Bug Blogger

A step in the right direction

Today's announcement that a consortium of companies is investing $3.2 billion in a new wireless broadband company is big news.  While the details are just coming available I am hopeful.  Sure there is still a lot of golf to be played in the match but, if nothing else, it seems like the spirit of the deal is right on. 

We desperately need more and better wireless broadband options in this country.  I firmly believe that there is a hurricane of innovation just waiting to happen if someone can provide an open, fast, affordable and unrestricted (to the extent that's responsible) wireless network.  Just look at the countries that have this in place now (S Korea, Japan, etc). 

I'm really hoping the naysayers and worriers are proven wrong.  If you recall early days of the Arpanet, there were many ways it could have gone (and that was a closed system built by the US Government).  How'd it end up? Open.  Think about services like Google Maps/StreetView, which the company could easily charge for and lock down tightly.  Instead, they are effectively open to virtually any type of reuse, even commercial implementations. 

Anyone who follows what we're doing here won't be surprised that we eager to get something like this in place.  Cloud-enabled gadgetry will be huge.  And you can bet we're working hard on making it happen.

Fun is good!

This is a very encouraging graph -   We need more fun in our too-techie lives.

Closed is the new open

Newsweek has posted an interview with Jonathan Zittrain, author of "The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It" and it's generating some interesting discussion.  Whether he's a kook or a canary is too early to judge but I will say this - he's gotten me thinking.  I'm old enough to remember the dominant computing model of the 1970s.  It was based on a large central CPU with dumb terminals hanging off it.  Most if not all the actually computing tasks were managed by the centralized computer with the terminals providing the user interface and not much else.  The model worked very well.  Many large, profitable and influential companies grew up around this architecture - IBM, Digital, Wang, Data General, Control Data Corp, etc.  Customers were well served and major advances, both technical and productive, were accomplished. 

So what happened?  Why is it that only IBM survives out of the list above.  The microcomputer was introduced.  At first it was seen as just a toy.  In reality, it represented a shift that, though small at first, quickly became tectonic.  Suddenly the average Joe had control over computing power.  Turns out we discovered that when our information future was owned and controlled by others we didn't get what we wanted and overpaid for what we got.  So the public armed themselves and the revolution began.  Innovation exploded from all directions, prices cratered and big hardware companies lost their grip on customers.  "Power to the People" was Apple's mantra and "A computer on every desk" was Microsoft's.  We've been living with the results of their success ever since.

So here's the thing.  Cloud computing, browser-based applications, proprietary application and network architectures (ala Facebook), closed network devices, all these things start to look suspiciously like the 1970s computing model.  By tacitly accepting this direction, we are in effect ceding control over many parts of our informational existence to large corporations (sound familiar?).  We are giving up the freedoms we fought for and received over 20 years ago.  Maybe that's ok.  I'm not saying the analogy is exact.  But it has me wondering what the costs will be.  History has shown that big corporations don't always do what's in the best interest of their customers.  They are slaves to their investors and shareholders.  But hopefully we've learned. 

I am a firm believer in a democratic, bottoms up model of innovation.  The PC and Internet are my examples of its power and effectiveness.  So, I agree with Zittrain that this is something we need to watch.  The last thing we need is a repeat of the 70s.

MAKE --> BUG LABS

It would not be an exaggeration to say that MAKE magazine was the trigger that persuaded me to start Bug Labs.  Before I saw the first issue, I assumed that I was on my own in thinking that I wanted more control over the gadgets in my life.  MAKE changed all that.  I used it in my initial investor pitches and continue to do so.  In many ways, what Make is promoting is exactly what we aspire to here.  Give users more control over the products they use and amazing things can/will happen. 

Maker Faire is a terrific extension of the publication and gives everyone the ability to actually see, hear and feel all he excitement going on inside every issue.  If you are at all interested in hacking, crafting or just plain having fun with the gear in your life in and above what's presented in the instruction manual, I recommend attending the event!

I have been informed by my marketing department that I have the authority to give away five(5) passes for FREE admittance to Maker Faire which is taking place in San Mateo, CA this weekend!   We're offering them up to the first five people who submit their best/favorite hacks to us.   It's simple to enter.  Here's what to do:

1 - Write an email summarizing the coolest hack idea you have.
2 - Send it to bugcontest@buglabs.net.   
3 - We will contact you tomorrow if you've won!

So use your imagination and send us an email.  You could be the lucky recipient of a free pass to the coolest event in the Bay area this weekend!

StarBUG

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time out of the office giving talks and meeting with people - customers, suppliers, potential partners, investors - both listening and talking about BUG and our mission.  Somewhere along the line someone compared what we're doing to Starbucks...

They said that when they were growing up they had "plain ol' coffee" and maybe an espresso once a year or so at a restaurant.  Nothing more and everything was fine.  There was no "problem" or perceived pain with that state of affairs.  Then along came Starbucks and, bam!, they had all these choices to make.  And make them they/we did.  Some basic research turned up this, and a brief, informal survey of the baristas around here confirmed that each one needs to understand 100+ different combinations of coffee, tea, milk, soy, flavorings, quanitities, etc. (this is further suggested here).  Starbucks has catered to something we innately desire - choice and control.

Choice and control.  We all like it.  In fact, more and more we're spending our $$ with vendors who give it to us.  Witness the success of Toyota's Scion.  It was a huge draw at the latest Auto Show in NYC (just ask my son who I could not drag away).  Given the building blocks of beverage or automobile making we will take more over less every time (with some guidance for getting it right the first time).  And I think this applies to everything.  Literally.  I think ten years from now we will live in a world where today's one-size-fits-all restrictions will be unrecognizable.  Just like a Google-less world is hard to imagine now.

BUG is fundamentally about choice and control.  In our case we're focusing on electronics because we think there is a huge untapped market waiting to be explored.  Others are focusing on different areas - check out the open source footwear!

The Starbucks analogy was spot on. 

Something tells me this is normal...

Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures (an investor in Bug Labs) mentioned a NY Times article to me yesterday that is flabbergasting.  It's entitled "Another Heck of a Job" and details the $600M debacle (that's not a typo) surrounding the effort to design and build a reliable, hand held device for the 2010 census takers.  I won't go into too much detail here because Brad has posted a great piece on their blog.  The point is, it highlights the serious challenges organizations face when trying to innovate with hardware.

For me, while I shake my head at reading this stuff, I also know that this is just one that got reported.  These things are like cockroaches.  You see one, you know there are hundreds more hiding in the walls and cabinets.  That to me is the bigger disaster.  The waste is staggering.

UPDATE - I emailed Secretary Gutierrez (U.S. Secretary of Commerce) this morning offering to help with the design and construction of the necessary census device.  I'll let you know if he responds.

We're Shipping *

Mixed news today.  Our first batch is shipping out the door!  Our whole engineering, QA, production, design, and development teams all worked very hard to get to this point, and we're excited to reach this milestone.

Now for the bad news. As we've ramped up operations for shipping today we've experienced some bumps. The end result is we are not yet happy with the quality of the units we are getting off the line. Consequently, we are going through all our first shipments individually to make sure they are what they should be. Unfortunately, this holds up our original shipping schedule (we are shipping them in smaller batches as they come through production vs. all at once).

