The value of open hardware is in the empowerment of communities

There's something big happening right now at the intersection of open hardware and the Maker movement -- critical mass is being reached.  Chris Anderson famously termed it the next Industrial Revolution, but back in early 2010 detractors could still downplay its significance. In the mean time, the barriers to entry for building new products have been dropping at a frantic pace, opening up the market and recasting less technical newcomers as Makers. Designers, architects, artists, and activists can now build nearly anything they can dream up on top of the open platforms that are cropping up like weeds.  Not only that, they can also build them at low volumes, cheaply and quickly, tapping into the "billion little entrepreneurial opportunities that can be discovered and exploited by smart, creative people." (Cory Doctorow)


This accelerated pace of innovation is also completely redefining cost structures and time-to-market in the realm of connected devices and the Internet of Things. Take, for example, a project driven by Pachube community member Ken Boak called the Nanode.  This Arduino-compatible board includes an ethernet controller, a full TCP/IP DHCP stack, and over-the-air firmware updates for a total of $35 in kit form.  At volume in the ten thousands, Ken can get an assembled board down to $12. 


A Nanode may very well encompass 95% of the hardware/software stack of the next killer connected product.  For $12. That's truly REDEFINITION, not just optimization!

However, translating the impact of this movement simply into being able to build stuff faster and cheaper is actually missing the boat completely.  There's an opportunity here to blow away the old model with something  completely new -- a different way to think about where the value is in a piece of hardware. Think about open source platforms instead as something that can be inexpensively/quickly leveraged to gain an audience, build a community, and drive engagement online (I'm mashing up Chris Anderson, Seth Godin, and Fred Wilson here).  This is really what it looks like when the Internet gets infused into "Things".



Take, for example, the global community that coalesced around radiation data in reaction to Fukushima, driven by Arduino-powered Geiger counters.  Or a community of NYC citizens concerned about sewage overflow into the Harbor.  We've even seen a Canadian chili-enthusiast who wants to build connections with farmers in India, the tip of the iceberg for an Internet of Things gardening movement.  That's right: social connected gardening, it's the future. 


So, consider a connected device as catalyst for building an engaged community but also as a generator of open data.  Open data makes a lone Arduino or Nanode infinitely useful to all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons.  The data coming out of a custom device sensing its environment can be used, analyzed, and mashed-up by communities for which it may never have been intended. It can drive all kinds of disparate conversation, learning, and activism. 


Open hardware + open data = communities of infinite diversity. This is the opportunity for developers and Makers that are building the next generation of devices and services.  So, when we talk about value chains, business models, and monetization in the Internet of Things, this is really where we have to start. Our focus needs to be on how we can leverage open hardware to build these communities -- the rest inevitably follows.


There's more to discuss here, so come talk to us during the Open Hardware Summit cocktail hour, the Maker Faire this weekend at the WickedDevice booth, or show up at the Internet of Things NYC Meetup on October 6th!