CAMBRIDGE, MASS. --- One hundred ambassadors of the digital generation will deplane at Logan Airport in Boston on Sunday, November 15. Arriving from 54 different countries, the ambassadors, ages 10-16, were delegated by their peers to participate in Junior Summit '98, a six-day conference hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

The Junior Summit began a year ago with the MIT Media Lab's global invitation to almost one million young people to describe their current world and to suggest ways technology might be used to improve that world.

In September, 1998, nearly 3000 participants from 139 countries began communicating with one another through an innovative on-line forum. Utilizing translation technology, they have been sharing their views across geographic and cultural barriers.

The one hundred delegates arriving at MIT are bringing their ideas, plans, and solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems -- issues all participants have been discussing through the global on-line forum.

During the six-day summit, the delegates will develop innovative approaches and solutions which will have far-reaching results. Anticipated outcomes will include the development of a junior world bank; a children’s bill of rights; an organized press corp run by young people around the world; an idea bank, and a means by which youth can directly work with governments, particularly relating to the uses of technology.

The final deliberations of Junior Summit 98 will be presented to a distinguished audience of international government, business, civic, and religious leaders on Saturday, November 21st at MIT.

This prestigious undertaking is made possible by the generous support of Citibank, the LEGO Group and Swatch.

The 100 delegates to Junior Summit ’98 come from the following 54 countries:

There are nearly one billion children between the ages of 10 and 16 worldwide. They're the first digital generation. They're growing up in a whole new way. And they each have something to say.

Something about world conditions. Something about hope. And something about technology's role in our future.

The goal of MIT Media Lab's Junior Summit '98, occurring this fall, is to give us all a chance to listen to the voices of the world's first digital generation--to listen, to learn, and to take action on behalf of a brighter future for everyone.

Junior Summit '98 is being made possible with major sponsorship from Citibank, the LEGO Group, and Swatch. The Summit has been designed to include children from all countries, the digitally rich as well as the digitally poor, with the promise to bring their deliberations to world leaders and to support their proposals on a global scale.

Proposals from the children are as diverse as their backgrounds: an 8th grade boy in China envisions shoes for the blind--shoes which emit music when the wearer approaches a barrier. A sixth grader from Finland sees the Internet as a teaching space to foster family values. An eleven-year-old from Washington, DC imagines latchkey children using a computer-based system allowing them to enter their homes safely.

"Kids around the world will be connected in ways never before possible. Their charter is to discuss a shared vision of the digital future," said Annette Tonti, Executive Producer of Junior Summit '98.

There are three elements of the Junior Summit. The first element, now completed, began almost a year ago with the MIT Media Lab's global invitation to children to describe their current world and to suggest ways technology might be used to improve that world.

An on-line forum, which began in September, is bringing together nearly 3,000 children from 139 countries. Thanks to innovative new translation technology, they are engaged with one another, listening and learning in their native tongues across geographic and cultural barriers.

The third element of Junior Summit '98 is a 6-day meeting to be held at MIT November 15-21, when 100 of these children will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to represent the 3,000 participants as 'ambassadors.' The 100 meeting participants will discuss topics arising from the global on-line forum.

The Summit will involve children as designers, critics and politicians as they present their views to an audience of global media, Nobel laureates, and world leaders.

In addition to major sponsors, Citibank, the LEGO Group and Swatch, many businesses are partnering with Junior Summit '98 to help make it a reality. They are: Africa Online, providing assistance in connecting African participants; ChatSpace, a chat client provider; Lyris, an e-mail discussion interface provider; Transparent language, a machine translation provider, and WorldPoint, a human translation provider. Additional supporters include Acced, Philips, RealNetworks, and Sybase.

For more information, contact Alexandra Kahn at the MIT Media Lab Press Office @ (617) 253-0365 or akahn@media.mit.edu