The closing event for the Spring 2010 Civic Discourse Series: Literacy and Democracy will feature Nicholas Negroponte, “A Mission Not a Market: One Laptop per Child.”  The event will take place on Tuesday, April 27 @ 6pm at the Boston Athenaeum (10 1/2 Beacon Street, Boston).  Reservations are being accepted now – at 617-720-7600.  Please mention that you are affiliated with Suffolk University. 

Nicholas Negroponte is founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child, a non-profit organization that is working to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, connected laptop with content and software  designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.  He is currently on leave from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology.  A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966.  He is also author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages.  In the private sector, Negroponte serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc.  He is also a general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment.  Negroponte has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.