Joichi Ito

Current

• Advisor at Twitter
• Board Member at thesixtyone
• Board Member at CCC Co., Ltd.

• Board Member at Tucows
• Advisory Board Member at Emitac
• Board Member at Machinima.com
• Trustee at Nishimachi International School
• Senior Visiting Researcher at Keio University SFC Research Institute
• Advisory Board Member at Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Part-Time Instructor at Keio Graduate School of Media Design
• CEO at Creative Commons
• Board Member at Global Voices
• Board Member Emeritus at Open Source Initiative
• Board Member at Technorati
• Board Member at Digital Garage
• Board Member at CGM Marketing
• Board Member at WITNESS
• Board Member at iCommons
• Guild Master at We Know
• Board Member at Mozilla Foundation
• Board Member at Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility
• Board Member at Socialtext
• Chairman at Six Apart Japan
• founder and op at #joiito on IRC
• Founder at Joi Ito's Wiki
• Founder and primary contributor at Joi Ito's Web
• CEO at Kula Co., Ltd.
• Board Member at ZeroOne - The Art and Technology Network
• CEO at Neoteny Co.,Ltd.
• Board Member at Foundation for Global Education and Communication
• Angel Investor at Joichi Ito (Sole Proprietorship)

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Past

• Board Member at Nishimachi International School
• Board Member at BUG
• Board Member at Pia Corporation

• Board Member at Rupture
• Chairman and Board Member at Creative Commons
• Board Member at Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
• Board Member at Open Source Initiative
• Fellow at The Annenberg Center for Communication of the University of Southern California (USC)
• Chairman of the Board at iCommons
• Board Member at Creative Commons
• Board Member at MetaBrainz Foundation
• General Manger of Global Operations at Technorati
• Treasurer and co-founder at Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility - Japan Chapter
• Vice Representative Secretariat Member at Enjin01 / The Cultural Stategy Council
• Secretariat Member at Keizai Doyukai - Japan Association of Corporate Executives
• Jury Member, .Net & Digital Communities at Prix Ars Electronica
• Chairman, Board Member at Infoseek Japan
• Board Member at Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
• CEO at Digital Garage, Inc.
• Headmaster at Bithaus
• CEO at Eccosys, Ltd.
• CEO at PSINet Japan Inc.
• CEO at Mac Zone Japan
• Producer at XY Relax
• Associate to Mr. Mount (The Executive Producer) at Indian Runner

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22 more...

Education

• Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University
• American School in Japan
• Nishimachi International School

Recommended

91 people have recommended Joichi

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Blog

Joichi Ito’s Summary

Joichi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org). He is a co-founder and board member of Digital Garage JSD:4819 (http://www.garage.co.jp/). He is on the board of CCC TYO:4756 (http://www.ccc.co.jp/eng/) and Tucows AMEX:TCX (http://www.tucows.com/). He is a Senior Visiting Researcher of Keio Research Institute at Shonan Fujisawa Campus in Japan. He is the Chairman of Six Apart Japan (http://www.sixapart.jp/) the weblog software company. He is on board of a number of non-profit organizations including The Mozilla Foundation, WITNESS (http://www.witness.org/) and Global Voices (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/). He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan and was an early stage investor in Twitter, Six Apart, Technorati, Flickr, SocialText, Dopplr, Last.fm, Rupture, Kongregate and other Internet companies. He maintains a weblog (http://joi.ito.com/) where he regularly shares his thoughts with the online community. He is the Guild Custodian of the World of Warcraft guild, We Know (http://weknow.to/).

Ito was listed by Time Magazine as a member of the "Cyber-Elite" in 1997. Ito was listed as one of the 50 "Stars of Asia" by BusinessWeek and commended by the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 2000. He was selected by the World Economic Forum in 2001 as one of the "Global Leaders for Tomorrow", chosen by Newsweek as a member of the "Leaders of The Pack" in 2005, and listed by Vanity Fair as a member of "The Next Establishment" in 2007. Ito was also named by Businessweek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web in 2008.

Joichi Ito’s Specialties:

venture investing, Japan entry, Japanese policy, speaking, blogging, media art, Internet advertising, Japanese business. VERY busy lately so don't take it personally if I can't accept a request.

Joichi Ito’s Experience

• Advisor

  Twitter

  (Privately Held; Internet industry)

  August 2009 — Present (5 months)

  Helping Twitter with Japan and internationalization

• Board Member

  thesixtyone

  (Internet industry)

  July 2009 — Present (6 months)

• Board Member

  CCC Co., Ltd.