We're sorry, especially to disappoint any of our pre-ordering customers. But we honestly think you'd rather wait a little bit longer to get a better product. To thank you for your patience, we're going to upgrade all these pre-orders to have free 2-day shipping. I know it's not the same as instant gratification, but we're hoping it's not too far behind.

We're also extending the Early Adopter Discount another 30 days.  So if you've been on the fence, you get an extra month to get the discounted pricing.

Lastly, we'll be updating the Web site soon to have details of our BUG+EDU program, which we are looking forward to.

Thanks to everyone who's given us so much support to date (don't forget to say "hi" to the team at EclipseCon right now, and stop by the BUG+SV event tomorrow night).  Thanks also, in advance, for bearing with us as we get these last few tweaks in place.

Gargoyles

I am a big believer in the value of free (both beer and freedom).  And while digital goods get much of the attention, there are equally interesting things happening in the physical world.  Chris Anderson's most recent article in Wired starts with the classic example - Gillette and the "sell razor blades" approach.  The whole "get a free cell phone when you sign up for 2-yr service plan" is also good.  I'd like to throw another possibility into the mix - free gear in return for information. 

It's an idea that I first encountered over 15 years ago when I read Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".  I was reminded of it again when justin.tv became popular.  Stephenson's term was Gargoyle and it means someone who is basically a live terminal node on a network, streaming different types of real-time data into some central server 24/7.  The Gargoyle does not care who uses the data they collect, only that they get paid if someone does.  And of course they get to use the gadgets for their own purposes as well.

Why is this relevant?  Because in a world where information is king and attention is scarce, there will be a premium paid to companies/organizations that can get the right information into the right hands at the right moment. 

A Gargoyle is merely a network node in physical space.  This provides some important advantages.  One, a Gargoyle can carry sensors and detect environmental factors.  They can carry location aware technologies that provide speed, direction, altitude and attitude data.  Lastly, because Gargoyles are human they can respond to the environment in useful ways, improving the quality and quantity of data.

I don't think it's a stretch to envision a future where companies offer up free gear to Gargoyle-wannabes.  In return for the data they collect they get free gadgets.  On top of that, they can make money when their data is used in some way.  Personally, I think its inevitable.  Heck, I want to be one.  It's an interesting potential business model in support of Anderson's thoughts on "free".

Happy Anniversary Lego!

I've been inspired by Legos for as long as I can remember.   Having kids has just reinforced my attachment to them.  And just like I did, they construct the most elaborate, wacky and frankly irreproducible assemblages you can imagine.  And that, I believe, is their magic.  There is no end to what you can build and, no matter your age, we all love that.  This article does a great job of capturing the fun. 

Congratulations Lego for 50 years of reminding us all of the power of our imagination.

What About WiFi?

I wanted to take a moment to explain a couple changes that you no doubt will notice.  One, the image of the BUGbase on the homepage and product pages is about to change (here's a preview).   We are starting our shipments with a special, limited production, version of the BUGbase. We're calling it the "Hiro P Edition".  This version is slightly different from the final production version we will ship later this year.  What makes it special?  Two things (otherwise they are functionally equivalent).  First, the Hiro P user interface is based on a joystick navigation system while on the full production version it is replaced with a panel-based button system.  Second, the Hiro P BUGbases do not have built-in wifi capability.  This is the main reason we have two different BUGbase versions.  Let me explain.

In a pure, GPL, open source world, getting Wifi working is tricky.  In fact, it's almost impossible.  Not because the hardware isn't available, though getting a vendor to even talk to you as a small company is difficult, it's the software drivers.  Until recently, they simply haven't existed in a form we could use.   I won't go into all the technical reasons why (I'll leave that to the forums) but suffice to say, we couldn't get it ready in time for our first committed ship date while remaining true to our commitment to stay 100% open source.

To help address the need for Wifi in the short term we are currently designing a BUGmodule that will provide 802.11g support for the Hiro P.  We expect to have it available in the next few months and we'll be offering it to you at our production cost (plus shipping and handling).  Hopefully this will be a good way to provide wireless connectivity to your BUGbase without having to waiting for the next version.   The full production version of the BUGbase is also in development and we'll be announcing its availability in the coming weeks.  We completely understand the value of wireless connectivity and are committed to providing it and not only Wifi but many other flavors as well!

We can't wait to begin this next phase of our growth - actually getting hardware into the hands of our users and seeing what develops.  We will be active participants ourselves and look forward to discussing everything we're up to here at Bug Labs both in our forums and on this blog.  Stay tuned and please let us know what you think!  Thanks.

CES 2008 : A Week to Remember

We went to Las Vegas last week with high hopes and modest expectations.  We had some good momentum coming from the CBNC coverage (The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch - thanks guys!) that had aired the prior week, and were in the NY Times as well.  While we had scheduled numerous blogger/press briefings, our basic goal was to have some great conversations and generate a little more buzz and exposure.   What actually happened was something else entirely.   

In a nutshell, we hit a nerve at the show, fired up the imaginations of a good number of people and ended up winning CNET's Best of CES award for Emerging Technologies. Just re-reading that sentence gives me the shivers.  "We won what??" It's a little surreal.  I had always pictured that as something reserved for huge companies.  On top of that, we had a lot of coverage, from individual bloggers to large outlets, well exceeding our expectations. For a glimpse of the coverage we received click here.

When I started Bug Labs it was based on a vision where everyone had the opportunity and ability to easily build whatever gadget they could imagine.  I felt that if Home Depot could turn us all into home improvement gurus we could do the same for technology.   I expected that message to resonate with a core group of technologists and early adopters.  What I wasn't expecting was the more mainstream response we received at CES.  I was (and still am) a bit flabbergasted.  The possibility that my original vision might not be quite as geeky as I thought is disorienting - but awesome!

So why did this all happen?  I don't have a precise answer, but our superb marketing team (Jeremy Toeman and Mehrshad Mansouri) laid the foundation by making sure we were well prepared and busy talking to influential bloggers, press and others.   Our product itself was ready to go with some great applications and demos thanks to our crack hardware/software development and QA folks.  But those two things weren't what tipped the scales in our favor.   To be honest I don't know what did.  The best word I can think of to describe the result is combustion.  I think people were just ready to hear what we had to say and were excited to spread the word.  We came out of that event more excited than ever and a bit surer of our mission.  At the end of the day, people like stories (and products) that put them in the driver's seat and that's what BUG is all about.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who came by our booth and took the time to speak with us.  We value your thoughts and feedback, took a ton of notes and will hopefully count you among our customers in a few weeks when we start shipping.  I very much look forward to keeping you all informed as we head towards that moment.  Please do not refrain from jumping into the conversation.  We want to hear what you have to say!

Announcing Pricing, Availability, a New Module, and More!

It's the day before CES and all through the Labs not a creature was stirring, except for the marketing guys who are going crazy preparing for the show. 

The company has a lot to announce today, and I'll start with the topic that gets the most questions: pricing.  But, before I get there, I want to take a moment to introduce a new concept in pricing for consumer electronics devices: the Early Adopter Discount.

