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Limor Fried talks about open source physical objects. Open Source Physical Objects: Limor Fried and her x0xb0x Synthesizer - a conversation between hacker/artist Limor Fried ("Lady Ada") and Joi Ito with Phil Torrone of Make Magazine. Fried talks about her popular x0xb0x synthesizer kits, and the increasing elaborate revisioning of the product that's coming from her users. With Ito and Torrone, she proposes that this is a promising model for "open source physical objects" - extending the permitted hackability of software to hardware. This is an interview from South by Southwest: Interactive, in March 2006; the camera was held by Merci Hammon, the editor was Justin Hall, and Joi Ito was the executive producer - this is part of a series of videos released online from that event under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. Limor Fried's website. Smell the winds of change Jason Calacanis seems to be somewhat serious about building an MP3 player. Dave's been talking for a long time about how it's easier for a blogger to become a manufacturer than the reverse (or something like that). Pretty exciting to think about, isn't it? Could be nothing less than revolution. If you think the publishing and entertainment sectors are reeling from citizens in charge, just wait until the big manufacturers realize that you or I could approach that factory in China almost as easily as they can. Maybe the little guy wouldn't be able to play the game exactly like a name brand can, with large initial orders, but games can change, and old ways of doing business can be shaken up in China, too. It'll be fun to see how the big manufacturers scramble and defend to protect their turf and preserve established modes of trade. Serves them right, when you think about it and compare the situation to the music business. Going offshore to make goods eliminated a big barrier to entry, just like digitizing audio made everybody a potential producer. If leaner, more nimble business people get into the act of making consumer goods, maybe they can figure out a way to make it pay to bring some parts of the manufacturing process back to the U.S. Even setting aside the question of jobs, I get worried for the economy long term when most of the things we create are intangible, or worse, when another ethereal step is introduced and income is created from markets speculating on intangibles. |
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