  (Consumer Services industry)

  May 2009 — Present (8 months)

• Board Member

  Tucows

  (Public Company; Internet industry)

  December 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)

• Advisory Board Member

  Emitac

  (Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)

  December 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)

• Board Member

  Machinima.com

  (Privately Held; Internet industry)

  November 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)

• Trustee

  Nishimachi International School

  (Education Management industry)

  November 2008 — Present (1 year 2 months)

• Senior Visiting Researcher

  Keio University SFC Research Institute

  (Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)

  September 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

• Advisory Board Member

  Electronic Privacy Information Center

  (Public Policy industry)

  September 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

• Part-Time Instructor

  Keio Graduate School of Media Design

  (Higher Education industry)

  July 2008 — Present (1 year 6 months)

• CEO

  Creative Commons

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  April 2008 — Present (1 year 9 months)

  Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."
  
  We're a nonprofit organization. Everything we do — including the software we create — is free.

• Board Member

  Global Voices

  (Non-Profit; Online Media industry)

  August 2007 — Present (2 years 5 months)

• Board Member Emeritus

  Open Source Initiative

  (Internet industry)

  April 2007 — Present (2 years 9 months)

• Board Member

  Technorati

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  October 2006 — Present (3 years 3 months)

  Blog index and notification company providing ability to track conversations in real time on the world live web.

• Board Member

  Digital Garage

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; 4819; Internet industry)

  September 2006 — Present (3 years 4 months)

  I am a board member re-joining as a returning co-founder. Focusing on investment and advising. Helping run Technorati Japan, CGMM, Kakaku.com and other Internet related projects.

• Board Member

  CGM Marketing

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  July 2006 — Present (3 years 6 months)

  CGM Marketing is a joint venture between Digital Garage, Cyber Communications, Dentsu and Asatsu. The company is focusing on marketing and advertising in the user generated content space.

• Board Member

  WITNESS

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

  March 2006 — Present (3 years 10 months)

  WITNESS uses the power of video to open the eyes of the world to human rights abuses. By partnering with local organizations around the globe, WITNESS empowers human rights defenders to use video to shine a light on those most affected by human rights violations, and to transform personal stories of abuse into powerful tools of justice. (http://www.witness.org/)

• Board Member

  iCommons

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  January 2006 — Present (4 years )

  iCommons was founded by and is affiliated Creative Commons. iCommons coordinates the activities of the global network of activists and projects that have sprung from Creative Commons as well as other friendly projects.

• Guild Master

  We Know

  (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Computer Games industry)

  September 2005 — Present (4 years 4 months)

  We Know is a World of Warcraft (WoW) Guild on Eitrigg. I am a co-founder of the guild which moved to Eitrigg from Khadgar. I am the founder of the Horde sister guild We No but have passed GM of We No to Paineater. See http://weknow.to/ for more information.

• Board Member

  Mozilla Foundation

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

  August 2005 — Present (4 years 5 months)

  The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project which includes the Firefox browser.

• Board Member

  Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility

  (Computer Software industry)

  July 2005 — Present (4 years 6 months)

  CPSR is a global organization promoting the responsible use of computer technology. Incorporated in 1983 (following discussions and organizing that began in 1981), CPSR educates policymakers and the public on a wide range of issues. CPSR has incubated numerous projects such as Privaterra, the Public Sphere Project, EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center), the 21st Century Project, the Civil Society Project, and the CFP (Computers, Freedom & Privacy) Conference. Originally founded by U.S. computer scientists, CPSR now has members in 26 countries on six continents.

• Board Member

  Socialtext

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  May 2004 — Present (5 years 8 months)

  Provider of Wiki solutions.

• Chairman

  Six Apart Japan

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  April 2004 — Present (5 years 9 months)

  Japan subsidiary of Six Apart, a leading provider of Weblog software and hosted Weblog services through Movable Type and TypePad.

• founder and op

  #joiito on IRC

  (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; #joiito; Internet industry)

  June 2003 — Present (6 years 7 months)

  #joiito is a channel on Freenode, an IRC network. I started the channel, but it has developing into quite a community where I am merely a participant. There is a wiki page for the channel at http://joi.ito.com/joiwiki/IrcChannel

• Founder

  Joi Ito's Wiki

  (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

  April 2003 — Present (6 years 9 months)

  My wiki page has grown into a vibrant community. The Emergent Democracy section is the most active. It can be found at http://joiwiki.ito.com/joiwiki/

• Founder and primary contributor

  Joi Ito's Web

  (Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Internet industry)

  June 2002 — Present (7 years 7 months)

  Joi Ito's Web is my blog, but the comments section has become quite a community. The blog can be found at http://joi.ito.com/

• CEO

  Kula Co., Ltd.

