Laurie Everett | January 11, 2007
"Introduction To MIT World"
My first blog entry!
Let me begin by introducing you to MIT World, a free and open on-demand video streaming web site that features public lectures at MIT. MIT World has been in operation since 2001 and today has a collection of almost 400 videos in its online collection (you can also find it on the MIT home page under Education — click on "video"). This primary source of unmediated content reflects a wide range of ideas that are discussed every day at MIT. Inside you will find more than 20 Nobel Laureates, leaders of many companies who have changed our world, who tell their first hand accounts of start up days (Amazon, Akamai), or amazing histories of longer established companies that have led innovation (UPS, Xerox, HP), as well as a vast assortment of engineers, technologists, innovators, poets, peacemakers, and scientists - and even a physicist who is a poet — Frank Wilczek.
With a collection of almost 400 videos, it's a little daunting to pick one to be the first one to reflect on in this new forum. So, I thought it best to start with a modern day adventure story about a company that has changed the world, told by one of the founders of the company. Check out The Akamai Story: From Theory to Practice by Tom Leighton.
Akamai's founders entered the MIT $50k competition (and lost) and today the company delivers tens of billions of daily web interactions on the web, (including MIT World's videos and MIT OpenCourseWare's courses) on 20,000 servers in 71 countries. Leighton, who is co-founder and Chief Scientist at Akamai and a Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT, tells it all - the $50k competition, the business plans, the start up, the bubble, the personal tragedy of September 11th and the loss of co-founder Danny Lewin, the bubble bursting, and recovery. Akamai means "clever and cool" in Hawaiian — another thing they got right.
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The author has filed this entry in the "MIT's Influence On The World" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
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Yay, first post!!!!! Nice blog....looking foreward to watching the videos (and coming to MIT next year.........I wish........)
Posted by: Anonymous on January 11, 2007 12:09 PM
great going MIT..keep it up
Posted by: Anonymous on January 11, 2007 12:38 PM
I've been sticking to MIT World for a long time. It's such a cool site that provides us MIT-wannabes such a nice chance to see what is going on in MIT.
Thanks!
Posted by: tony on January 11, 2007 01:22 PM
Nice web site, Although I suck at Real Player, But a lot of elements of this site is very useful.
I had found a video about Image amd digital signal Processing. such a nice video,But need Real Player support...
Never give up. Downloading Real...
thank you.
ICE
Posted by: ICE on January 11, 2007 01:44 PM
Professor Leighton was my 6.042 professor last semester - he's not only a very good mathematician, his lectures were always very engaging, well planned out, and entertaining. I'm sure this one is no different.
Posted by: Evan '10 on January 11, 2007 08:41 PM
Thank you! I did not know about this website, and I think it will become my spare time entertainment.
Posted by: turnef on January 12, 2007 09:25 AM
Hi..its imran here.will anyone help me in telling details about getting admission in MIT? I will be extremely thankful to that person. Although so much information is given on the website but I wana know through someone who has gotten admission. I am international student..please !
and i do gonna check out videos:) waiting for reply
Posted by: Imran on January 12, 2007 11:37 PM
Hi..its imran here.will anyone help me in telling details about getting admission in MIT? I will be extremely thankful to that person. Although so much information is given on the website but I wana know through someone who has gotten admission. I am international student..please !
and i do gonna check out videos:) waiting for reply
Posted by: Imran on January 12, 2007 11:42 PM
Nice first blog. Looking forward to more. Stay hydrated.
Posted by: Blanche on January 24, 2007 04:58 AM