Just as it sounds, the BUG Early Adopter Discount is going take a shift away from tradition, and actually reward the first wave of customers with a 13% (or greater) discount on products for the first 60 days of sales.  Retail pricing for the first run of products is as follows:

• BUGbase $349 ($299 w/discount)
• LCD module $119 ($99 w/discount)
• GPS module $99 ($79 w/discount)
• Camera module $79 ($69 w/discount)
• Motion detector / Accelerometer $59 ($49 w/discount)

There will be an additional discount to customers who purchase the base plus all four modules, which we'll announce on the 21st.

In addition to the Early Adopter Discount, we are announcing a second pricing program called BUG+EDU.  BUG+EDU is actually a series of programs and promotions aimed at introducing BUG to the education market.  Different programs will be established for primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, as well as for individual students. We believe the BUG is a great platform for aspiring engineering students as well as kids who just like to tinker.  BUG+EDU will hopefully get more units into the hands of those who will really use their imagination to drive the next generation of cool gadgets.

Also important, the Bug Labs online store will be open for business starting Monday, January 21st.  At this point we will begin taking pre-orders for the BUGbase and all four BUGmodules.  We will begin fulfilling orders on or before March 17th, and will ship based on the dates the orders were originally received.  Our initial rollout will only include domestic orders, but we aim to fulfill internationally later in the year.

Lastly, because we want to encourage users to make the most of their BUG, we are pleased to announce the Von Hippel module, a new addition to the collection of BUGmodules.  Named after MIT professor and "Democratizing Innovation" author Eric Von Hippel, the Von Hippel BUGmodule adds an interface of inputs and outputs to the BUG, allowing users to "hack" their BUG even further.  Professor Von Hippel's book was a big inspiration for the foundation of Bug Labs, so having his name associated with our products is an exciting accomplishment.  Final pricing and timing for the Von Hippel BUGmodule is not yet set, but we are targeting the first quarter as well.

We are looking forward to a great 2008!

Happiness is a boy named Gavin

Last week we received a couple visitors in our NYC office.  A boy around age 12 and, what I assumed was his father.  They had come to take us up on our standing offer to drop by the office and say hello. As it turns out, the boy, named Gavin, had read about BUG in the latest issue of Popular Science.   Though reserved at first, his shyness disappeared once he got his hands on the hardware.  He smiled and laughed and asked questions.  He confessed to wanting one.

There are picture perfect moments that become instantly emblazoned in your memory.  This was one.  And, for me, it was a great way to end what has been a terrific, eventful and demanding year.   To have all our efforts result in a visit and a smile from a boy who took it upon himself to look us up simply made me feel great.   Maybe because I saw some of myself in him - a kid who wants to have fun with technology. If we can inspire that feeling in everyone who uses BUG I don't think I could ask for more. 

Here's to 2008!  Happy New Year everyone.

The Promise and Perils of Optimism

Entrepreneurs, by necessity, suffer from a type of blindness that allows them to operate in a parallel universe where risk and reality are merely annoying variables, not hard and fast certainties.  Optimism reigns supreme.  No mountain is too high to climb.  And so it was when we set off on this quest to build BUG in April 2006.   And while we suffered our share of setbacks and challenges, I never lost my sense that hard work and a bit of luck would get us to the finish line - shipping product by the end of the year as we've been promising.  The good news is, I haven't lost an iota of optimism.  We are very, very close to getting BUG out the door.  But there are some realities that we can't overlook, and we'd be remiss to ignore them.

First and foremost, we want BUG to be very reliable and durable and capable of getting really USED.  So we've been testing it in lots of different scenarios - hot, cold, dropping it, twisting it, etc. Jeremy almost tried to set one on fire.  After the first batch of testing we noticed that we could make some improvements with respect to how the modules connect to the BUGbase.  Those improvements involved adjusting the design of the plastic housing to better absorb the shock involved when the unit is dropped.  We made those changes and went through another round of testing and confirmed that our changes did the trick.  The upshot of all this activity is it pushed our ship date back.  It wasn't an easy decision to make but we pulled the trigger because it was the right thing to do.

It's never easy to break a promise.  Especially one that you've made to many others whom you know are depending on you.  So it is not without a long face that I tell you we need to postpone our ship date into the first quarter of 2008.  But I would hope that you'll agree with me that we're doing it for the right reasons.  We want you to be using your BUG for years and years.  The result is a short term loss for a longer term gain.  It's a moment where reality collides with optimism.  But thankfully it's just that, a moment.

Thanks very much for all of your support and enthusiasm over the past couple of months.  While we've always hoped and dreamed for the best, I don't think any of us expected such amazing support from so many communities so quickly. It has been a ton of fun sharing it all with you and we look forward to continuing to do it.  We ask now for a tad of patience while we make BUG the best it can be.  Rest assured we'll keep you in the loop every step of the way. Thanks and stay tuned for CES where we'll get specific with a firm ship date, pricing, and some other fun news!

Join us tonight!

Just a reminder, BUG+NY is happening tonight between 6 and 9pm at 
Verlaine, located 110 Rivington (@ Essex). This is a special BUG+ 
event for us, as it's our last gathering of 2007 and the entire Bug 
Labs team (that includes West Coast) will be there to celebrate.

Drop by, have a beer or wine (or lychee martini, or Vietnamese Bloody 
Mary...) on us, watch us do some cool things with the BUG and SDK, and 
be merry.

WHAT: BUG+NY
WHEN: Tonight between 6-9pm
WHO: Bug Labs, you
WHERE: Verlaine, Lower East Side at 110 Rivington (@ Essex)
WHY: To prove firsthand that lychees and vodka do taste good together. 
And to also see the BUG, the BUG team, etc
HOW: underground, overground, anyground

See you tonight!

Left My Heart in...

  Had a great 48 hours in San Francisco this week.  A big thank you to everyone who came by Swig to chat, see a demo, drink a beer, ask questions, and hang out.  I always learn so much by getting out and talking to everyone about what we're doing, how we're doing it and why.  I really appreciate all the comments, criticisms, suggestions, etc.  If we're ever going to make good on our notion of Community Electronics, we need to establish as many ways as possible for everyone's voice to be heard.  Our BUG+ events are just one way we're trying to do that.

Another thing we've started doing is participating in some sort of community service activity the day after a BUG+ event.  Matt blogged about how much we learned at the Pine St. Inn in Boston last month.  This time we spent the morning at the San Francisco Food Bank helping them sort and organize the huge amount of food they get donated to them every week.  One of the astonishing things they told us was that close to 150,000 people live in threat of hunger in SF.  That's almost 1 in 4 people.  We were glad we could help out and I'd encourage anyone to volunteer there.  It's easy, it's fun and makes you feel great.

Lastly, Jeremy and I had the opportunity to speak with Robert Scoble in our SF office and I went on record as saying I was the CEO of Bell Labs.  I think one of the beauties of having a cell phone video camera is you can catch people completely unrehearsed.  Needless to say, I was not "on message".  But I think that's why the videos came out so well.  Thanks Robert!

I've included Robert's link below as well as some other relevant ones you may find interesting.  Thanks again everyone.  I look forward to hanging out with you all again soon!

