derBlog

Just read a really interesting article from the November issue of Wired Magazine on open source hardware. The lead-off is all about the Arduino, big props to Massimo Banzi and his group. I was a little disappointed that the article doesn’t explain Arduino’s relationship with Processing. I would think that part of Arduino’s success is precisely that relationship and the early market of users Arduino found in the Processing community. There was definitely a need for easy-to-use and inexpensive microprocessor units that Arduino fills but having an entire community of programmer already using the language needed to program your hardware certainly didn’t hurt!

The rest of the article talks about several other open source hardware folks like Limor Fried (Adafruit) and David Rowe, discussing the business model of open source hardware. I think the moreThe interesting point here is the use of the hive-mind…collective intelligence….whatever you want to call it…to solve complex problems or to simply improve a project more quickly that any one hacker could do by themselves…sounds a lot like an academic art studio should work…

Read the article here.

Thanks to Clay for giving me the article!

/david