Frank Moss, the fast-talking serial entrepreneur who last month was named the new director of MIT's Media Laboratory, says that his former life prepared him well for his new job.

"I have a slight advantage here in that I was on the other side," says the veteran computer scientist. "If you are running something like this, the organisational skills you have as an entrepreneur come in handy - how do you get people excited, how do you communicate what you are doing."