* http://scobleizer.com/2007/12/01/buglabsnets-really-cool-reconfigurable-gadget-in-depth/
* http://www.wynnewilliams.com/a-platform-for-hardware-hacking/
* http://jpreardon.com/2007/12/01/bug-labs/
* http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2007/12/bug-labs-is-so-cool/
* http://benjaminellis.co.uk/2007/12/01/buglabs-uber-gadget/

Disclaimer - The following links are from folks associated with Bug Labs.

* http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2007/12/scoble-digs-bug.html
* http://bijansabet.com/post/20622796
* http://www.livedigitally.com/2007/12/01/bug-labs-visits-san-francisco/

Reminder: BUG+SF tomorrow night!

In a few hours, I'll be flying out to SF for tomorrow night's BUG+SF get-together. Judging by the great response we've received so far, it looks like the Bug team is going to be very busy showing off the BUG hardware and software. So Ken Gilmer, our head software geek, will be taking a red-eye in and out of SFO to join us for what looks to be a great night of tech and camaraderie.

WHAT: See the BUG hardware and software in action, discuss tech, drink beer...

WHEN: Thursday, November 29, 6-9pm

WHERE: Swig Bar, San Francisco (Google map)

WHY: Demos are always better with a cocktail in hand

WHO: Peter, Ken, team Bug Labs SF, and you!

HOW: Walk, run, ride (horse, other), car(pool), BART, BUG+teleporter

Again, Full details can be found on our upcoming and Facebook event pages. Really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow night!

What's in a name?!

There's been some questions posted asking, in essence, "why would you name a technology product BUG!"?  I agree it's sorta counterintuitive so let me explain why we decided to do it.  There are three parts to the answer: 

Technically speaking, bugs are things that need to be fixed.  They are the proverbial moths in the mainframe.   Bugs are indicators of areas in a system that need improvement or at least attention.  Cast in that light, Bug Labs wants to be  a "bug" in the system of consumer electronics.  We want to be an agent of change and an indicator that things can, in fact, be different and, in our opinion, better for people.

Literally speaking, bugs (i.e. insects) comprise over 80% of all known species on Earth.  That's a staggering percentage.  And, upon further investigation, it becomes clear why.  Insects have adapted themselves to an enormous variety of geographic areas and environmental conditions worldwide and have thrived in the process.  So what better example could there be for the power of localized, highly personalized and customized innovation (or in this case nature's way of inventing - evolution)?  They are a perfect metaphor for what we're trying to embody as a company.

Lastly, we think it's a fun name.   And since we're trying to put some of the fun back into hardware innovation, it feels right :)

So while it may strike some as a weird name for a technology company, so far it's served us well!

Worth a Thousand Words

We launched a new version of our website tonight and for the first time we've included pictures of how the actual product looks.  It's an exciting moment because it's the culmination of close to 18 months of hard work by the awesome Bug Labs team and it's incredibly gratifying to see it all released to the public. 

It's also a slightly scary moment because now, for the first time, we get to hear what everyone thinks of our work.  But this is where the discussion really begins.  Because everything we're doing is open source, you are free to make it perfect yourself.  You want to change something?  Go right ahead.  And when you do, we're hoping you share your improvement with everyone else so we all benefit.  It's why we call our work community electronics instead of simply consumer electronics.  We, Bug Labs, don't own the keys to your satisfaction, you do.  And this, in our humble opinion, is how it should be. 

Please let us know what you think!

Here's some of the discussion so far:

Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, CrunchGear, Popular Science, MAKE

BUG <3 Boston

Tuesday, after I spoke at the Mass Customization and Personalization conference in the Stata Building at MIT, we hosted our BUG+Boston event and had a great time.   It's no surprise that when you throw a party in a town with so many great schools you get a lot of really smart people.  I had some terrific conversations.   Also got a lot of great input and feedback on BUG and what we're up to.  Thanks to everyone for coming.  We've posted a bunch of pictures here.  And thanks to all the bloggers who covered it!  Here are a few links:

http://danbricklin.com/log/

http://www.xconomy.com/2007/10/10/bug-labs-the-open-source-hardware-store/

http://weblog.masukomi.org/2007/10/10/a-night-with-bug-labs

http://www.nonstationary.com/2007/10/10/bug-labs-boston-meetup/

http://sabet.typepad.com/bijanblog/2007/10/bug-labs-meet-1.html [Full disclosure: Bijan/Spark Capital are investors]

We also put up on our website the latest renderings of what the BUG will actually look like.  We've gotten interesting feedback!  Some like the design, some aren't so sure, which I think is great.  To be clear, it's not an iPhone nor a Curve.  It has it's own personality.  It's more "Jack Bauer" than "Giorgio Armani" ;)

The Costs of Closed

Discussions regarding how to make money with an open source business model pop up with increasing regularity and that's good because it's a topic that needs debate.  But I would bet that we're going to see more and more articles like this one, that basically start to point out the real costs of being a "closed source" business model.  If your users are sophisticated enough to hack your product to get what they're looking for, is it more economic to just design it so they can get it easily or to continually try to fend them off with counter measures?  I personally think the answer is obvious.  Just look at the state of the music biz.  Users will get what they want one way or another.  The advantages of being open outweigh the costs of being closed.

UPDATE - another good article.

Beta Testers Selected - Wave One

We took a big step forward today.  We selected our first wave of 50 beta testers and I couldn't be more excited.  Thanks(!) to everyone for taking the time to apply for a slot.  We were blown away by the quality of the submissions.  If you were not chosen for this wave please don't lose patience.  The beta test program will continue to grow each month.  So just because you were not selected this time does not mean there isn't room for you.   We just need to do it in stages.

Personally, this is a moment I've anticipated now for over a year.  It's enormously gratifying to see all the hard work finally reaching a stage where we can share it and get your insights  We take this beta program very seriously.  Our beta testers are really an extension of our development team and their input is invaluable.   As such, the whole company (including me) will be actively involved and interested in the discussions.

Congratulations to the first wave of testers.  We're really looking forward to getting to know you, hearing your feedback, and building this vision of community electronics together.

The BradBug

Brad Burnham of Union Square Ventures (an investor in Bug Labs) has a great post on their blog about BUG and the device he would like to build.  It's interesting because it provides the narrative behind his motivations for wanting it.  Stories are a great way to understand how/why new gadgets get invented.

Big Win - Golan v. Gonzales

This is a big step in the right direction.  The whole copyright and patent process in this country is in dire need of revision.  But the process is so daunting that I was beginning to lose hope that we had the ability to address it.  This case, described very well by Prof. Larry Lessig here, is a great confidence booster.  Lessig's awesome book, Free Culture, is a good primer on the whole subject too.  It's a shame the copyright issue is wrapped up in such legalese.  I'm convinced that if more people just understood the basic freedoms that were at stake we'd all be making much more noise about it.

Pizza Tail

Last year, Eric Chan, our lead designer, came up with this diagram (left) to help visualize what the market opportunity was for Bug Labs.  We loved it so much it's now part of almost any discussion we have on the topic.  While I didn't realize it at the time, it's really a reinterpretation of Chris Anderson's Long Tail graph.  But being New Yorkers we were more comfortable with it looking like a pizza.

