryū, Ryu, or ryu may also refer to:
Fiction
* ''Ryū'' (manga), a 1986 series by Masao Yajima and Akira Oze
* , a 1919 book by Ryūnosuke Aku ...
, and "Freesouls: Captured and Released" with Christopher Adams, a book of Ito's photographs that includes essays by several prominent figures in the
free culture movement. He has hosted televisions shows including ''The New Breed'' and ''SimTV'' shows on
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
.
He is currently the host of a TV show called "Super-Presentation" airing weekly in Japan on
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
.
Recognition and honors
Ito was listed by ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine as a member of the "Cyber-Elite" in 1997. He was also named one of the 50 "Stars of Asia" in the "Entrepreneurs and Dealmakers" category by ''
BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'' and commended by the
Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications for supporting the advancement of IT in 2000. He was selected by the
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
in 2001 as one of the "Global Leaders for Tomorrow" and chosen by ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' as a member of the "Leaders of The Pack (high technology industry)" in 2005, and listed by ''
Vanity Fair'' as a member of "The Next Establishment" in the October Issue, 2007 and 2011. Ito was named by ''BusinessWeek'' as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web in 2008. On July 22, 2011 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his role as one of the world's leading advocates of Internet freedom from the University of
Oxford Internet Institute
The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multi-disciplinary department of social and computer science dedicated to the study of information, communication, and technology, and is part of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford ...
. In 2011, with
Ethan Zuckerman
Ethan Zuckerman (born 1973) is an American media scholar, blogger, and Internet activist. He was the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, and Associate Professor of the Practice in Media Arts and Sciences at MIT until May 2020, and the a ...
, he was named by ''
Foreign Policy
A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
'' magazine to its list of top global thinkers, in which he stated the ''Best idea'' is "Users controlling their own data". Ito received the degree of
Doctor of Literature
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...
, honoris causa, from
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
in 2013. On March 11, 2014, Ito was inducted into the SXSW Interactive Festival Hall of Fame. He was a
TED
TED may refer to:
Economics and finance
* TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar
Education
* ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association
** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey
** Transvaal Education Depa ...
speaker at the March 21, TED2014. In 2014, Ito was awarded the
Golden Plate Award by the
Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
. On May 17, 2015 Ito received a
Doctor of Humane Letters
The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (; DHumLitt; DHL; or LHD) is an honorary degree awarded to those who have distinguished themselves through humanitarian and philanthropic contributions to society.
The criteria for awarding the degree differ ...
, honoris causa, from
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
. Ito was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in April 2017. On May 11, 2017 Ito was awarded the
IRI Medal The IRI Medal, established by the Industrial Research Institute (IRI) in 1946, recognizes and honors leaders of technology for their outstanding accomplishments in technological innovation which contribute broadly to the development of industry and ...
.
MIT Media Lab (2011–2019)
In April 2011, Ito was named the director of the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
; he began in this role on September 1, 2011.
His appointment was called an "unusual choice" since Ito studied at two colleges, but did not finish his degrees. "The choice is radical, but brilliant," said
Larry Smarr
Larry Lee Smarr is a physicist and leader in scientific computing, supercomputer applications, and Internet infrastructure from Missouri. He currently works at the University of California, San Diego. Smarr has been among the most important synth ...
, director of
Calit2. He was professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT beginning in 2016.
Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte (born December 1, 1943) is a Greek American architect. He is the founder and chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also founded the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). Negroponte ...
, Media Lab's co-founder and chairman emeritus, described the choice as bringing the media to "Joi's world". In an interview with
Asian Scientist Magazine
''Asian Scientist'' is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore.
History and profile
''Asian Scientist'' was launched in March 2011 by Asian Scientist Publishing Pte Ltd (now known as Wildtype Media Group Pte Lt ...
, Ito discussed his vision for the MIT Media Lab, and how he liked the word “learning” better than the word “education”.
As part of his work at the Media Lab, Ito was a part of the emerging dialogue around the ethics and governance of
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
, teaching a course on the topic with professor
Jonathan Zittrain
Jonathan L. Zittrain (born December 24, 1969) is an American professor of Internet law and the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of computer sc ...
and co-founding the Council on Extended Intelligence with the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
In August 2021, Ito was appointed as the Digital Auditor, the top administrative official of Japan's Digital Agency. However, many people raised concerns about his appointment, because of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. In September, after the Digital Agency was established, Ito was appointed as one of the members of the Digital Society Initiative Council, a panel of experts.
Departure from MIT (2019)
In 2019, revelations of Ito's connections with
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American sex offender and financier. Epstein, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, began his professional life by teaching at the Dalton School in Manhattan, des ...
, a convicted child
sex offender
A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crim ...
, shed light on the extent of Epstein's monetary gifts to the Media Lab and to Ito's startups outside of MIT. Ito initially wrote an apology but refused to resign, which led to the departure of several prominent Media Lab members, including
Ethan Zuckerman
Ethan Zuckerman (born 1973) is an American media scholar, blogger, and Internet activist. He was the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, and Associate Professor of the Practice in Media Arts and Sciences at MIT until May 2020, and the a ...
, director of the MIT's
Center for Civic Media, and Media Lab visiting scholar J. Nathan Matias. Calls for Ito to resign were followed by a website (wesupportjoi.org) and letter in support of Ito which appeared in late August signed by more than 100 people including
Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
,
Hiroshi Ishii (computer_scientist)
is a Japanese computer scientist. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ishii pioneered the Tangible User Interface in the field of Human-computer interaction with the paper ''"Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfac ...
