Digital Vision – Interview with Marie-José Montpetit

As part of the assessment of projects submitted to the experimental stream, the CMF calls upon highly renowned international experts. In the Digital Vision series, we present interviews with members of our past juries with the simple objective of letting ourselves be inspired by the talented minds that shape our industry. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all our jury members as well as to those who kindly answered our questions. Moreover, you can consult the list of all jury members since the inception of the experimental stream.

In this interview, Marie-José Montpetit shares her thoughts with us. Dr. Montpetit is an internationally renowned social TV, video and wireless innovator with over 20 years of experience in architecture, systems and technology. She is a lecturer on the future of TV at MIT Media Lab. (view Marie-José Montpetit's bio).

Dr. Montpetit, when you think about your work at the MIT Media Lab, what would you say...

Is the best / most amazing thing that happened in your field in the last 3 years?

The realization that television had more to do with content than a device in particular and that an available ecosystem of viewing platforms makes “TV is dead” both true (the traditional one) and very untrue (so much content to choose from).

Keeps you awake at night?

Thinking of how to create the next generation of seamless video experiences and convey it to the next generation of implementers and entrepreneurs including my students!

Describes the future of your profession in 140 words or less?

The rediscovery of “engineering” as a true multidisciplinary field.

Are the changes that you would like to see happening in your field within the next year?

More women holding strategic positions where changes are planned and sent for execution; women account for half of the population and are remain very under-represented in positions of power.

Are the 3 things that make your job (or field) absolutely awesome?

  • Being at the forefront of the convergence of mobile, Internet and video
  • Teaching extraordinary talented students
  • Interacting with a incredible group of colleagues at MIT and elsewhere in the innovation world

 

Finally, from a more global perspective, what inspired you recently? What was the most inspiring project / book / article / presentation / idea you were exposed to?

Recently, it was the writing of a book chapter on convergence. It conjured up memories of everything that had happened in the last 15 years and that essentially changed our way of life. It’s not just about the social networks, the smartphones and tablets and the ubiquitous web individually. It’s about all of them together. And it’s all of them available to so many people who are now using them in ways that no one would have thought possible in the past. The creativity in these “converged” platforms and devices is amazing and helped change everything—education, entertainment, healthcare, retail etc.—by moving them into new exciting applications and services for everyone—not just the developed world—to enjoy.

Marie-José Montpetit

Boston, USA

Marie-José Montpetit

Dr. Marie-José Montpetit is an internationally renowned social TV, video and wireless innovator with over 20 years of experience in architecture, systems and technology. She is a lecturer on the future of TV at MIT Media Lab, a course she created 5 years ago, an advisor to local Boston start-ups as well as an invited speaker and lecturer at international venues. Her cross-platform Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) project won the Motorola Innovation Award in 2007 and her work on social TV was rewarded with a MIT Tech Review TR’10 in 2010 and a TEDxSilkRoad presentation in 2012. Also in 2012, she was named one of the 20 top second screen visionaries by Appmarket.tv.


Gabrielle Madé
As a former editorial coordinator at the CMF, Gabrielle Madé today manages Le Slingshot, a creative studio representing YouTubers. Launched in 2015, Le Slingshot represents the majority of popular French-speaking YouTubers in Québec Le Slingshot is part of the Attraction Média group. At the end of 2015, Gabrielle was named among the Top 30 Under 30 by Infopresse, which recognizes the accomplishments and potential of youth under 30 who work in communications in Québec.
Read Bio