What does it depict?  What sort of things are actually in that shaded area?  Basically, it's everything you can't buy in your neighborhood BestBuy, Circuit City or Radio Shack.  It's all the devices that have never been built because the potential market can not be measured in hundreds of thousands or millions.  It's all the devices that currently cost thousands of dollars because their target market is so small (or choice is limited, e.g. medical, education, government).  It's all the devices that are over-priced because they're built on closed, proprietary architectures.  In essence, it's pure potential.

I admit that this diagram is (shamelessly) self-serving in that it equates ALL the shaded area to BUG but of course that's not the case.  All sorts of companies, organizations and individuals will (and do) live in that area.  The whole DIY movement resides there and we are proud to consider ourselves part of it.  And it's growing!  Eric Von Hippel, whose book "Democratizing Innovation", which I can't recommend highly enough, gives a terrific interview on the BBC where he discusses his thoughts on it all.

Home Depot became what it is now ($81 billion in sales - yes, that's billions) by actually living its tag line "You can do it.  We can help", everyday.  In essence, HD is a platform for home improvement.  And platforms are great because they have such huge leverage.  People can use them to do all sorts of things.  I love the HD tag line (and their stores) because it represents what I believe is an attitude that is filtering into all walks of life.  DIY, which for many years has been caged in what feels like an old-fashioned, homespun aura, is reemerging as a true democratic movement.  Power to the people is sounding tres chic. 

+Thanks!

Our Bug+Bar+NYC event was last night and I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who came.  I tried to work the room and say hello to all the attendees but if I missed you I apologize.  It was a big crowd - 50?, 80? - and everyone there had great things to say.  I really appreciated all the encouragement and cool ideas that came out of the discussions.  And while the free beer was definitely a draw I think I can safely say that wasn't the reason everyone came :)  I've uploaded a bunch of the pictures we took last night here.

As Jeremy mentioned in his earlier post, this was our kick off event for a series of Bug+(BLANK) get- togethers we will be holding around the country in the coming months.  Stay tuned to this blog to see where our next ones are.  Hopefully we'll be coming to a city/campus near you.

Thanks again everyone for attending.  It's a great start!

Greetings from Bug Labs

We're out of the gate.  The decision to start talking publicly about what we're up to here at Bug Labs was a little hairy.  Are we starting too early?  Too late?  Ultimately, we chose to just start the conversation and let the story unfold.  To that end, Jeremy Toeman (my head of marketing) and I had dinner last night in San Francisco with some well-respected thought leaders in high tech - Dave Winer, Ryan Block, Robert Scoble and Jerry Michalski.   Dave posted about it already (twice!) and sums it up nicely.  Update:  Robert Scoble has posted here (thanks).

I wanted to take a moment to share a bit about the Bug Labs vision.  For us, the consumer electronics industry is due for a change.

Consumer electronics products come to market today in a way that has not changed in decades.  Companies employ smart people who try to divine what the majority of their target customers will want to buy, fund massive market research programs, build expensive production lines, execute huge marketing campaigns and the majority of the time fail to achieve their objectives (see "Innovator's Solution", Christensen, "The Change Function", Coburn).

On Monday, NY Times reporter G. Pascal Zachary wrote an article that succinctly points out where this trend originated - "There is an unbroken line between Henry Ford (with his Model T) and Steve Jobs. The new iPhone similarly reflects the elite, corporate innovator's drive to find one size that fits many."  It's an expensive, wasteful model for everyone involved - producers, suppliers, customers and last but not least, the environment.

We see ourselves, our company and our product as a "bug" in the system of traditional CE; an agent for change.  We want to put more power in the hands of the individual to decide what gadgets they want and what features they should include.  We envision a world where CE stands for community electronics, where the long-tail of devices profitably exists and hardware mashups are as prevalent as their software counterparts.

So what is BUG exactly?  It's Legos meets Web services & APIs.  Imagine being able to build any gadget  you wanted by simply connecting simple, functional components together.  Now imagine being able to easily program, share and connect these gadgets in interesting ways.  In essence, we're building an open source-based platform for programmers to build not only the applications they want but the hardware to run it on.  Over the coming weeks and months I will update this blog with our latest progress.  And while I used wooden blocks at the dinner last night (easier to get thru airport security!) I will show pictures of the actual products soon.

We expect an interesting, windy road ahead.  I look forward to sharing the journey and would love to hear any/all thoughts on what we're up to.

Peter

Hybrid Engineering

What if you could build the software and the device to run it all at the same time?  What would that do to your imagination?  Right now, when you want to write an application, chances are good you have the device configuration already established.  But what if you had the opportunity to design the target device and its capabilities at the same time.  Sounds a little chicken-and-egg but my feeling is that, if it were possible, we could start seeing a new type of engineer, a hybrid software/hardware engineer, that could design new categories of applications quickly.

Artists and Geeks

I'm waiting - and have been for over ten years - for the arrival of an art form that is truly net native.  I don't mean something "virtual".  And I'm not talking about collaborative story-telling and memes of that ilk.  In fact, I don't really know what I mean, which is exactly the point.  My frames of reference are all old and worn out.

I'd rate the Internet up there with paint in terms of its importance to the art world.  Yet there has emerged neither prominent artist nor movement that one could identify as clearly "of the net".  There is no Internet Andy Warhol.  I find this surprising and somewhat frustrating.  Pick up any art magazine and you'd swear that you were still in the 1980s.  In fact Julian Schnabel is still making headlines - a certain indicator that we're in desperate need of something new. 

Part of the problem has been computers which are, in effect, a complicated and intimidating barrier to entry.  Sure, iMovie, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. are easy enough but to do anything truly creative on a computer you need to learn how to program; an effort distinctly lacking in appeal for most artists.  And for good reason.  It's arcane, fussy and unforgiving.  Not things that normally inspire great creativity.

Don't get me wrong.  The best coders I have ever known are all extremely creative.   And the best artists are all technical masters.  It's just when you approach the intersection of high tech and art you encounter an unmoving traffic jam because no one is building bridges between the two worlds.  Again, I find this surprising.

To me, the Internet is a vast frontier of artistic opportunity that is still completely unexplored.  It will take coders and poets, hackers and musicians, right brain and left to craft a way forward.  For the first time, I actually feel like we're approaching a place where it could happen.  With computing power, storage, bandwidth, web services and other previously inscrutable technologies now fading into the background, becoming normal, I believe there is finally the foundation to build the necessary tools; interfaces to the Net that do not resemble computers - don't resemble, in fact, anything we've seen before.

Jonathan Schwartz gets it right

This is the best response I've read to Microsoft's latest saber rattling over patents - from Sun's Jonathan Schwartz.

Microsoft blinks

Lots being said about this Fortune article regarding Microsoft taking the gloves off in its battle with FOSS.  But who exactly is the enemy?  It looks like it's their own customers. 

I'm no history expert, but to draw a gross analogy, it would seem that when governments start to treat their citizens as the enemy it doesn't take too long before a revolution erupts.

And revolutions are funny things.  They bring out the best in people with the most to gain and the absolute worst in those with everything to lose.  I truly hope the battle is never seriously joined.  It's not hard to imagine a Patent Dark Ages, which would be a disaster for everyone, especially customers. 