  (Internet industry)

  2001 — Present (8 years )

• Board Member

  ZeroOne - The Art and Technology Network

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Museums and Institutions industry)

  January 2000 — Present (10 years )

  ZeroOne stamps the intersection of art and technology. We believe in the magic that happens when fine, experimental; geek, media, research and explosive artists join forces with entrepreneurs, tools, platforms and innovative technological advancement. The potential is vast and the opportunities infinite. Join us in delving, exploring and pushing the limits of what is known and what is being discovered in Silicon Valley and the world.
  
  http://www.groundzero.org/

• CEO

  Neoteny Co.,Ltd.

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  December 1999 — Present (10 years 1 month)

  Neoteny is a venture capital firm investing in Internet technologies and services. Our current focus is weblogs, microcontent and metadata as well as enabling technologies for open standards based consumer electronics. Neoteny is based in Tokyo.

• Board Member

  Foundation for Global Education and Communication

  (Higher Education industry)

  January 1996 — Present (14 years )

  Foundation for education which runs a nurse school in Mizusawa, Iwate, Japan.

• Angel Investor

  Joichi Ito (Sole Proprietorship)

  (Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  June 1966 — Present (43 years 7 months)

  I sometimes invest in companies as an angel investor and also enjoy helping people with their ventures.

• Board Member

  Nishimachi International School

  (Primary/Secondary Education industry)

  December 2005 — November 2008 (3 years )

  I am on the board of Nishimachi International School (NIS) which is a unique multi-cultural and bilingual (English/Japanese) K-9 school in Tokyo. I attended NIS for one year in 9th grade.

• Board Member

  BUG

  (Computer Software industry)

  July 2006 — September 2008 (2 years 3 months)

  Software and technology company in Hokkaido Japan.
  
  http://www.bug.co.jp/

• Board Member

  Pia Corporation

  (Publishing industry)

  June 2002 — July 2008 (6 years 2 months)

• Board Member

  Rupture

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  2007 — May 2008 (1 year )

• Chairman and Board Member

  Creative Commons

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

  December 2006 — April 2008 (1 year 5 months)

  Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."
  
  We're a nonprofit organization. Everything we do — including the software we create — is free.

• Board Member

  Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  December 2004 — December 2007 (3 years 1 month)

  Selected to serve for 3 year term by the Nomination Committee of ICANN.

• Board Member

  Open Source Initiative

  (Computer Software industry)

  March 2005 — April 2007 (2 years 2 months)

  Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community, specifically through the OSI Certified Open Source Software certification mark and program.
  
  http://www.opensource.org/

• Fellow

  The Annenberg Center for Communication of the University of Southern California (USC)

  (Educational Institution; 51-200 employees; Research industry)

  May 2006 — March 2007 (11 months)

  Fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communication of the University of Southern California (USC) which supports leading-edge interdisciplinary research on the meaning of the new networked information age.

• Chairman of the Board

  iCommons

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Publishing industry)

  October 2005 — January 2007 (1 year 4 months)

  iCommons was founded by and is affiliated Creative Commons. iCommons coordinates the activities of the global network of activists and projects that have sprung from Creative Commons as well as other friendly projects.

• Board Member

  Creative Commons

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

  June 2003 — December 2006 (3 years 7 months)

  Creative Commons is a non-profit corporation founded on the notion that some people may not want to exercise all of the intellectual property rights the law affords them. We believe there is an unmet demand for an easy yet reliable way to tell the world "Some rights reserved" or even "No rights reserved." Creative Commons intends to help people express this preference for sharing by offering the world a set of licenses on our Website, at no charge.
  
  http://www.creativecommons.org/

• Board Member

  MetaBrainz Foundation

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  April 2005 — October 2006 (1 year 7 months)

  The MetaBrainz Foundation is a 501.(c).3 tax-exempt non-profit based in San Luis Obispo, California that operates the MusicBrainz project.
  
  MusicBrainz is a user maintained community music metadatabase. Music metadata is information such as the name of an artist, the name of an album and list of tracks that appear on an album. MusicBrainz collects this information about music and makes it available to the public.
  
  http://metabrainz.org/index.html

• General Manger of Global Operations

  Technorati

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  March 2004 — September 2006 (2 years 7 months)

  Blog index and notification company providing ability to track conversations in real time on the world live web.

