Earlier this week, in the final days of Internet Week, Mayor Bloomberg announced the launch of NYC Media Lab.
Designed to promote innovation within New York City’s media industry, the new laboratory consists of a consortium of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) and Columbia University. The lab will be headquartered within the NYU Polytechnic Institute campus in Downtown Brooklyn.
The aim? Drive new technology research and connect companies that want to advance new media technologies with local academic institutions undertaking related research.
Created in direct emulation of the famed public-private models established by MIT and Stanford, the project is unique in its own way — it’s the nation’s first government-supported laboratory for media innovation.
At the announcement, made at the Wired “Disruptive by Design” conference held at the Morgan Library and Museum, Mayor Bloomberg said that many of the City’s universities and colleges are conducting new media-related research, but the connection to any of the City’s 10,000 media companies happens slowly or “never at all.” The NYC Media Lab will bring these two groups together and also sponsor its own independent research “driven by private sector interests.”
During its first year, NYC Media Lab will host at least 10 roundtable discussions between the private sector and academic institutions on topics ranging from “technology innovation to business model redesign to legal issues.”
For more info, visit the NYC Media Lab site. If you want to read Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of the new initiative, go here.