Death of Proprietary Culture

The title is a snippet of the article entitled "Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture" by Eben Moglen.  I highlight the second half of the title because I believe we tend to overlook the fact that the whole spirit of open source extends far beyond Linux, the GPL, and all the other software applications and activities.  It's really more about information where ever it is and how no one has the right to restrict access to it.  It's a huge message.  Read the article and I think you'll be enlightened - as I definitely was.

Customers will threaten every Producer

It's only a matter of time before you see headlines like this for virtually every product category - digital and physical - User-Generated Content Is Top Threat to Media and Entertainment Industry, Accenture Survey Finds

Einstein was a Rebel

I love finding mainstream coverage of trends that are near and dear to my heart.  Wired Magazine has a great article on Einstein in it's latest issue - "The World Needs More Rebels Like Einstein".  It argues that one of the reasons he discovered things that others missed is because he was a rebel and not constrained by the scientific dogma of the time.  "Imagination is more important than knowledge" goes his famous quote.  I couldn't agree more.

CE is FUBAR

FUBAR

This today from everyone's favorite critic, John Dvorak - Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone

But I'm not writing to comment on the major topic of the article.  I want to point to a specific paragraph that everyone will recognize as an absolute truth of consumer electronics (bolding is my own).

The problem here is that while Apple can play the fashion game as well as any company, there is no evidence that it can play it fast enough. These phones go in and out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.

So what's wrong with this?  On the one hand, nothing; style and fashion are fine and normal.  But the costs of this model are enormous.  I'll break them down into three sections.

1 - High costs for producers - this is obvious but bears spelling out.  When your company's survival depends on churning out (and supporting!) tens if not hundreds of different product lines each year it becomes difficult to reap any of the benefits that come from real economies of scale.  Every product line becomes an island (more like a sinking ship really) that is constructed, promoted (maybe) and set free into the world only to be forgotten about in the span of months by everyone, including the producer.

2- High costs for consumers - this may not be as obvious but it's deeply and insidiously true.  You may get a cheap device based on the initial purchase price but it's not cheap for long.  Add up the time you spend struggling with it's shoddy design, getting it to work with other devices, backing it up, etc etc and the result may surprise you.  Another price we pay for high style is planned obsolescene.  I don't know how many cell phones, MP3 players, portable video gadgets and/or gaming devices you have in your house but if you're anything like me you have a bunch.  How many do you actually use?  How about power adapters?  You see my point?  The expense is not the initial purchase.  It's the burden over time that this approach heaps upon us all.

3 - High cost to the environment - if you agree that we all have lots of gadgets lying around unused I would bet that a big reason is you can't get yourself to chuck them.  Why?  Because we all know how much crap is in them and don't want it to end up in a land fill somewhere.  Luckily this is changing and it's getting easier to dispose of our electronics but you can't tell me that the >1 billion cell phones sold each year are being safely recycled.   So where does all the heavy metal and other toxic stuff in these devices end up?  You guessed it.  Who pays for that?  We all do.  Or maybe our kids or grandkids.  Click here for an interesting article on the subject.

What's a potential solution?  I think we can take a cue from this article in the NY Times titled "How to Improve it?  Ask those who use it".  It discusses a trend that is in it's infancy but will completely transform what we, as customers, expect/demand from our vendors; namely a much bigger, if not total, say in what gets made, when, where and how.  We may actually ditch the notion of "vendor" entirely and just make everything ourselves.  Especially if Niel Gerhenfeld has his way.  The point being, we've seen enormous shifts of control from producer to consumer in the digital world (just think Tivo).  We're going to see it happen in every facet of our lives - including CE.

We Are All Applications

What is a database but a resting place, however temporary, for bytes (being an arbitrary unit of measure) of data waiting to be consumed by some application.  It is useless otherwise.  But in essence, isn't the real world just a database?  Everywhere is information waiting for consumption.  Our senses are applications that consume data.  Our bodies themselves consume data (all living things do).  Evolution itself could be seen as versions of applications responding to changes in the Earth's database.  What I'm trying to say is, there must be some interesting way to make use of this fact. 

There is data everywhere. We are all applications.  Why don't we build better bridges between ourselves so that we can better share our data?  Right now, as I sit here, the application known as Peter is consuming data. Is this info of interest to anybody else?  Depending on one's knowledge, care and/or use for me personally you could probably draw concentric rings eminating from me that demonstrate levels of interest.  But that interest quickly tails off.  My data becomes interesting only insofar as it describes environmental or other sensory inputs (this may not be strictly true - my editorial input may have value - e.g. The temp is 70 but that's unusual for this time of year). What's the barometric pressure at my lat/lon, etc.  Do I see the Golden Gate bridge from where I stand? Is there a line at the Starbucks where I am sitting?  If I go out of my way to post this data, would someone be interested in it (Flickr is a great data point)?  If everyone posted random bits of data what would that truly provide?  Useful information or meaningless noise? 

Perhaps the Long Tail concept applies.  It rapidly becomes a problem of search and categorization to make sense of it all, but maybe Google could help.  Maybe it's self organizing. People are drawn to the info they're interested in and post the same.  Who would take the time to make inputs?  It's a social networking question but my bet is there could be a healthy quid pro quo.  At least from a core initial group.

There are probably good existing analogs. Spies, for instance, make it their job to constantly input data.  The unbelievably prescient book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson imagined individuals called Gargoyles whose business it was to ceasely collect any/all information in their immediate vicinity.  The latest incarnation is justin.tv.  If the value to the greater good could be easily demonstrated, who knows?  There may even be an economic model that could support it.  I become a data source, a streamer, that people can rely on, subscribe to (RSS).  I could be a specialist on parking spots at 76 and Amsterdam.

Perhaps even more interesting is what if I have hyper sensory inputs from other devices that I can assimilate into the Peter app?  For example, maybe I have a geiger counter with me that I can use to stream radioactive data.

In this model, every person becomes a node in a vast, distributed application running off the database known as real life. And like other distributed apps, all nodes become more powerful and resilient as their connectivity increases.  Through sharing, the community grows, its resources increase, its efficiency improves. Pretty cool.

 

"Revolutionary Spirit"

In the February 19, 1996 issue of Newsweek Steve Wozniak is quoted as saying:

" Our first computers were born not out of greed or ego but in the revolutionary spirit of helping common people rise above the most powerful institutions"

Great stuff.  And who were those "most powerful institutions"?  They were the mainframe and mini-computers vendors of the day - IBM, HP, Digital, Prime, Wang, Data General, Control Data, etc.  Most people don't remember those days too well because the micro-computer (or PC as it came to be known) has insinuated itself into just about every part of our lives.  And in the same way, it's hard to imagine a world bereft of all the innovation the PC-revolution sparked.  For example, can you really remember a world without spreadsheet applications or the browser?  All of which points to something I think about all the time.  Ten years from now, what will we look back on and say "how on Earth could we have lived without...[fill in appropriate invention here]"?  Revolutionary possibilities are all around us.  There are many "powerful institutions" that are holding up innovation.  The key is finding those most vulnerable and then doing something about it.  I think the spirit Wozniak describes is alive and well and there are plenty more revolutions to be had.