• Treasurer and co-founder

  Computer Scientists for Social Responsibility - Japan Chapter

  (Computer Software industry)

  October 2002 — March 2006 (3 years 6 months)

  http://www.cpsr.org/

• Vice Representative Secretariat Member

  Enjin01 / The Cultural Stategy Council

  (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Museums and Institutions industry)

  January 2000 — 2005 (5 years )

  Association of 100+ cultural leaders in Japan pursuing the advancement of culture and it's influence on society.
  
  http://www.enjin01.org/

• Secretariat Member

  Keizai Doyukai - Japan Association of Corporate Executives

  (Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Public Policy industry)

  April 1999 — 2005 (6 years )

  The largest association of corporate executives in Japan and the counterpart to the Keidanren which is the association of corporations. Keizai Doyukai discusses and takes positions on a variety of policy issues in Japan. Keizai Doyukai also sponsors the Japan dinner at Davos.

• Jury Member, .Net & Digital Communities

  Prix Ars Electronica

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Fine Art industry)

  May 1995 — May 2005 (10 years 1 month)

  Prix Ars Electonica is a government affliated electronic art competition and festival manged by the Austrian broadcast company in Linz, Austria. They are one of the largest prize awarding organizations which focuses on arts in emerging technologies. I particpated in the first Intenet category jury and missed one year between 1995 and 2002.
  
  Did jury for Digital Communities 2004.
  See http://www.aec.at/en/index.asp

• Chairman, Board Member

  Infoseek Japan

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; SEEK; Internet industry)

  October 1996 — July 2003 (6 years 10 months)

  Infoseek Japan was the first commercial Internet search engine in Japan.

• Board Member

  Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; ENER; Research industry)

  August 1995 — July 2000 (5 years )

  ECD focuses on energy and information technology. Their work involves atomically engineered materials. ECD invents the materials, the products, and the production technology.
  
  ECD is a pioneer in hydrogen storage and transportation technology, NiMH technology, amorphous photovoltaic technology, thin-film displays, phase-change amorphous memories, and a variety of other technologies involving disordered materials, thin-films and amorphous materials.
  
  See http://www.ovonic.com/
  
  I am currently advisor to management and continue to support ECD's activities.

• CEO

  Digital Garage, Inc.

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; 4819; Internet industry)

  August 1995 — June 1999 (3 years 11 months)

  Digital Garage was originally a joint venture between my company Eccosys and Kaoru Hayashi's company From Garage. It was one of the first web companies in Japan. We merged our companies together and the company had two CEO's for awhile. We built Infoseek Japan as a licensee of Infoseek in the US and eventually sold the division to Infoseek in the US. I resigned from Digital Garage as part of the transaction and became the Chairman of Infoseek Japan. Digital Garage went public December 14, 2000.

• Headmaster

  Bithaus

  (Higher Education industry)

  January 1997 — April 1998 (1 year 4 months)

  Bithaus was a multimedia, Internet and game technology school.

• CEO

  Eccosys, Ltd.

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  April 1994 — May 1997 (3 years 2 months)

  Eccosys was an Internet technology company set up by myself and a few young hackers huddled around a used Sun Sparc 1+ and the PSINet 128K leased line in my apartment. We set up one of the first web pages in Japan, "Tomigaya" and consulted to a variety of companies interested in Internet technology. We eventually merged with Digital Garage.

• CEO

  PSINet Japan Inc.

  (Internet industry)

  December 1995 — October 1996 (11 months)

  PSINet Japan was the first commercial Internet Service Provider in Japan. PSINet Japan was acquired by Cable and Wireless.

• CEO

  Mac Zone Japan

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  October 1993 — April 1994 (7 months)

  Launched Mac Zone, a Macintosh catalog mail order business, in Japan.

• Producer

  XY Relax

  (Entertainment industry)

  April 1990 — February 1991 (11 months)

  XY Relax was a nightclub in Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan.

• Associate to Mr. Mount (The Executive Producer)

  Indian Runner

  (Motion Pictures and Film industry)

  January 1989 — January 1991 (2 years 1 month)

  Indian Runner was a movie directed by Sean Penn starring David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, Valeria Golino, Patricia Arquette, Charles Bronson, Sandy Dennis, and Dennis Hopper.

Additional Information

Joichi Ito’s Websites:

• My Blog

Joichi Ito’s Groups:

Internet Society, Computer Professional for Social Responsibility

•    JoiIto
•    American School in Japan
•    Weekend to be Named Later
•    We K(NO)W Guild
•    Ex-Infoseek
•    Creative Commons
•    Nishimachi International School Alumni
•    Silicon Valley comes to Japan
•    EDAMA
•    Dopplr Advisors
•    Global Voices Online

Joichi Ito’s Honors:

Time Magazine CyberElite, 1997
Businessweek - "50 Stars of Asia", 2000
Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications commendment for supporting the advancement of IT, 2000
World Economic Forum Global Leaders for Tomorrow, 2001
National Advertising Bureau in Japan, "Web-person contributor award", 2004