Moderator: So how long until someone uses Arduino-style techniques to develop e-reading hardware—assuming this isn’t happening already? – D.R.
What happens when the open source model is applied to hardware? You get Arduino. If you’re not familiar with the Arduino platform you ought to read this excellent article about it in the latest issue of Wired magazine.
This model has the potential to turn the hardware industry on its ear. The phrase “creative destruction” was used in the article and I think it’s an excellent way to describe how the open source approach has affected software, now hardware and even content. Yes, that’s right…I couldn’t help think about the content world while reading that Wired article. Simply replace “hardware manufacturers” with “content providers” in this relevant excerpt and you’ll see what I mean:
To thrive in this next wave, hardware manufacturers will have to switch their thinking. Their job is no longer just to dream up ideas — it’s equally important, maybe even more vital, to seek out innovations from users.
P.S. — On a related note, O’Reilly just published a 128-page book called Getting Started with Arduino. It sounds like an excellent book for my son, the aerospace engineering student and all-around tinkerer. I’ll have to look into employee discounts since this is my first day on the job!
To thrive in this next wave, hardware manufacturers will have to switch their thinking. Their job is no longer just to dream up ideas — it’s equally important, maybe even more vital, to seek out innovations from users
This is one of those things that sound cool until you realise that it’s posing no change to how standardized the componets inside even the “cooler then grilled cheese” products like the iphone or the kindle is.
You can buy an iphone in components
at basicly full scale massproduction prices form the guy’s that make the iphone, and the hardware world is pretty open and have been that way since compaq reverse engineered the IBM bios.