Ain't Democracy Grand

This blog is not about politics.  It is, in part, about the benefits of putting power in the hands of people to decide things for themselves.  This link with the slightly misleading title "Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney" is a terrific example.  Where else on Earth could this happen but here?  I almost wrote - what other country on Earth would allow... - and then caught myself.  In America we are not ALLOWED our freedoms.  They are ours from birth.  We, the people, allow the government to administer the country.  Democracy is bottom up.  There are so many things in life where we've been trained to believe that certain things are "allowed" us when in reality the power is all ours to begin with.  Anyone who's ever gardened knows what I'm talking about.  "You mean I'm not just stuck with the crap I can buy at the supermarket??"  We've just been brainwashed.  The power to take control of things in your life is yours (to take :)).  And it's addictive.

Sony Goes Open Source

I bought a Sony Bravia LCD television last week and finally got around to looking at some of the paperwork that came with it.  One document caught my eye because it looked like a lot of fine print.  When I unfolded it and checked out the title I was stunned.  The title read "Required Public Statement for GPL/LGPL Licensed Software Used in This Television".  My curiosity piqued I continued to read.  Turns out Sony uses the following GPL executables in this TV:
- Monta Vista Linux Kernel
- busybox
- insmod

...and these LGPL libraries:
- libuClibc.so
- ld.so
- libc.so
- libm.so
- libpthread.so
- libgcc_s.so
- libstdc++.so

Source code for all the above is available at www.sony.com/linux (a link that right now, is not loading...)

The fact that Sony uses Linux surprised me.  Maybe it shouldn't, I don't know.  But it seems strange that the master of closed architectures is dipping into the OSS pool.  Are they giving back?  From the  looks of it they're not really touting their participation nor do I recall ever seeing their contributions mentioned anywhere.  The document was "required".  There is no indication anywhere in the doc regarding what they're doing with Linux or how it works.

I can't put my finger on exactly why this bugs me, but somehow it does.

Apple Tempts the Fates

You have to love a company that is so full sure of itself that it can get up in public and say something like this:

"If we offer something that has tremendous value, that is sort of this thing people didn't have in their consciousness -- it was not imaginable -- then I think there's a whole bunch of people that will pay $499, $599.''

From the Bloomberg article here.

Not in my conciousness?  Not imaginable?  It's a cell phone for God's sake.  Sure, it's got some cool features but don't try to tell me it won't live or die based on it's success at doing one thing - making phone calls.  That's all people really want.  Forget the other fluff.  If it can't do that one thing well, game over.

Is it inevitable that market power translates into unbearable hubris?  Or is it really just a reflection of who's running the show?  Personally I think it's the latter.  Quick, who's the CEO of Proctor & Gamble?  Of course you have no idea.  Forget the fact that P&R have immense market power.  They're a little more humble. 

Apple has come a long way over the past few years, cheered on by the weary, MS-oppressed masses (including me).  They used to be the radicals.  But now, their autocratic attitude is starting to feel very un-Apple.  Like Google, it they're not careful, they'll lose the prestige they've always enjoyed as the underdog.

Action at the Edge

Umair Haque writes for an awesome blog called Bubblegeneration.   I am a huge believer in bottom-up thinking/acting and am in violent agreement with Umair's line of reasoning.  In essence, he believes that in order to compete effectively in today's markets, you need to capture and leverage all the activity that's happening with your product/service out on the edges, in the field, where users really make it their own.  Top down approaches where the uber-corporation knows best are obsolete and suffer, as a result, from what he calls "strategy decay" and he lists many examples.  Here's a quote from a recent post called " Core vs Edge, Pt 18849" (no permalink available - come'on Umair!) that captures what I'm talking about.

What happens at the intersection of global hypercompetition, maturity, and shifting consumer needs?

If you're pursuing a core strategy, you consolidate.

Of course, this is a strategy which is utterly out of sync with exactly the economic pressures listed above in the first place. It's a strategy which dominates the industrial economics of scale and scope in mass production.

What Detroit needs are edge strategies, focused around deconstructing value chains, achieving hyperefficiency (vs simple cost-sharing), and shifting control to customers.

Think how the most simple shift to decentralization - kaizen - revolutionized autos in the 80s/90s.

Eric von Hippel also has a web site that provides great analysis on how individual consumers can (and do) radically change the basis of competition and turn upside down our normal thinking on how products can/should come to market.  You'll never equate DIY with home improvement and handymen ever again.

I highly recommend reading everything these guys write if you're at all interested in how and why market power is moving inexorably into the hands of the customer.

ARRL - Power to the People

I got my ham radio license a few years ago (KC2JZR) and was surprised to find myself joining a network of over 3 million people worldwide (700,000 in the U.S. alone). I got my license because I am a geek. But what really piqued my interest was the organization that supported me - the ARRL. The American Radio Relay League is the voice of Amateur Radio (or ham radio operators, "hams"). This not-for-profit group represents a fascinating hybrid of DIY energy and enthusiasm working effectively with big government, in this case the FCC. Here's a snip from their website:

Today ARRL, with approximately 152,000 members, is the largest organization of radio amateurs in the United States. The ARRL is a not-for-profit organization that:
• promotes interest in Amateur Radio communications and experimentation
• represents US radio amateurs in legislative matters, and
• maintains fraternalism and a high standard of conduct among Amateur Radio operators.

And this isn't some little outfit running on a shoestring budget:

At ARRL headquarters in the Hartford suburb of Newington, a staff of 120 helps serve the needs of members. ARRL is also International Secretariat for the International Amateur Radio Union, which is made up of similar societies in 150 countries around the world.

If you visit the FCC's website and look up Amateur Radio you find a whole section on it. The hams of the world get serious respect. This is from the FCC web site regarding the role of Amateur Radio:

• Promotion and enhancement of the Amateur Radio Service as a voluntary noncommercial public communications service.
• Continual advancement of the art of radio communication.
• Expansion of the reservoir of trained radio operators and electronic experts.
• Enhancement of international goodwill at the grass roots level.

This is a stunning example of not just the power of these "amateurs" but how the U.S. government has encouraged, accommodated and cooperated with the public in ways that most people don't appreciate or even know about. But it's easy to find out more. Just check this out.  I can't think of any other national, volunteer organization that has such systematic impact on things so important.

There is a critical issue facing us today, especially in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Katrina disaster in NOLA. How much are we going to rely on government to take care of us and how much are we going to do ourselves? Thomas Paine said in "Common Sense" that "Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness", and all too often over the past few days I've been feeling that distinction. My confidence in government to do the "right thing" is at an all time low. I know I'm not alone. The digitally enabled masses are speaking up via blogs, SMS, forums, etc. and big media is paying attention, alerting the public at large of the discussion. All this is a good start. But it's only that.

One of my themes on this blog is the power of DIY, not just as a way to build things, but as a way to view the world, as a way to live. In a way, if you had to categorize it, it's sort of libertarian. But it's really more about control - over your life, over your world. In ceding all control over our safety to the government we are, in effect, forfeiting a huge chunk of our freedom. We expose ourselves to all sorts of potential problems - big ones. So what do we do? I find the existence of the ARRL enormously encouraging. Clearly, the public at large can not just shoulder the burden of public safety, but I do think that technology, designed creatively, distributed economically, and used cooperatively with government can, and absolutely should, play a key role in helping all of us sleep better at night. The ARRL is a perfect example of this. I anticipate much more discussion in the coming months and years as we try to deconstruct what happened in NOLA. I'm hoping the ARRL gets the credit they deserve but more importantly, I hope that it inspires our leaders to issue a call to arms. All of us need to take more responsibility for our own, as well as our communities' safety. And I strongly believe technology can play a crucial role.

I got my ham radio license a few years ago (KC2JZR) and was surprised to find myself joining a network of over 3 million people worldwide (700,000 in the U.S. alone). I got my license because I am a geek. But what really piqued my interest was the organization that supported me - the ARRL. The American Radio Relay League is the voice of Amateur Radio (or ham radio operators, "hams"). This not-for-profit group represents a fascinating hybrid of DIY energy and enthusiasm working effectively with big government, in this case the FCC. Here's a snip from their website:

Today ARRL, with approximately 152,000 members, is the largest organization of radio amateurs in the United States. The ARRL is a not-for-profit organization that:
• promotes interest in Amateur Radio communications and experimentation
• represents US radio amateurs in legislative matters, and
• maintains fraternalism and a high standard of conduct among Amateur Radio operators.

And this isn't some little outfit running on a shoestring budget:

At ARRL headquarters in the Hartford suburb of Newington, a staff of 120 helps serve the needs of members. ARRL is also International Secretariat for the International Amateur Radio Union, which is made up of similar societies in 150 countries around the world.

If you visit the FCC's website and look up Amateur Radio you find a whole section on it. The hams of the world get serious respect. This is from the FCC web site regarding the role of Amateur Radio:

• Promotion and enhancement of the Amateur Radio Service as a voluntary noncommercial public communications service.
• Continual advancement of the art of radio communication.
• Expansion of the reservoir of trained radio operators and electronic experts.
• Enhancement of international goodwill at the grass roots level.

This is a stunning example of not just the power of these "amateurs" but how the U.S. government has encouraged, accommodated and cooperated with the public in ways that most people don't appreciate or even know about. But it's easy to find out more. Just check this out.  I can't think of any other national, volunteer organization that has such systematic impact on things so important.

There is a critical issue facing us today, especially in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Katrina disaster in NOLA. How much are we going to rely on government to take care of us and how much are we going to do ourselves? Thomas Paine said in "Common Sense" that "Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness", and all too often over the past few days I've been feeling that distinction. My confidence in government to do the "right thing" is at an all time low. I know I'm not alone. The digitally enabled masses are speaking up via blogs, SMS, forums, etc. and big media is paying attention, alerting the public at large of the discussion. All this is a good start. But it's only that.

One of my themes on this blog is the power of DIY, not just as a way to build things, but as a way to view the world, as a way to live. In a way, if you had to categorize it, it's sort of libertarian. But it's really more about control - over your life, over your world. In ceding all control over our safety to the government we are, in effect, forfeiting a huge chunk of our freedom. We expose ourselves to all sorts of potential problems - big ones. So what do we do? I find the existence of the ARRL enormously encouraging. Clearly, the public at large can not just shoulder the burden of public safety, but I do think that technology, designed creatively, distributed economically, and used cooperatively with government can, and absolutely should, play a key role in helping all of us sleep better at night. The ARRL is a perfect example of this. I anticipate much more discussion in the coming months and years as we try to deconstruct what happened in NOLA. I'm hoping the ARRL gets the credit they deserve but more importantly, I hope that it inspires our leaders to issue a call to arms. All of us need to take more responsibility for our own, as well as our communities' safety. And I strongly believe technology can play a crucial role.

Hyper-Awareness

How do you experience the world? Through your senses. Your senses are your interface, your inputs. From there your brain produces understanding and response. But in a world that is increasingly connected, quantitatively and qualitatively, via computer and Internet, are our five senses enough? Our sphere of potential control has exploded. But control requires i/o. In a world where inputs are local this is not an issue, your senses work fine. However, when the inputs are remote what do you do? Instant messaging is a remote sensor. It senses input (presence) and delivers it to you over a network. Once received, your brain then knows what to do with it and can consider an output. But this is a rudimentary example. Think of your world, not locally, but globally. What does it include? How much is out of your reach right now. All of it, except what is directly around you...OR to which you are remotely connected somehow. That is what's new. Think about the information that you could connect to if you could but extend your senses. Maybe you could invent new ones to boot. Here's an example. You're in a traffic jam on the highway. The other side is flying along. You want to know if you should exit right away and try an alternate route but not if the jam you're in is short. But how can you tell? The radio says nothing. You know of no online service that could tell you. The answer is the drivers in the other lanes. They just drove past the line of traffic you're in and could easily tell you if it was a long one. But how do you reach them? How do you leverage other people's senses?! Think of the collective power of that. Certainly work is being done with cell phones and SMS. But it is still peer-to-peer. There are other opportunities to leverage sensors that are not human but "machine", placed by either you and/or others. The point is you start to utilize and consume virtual "senses". Does that mean you can expand YOU? If you embed these remote sensory organs into your perception, your hyper-perception, does that create a virtual octopus out of you? If you start to think/imagine that you can get answers to remote sensory questions, the way you perceive, control and respond to your world changes radically.

 

 

Object Sentences

I love language and have always been fascinated by its mechanics - how the assembly of words in a sequence can either convey meaning or sow confusion. Given my interest in the value of splitting structure (grammar/syntax) and content (words), language has been a potent catalyst. When I was younger, one of the questions I turned over in my head all the time was - why can't there be a language in which it was impossible to speak nonsense - meaning a language where ANY combination of words made sense somehow. It's a wacky question but points, I think, to an important strength of every successful language - it's incredible flexibility. Without the ability to write nonsense, nothing new could be done. Our idea of nonsense is subjective. The poetry of e.e. cummings would have likely been viewed as complete garbage 200 years ago. Or how about a computer program?? But the other thing that fascinates (inspires) me is that even though the interface between words is formally defined as grammar, it is also totally open, meaning those rules are really only a guide. Poetry routinely flouts the rules to great effect. If I know the words of more than one language the options for sentence construction increase, as long as the reader understands the languages used and doesn't mind dealing with no formal grammatical structure. Words, like atoms, seem capable of infinite types of combinations, but gain particular value when used with a logical grammar (e.g. Shakespeare or Hemingway). All of the above, by the way, is equally true of music.

Lately I have been puzzling over creating what in essence is a grammar for the construction of not word sentences but "object sentences". Is there a formal way to define how objects should/could go together to create a useful thing or "sentence"? Sounds crazy because maybe it is. But consider electronics, which for the purposes of this argument I will equate to a language - meaning it is contained and its moving pieces defined. At a very high level every device, gadget and gizmo is identical - power supply, processor(s), i/o devices. Mix them up in lots of different ways and you get everything from a digital watch, to an iPod, to an IBM mainframe; like the words of a sentence. Take vehicles of any kind - the same high level analysis produces the same result - all vehicles are identical. So what? My point is that, at least in some cases, there is a starting baseline of components (words) for the construction of certain categories of product. If you could elegantly define the interfaces between these basic categories perhaps you could start to generalize and identify an interface "grammar", at least for that "language". Would love to see that someday.