,
Stewart Brand,
Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte (born December 1, 1943) is a Greek American architect. He is the founder and chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also founded the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). Negroponte ...
,
Jonathan Zittrain
Jonathan L. Zittrain (born December 24, 1969) is an American professor of Internet law and the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School. He is also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, a professor of computer sc ...
, and
George M. Church
George McDonald Church (born August 28, 1954) is an American geneticist, molecular engineer, chemist, and a serial entrepreneur who is widely regarded as the "Founding Father of Genomics", and a pioneer in personal genomics and synthetic bio ...
. However, the website was taken down after further details emerged. Ito later admitted to taking $525,000 in funding from Epstein for the lab, and permitting Epstein to invest 1.2 million in Ito's personal investment funds.
Further revelations and leaked emails
On September 6, 2019, an article by
Ronan Farrow
Satchel Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow (born December 19, 1987) is an American journalist. The son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen, he is best known for his investigative reporting of allegations of sexual abuse against film producer H ...
in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' alleged that the lab led by Ito had "a deeper fund-raising relationship with Epstein" than it had acknowledged, and that the lab attempted to conceal the extent of its contacts with him.
The article, based on leaked emails between Epstein, Ito and others, alleged that "Ito and other lab employees took numerous steps to keep Epstein’s name from being associated with the donations he made or solicited," and that Ito specifically solicited individual donations from Epstein.
The article further claimed that Epstein "appeared to serve as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations" and that "Epstein was credited with securing at least $7.5 million in donations for the lab."
Ito, in an email to ''The New York Times,'' said ''The New Yorker'' report was “full of factual errors.”
According to
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
professor
Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
the anonymity of the Jeffrey Epstein donations was to avoid "whitewashing" Epstein's reputation and not to conceal the relationship between Ito and Epstein.
The president of MIT requested an "immediate, thorough and independent" investigation into the "extremely serious" and "deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein."
Resignations
In September 2019, Ito resigned as director of the Media Lab and as an MIT professor shortly after ''The New Yorker'' article.
''The New York Times'' reported that Ito had resigned from his visiting professorship at Harvard University, in addition he relinquished a number of other roles on September 7 amid the controversy:
* Ito left the board of the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The MacArthur Foundation wrote, "the recent reports of Ito's behavior in ''The New Yorker'', if true, would not be in keeping with the values of MacArthur. Most importantly, our hearts go out to the girls and women who survived the abuse of Jeffrey Epstein."
* He resigned from the board of
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City.
History
The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. T ...
following the Epstein revelations. ''The New York Times'' said "Our newsroom will continue its aggressive reporting on Mr. Epstein, investigating both the individuals and the broader systems of power that enabled him for so many years."
* Ito resigned from the board of trustees of the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, who wrote, "Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes continue to reverberate, most painfully with the girls and women who were his victims. We extend our deepest sympathies to them."
* He resigned as the chairman of PureTech Health. The company said that “given circumstances related to the MIT Media Lab, we agreed that Joi’s resignation from PureTech was appropriate.”
Results of MIT investigation
On January 10, 2020, MIT released results of its fact-finding on engagements with Jeffrey Epstein.
The investigation was conducted by
Goodwin Procter LLP whose partners were retained to "conduct investigation into both Epstein's donations and Epstein's other interactions with MIT."
The MIT Report
found that "donations to MIT were driven either by former Media Lab Director Joi Ito or by
Professor Lloyd, not by MIT's central administration." However, the report also states that certain members of MIT's Senior Team "were aware of, and approved, Epstein's donations to support Ito and the Media Lab." Furthermore, the report found that "contrary to certain media reports, neither Epstein nor his foundations was ever coded as "disqualified" in MIT's donor systems. Further, the code "disqualified" does not mean that a person or entity is "blacklisted" or prohibited from donating to the institute. Rather, the term "disqualified" is a database code for any donor who previously donated to MIT but presently is dormant or is no longer interested in giving to MIT."
The report's executive summary ends with the finding that "since MIT had no policy or processes for handling controversial donors in place at the time, the decision to accept Epstein's post-conviction donations cannot be judged to be a policy violation. But it is clear that the decision was the result of collective and significant errors in judgment that resulted in serious damage to the MIT community."
Center for Radical Transformation at CIT (2021–)
In December 2021, Ito was appointed as the Director of the Center for Radical Transformation (CRT) at
Chiba Institute of Technology
is a private university in Narashino, Chiba, Japan. Abbreviated as , , , .
The school was founded in 1942 in Machida, Tokyo. In 1946 it was relocated to Kimitsu, Chiba, adopted the present name at the same time. Four years later, it was moved ...
, Japan. He also serves as a member of CIT's Board of Trustees.
Bibliography
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See also
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History of the Japanese in Metro Detroit
In 2002, there were 6,413 people of Japanese origin, including Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans, in the Wayne-Oakland- Macomb tri-county area in Metro Detroit, making them the fifth-largest Asian ethnic group there. In that year, within a ...
*
Free culture
The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or Free content, open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's origin ...
References
External links
Official webpageOfficial webpage
Book announcement for "Whiplash"*
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Joichi Ito Interview VideoJoichi Ito on the MikeyPod Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Joi
1966 births
Living people
Academic scandals
American School in Japan alumni
Japanese activists
Japanese bloggers
Japanese chief executives
Japanese company founders
Japanese expatriates in the United States
Members of the Creative Commons board of directors
Members of the Open Source Initiative board of directors
MIT Media Lab people
Mozilla people
MUD developers
Open content activists
People from Kyoto
Technology company founders
Tufts University alumni
Tufts University School of Engineering alumni
Venture capitalists
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Creative Commons-licensed authors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology people