Open Source Hardware

I read a very interesting article today that I want to share with you. It's about the evolution of design and manufacturing in electronics hardware. You can find the article on Wired - Build It. Share It. Profit. Based on the success of software's Open Source movement, the author inquires about the feasibility of a profitable Open Source Hardware (OSH) market. There are reader comments at the end of the article that contain some pretty cool resources/links to examples where this trend in OS Hardware is already transforming other industries. This evolution is blurring the line between patented (protected for profit) technologies and hardware designs that are free for anyone to use and replicate pretty much however they require to fit their application.
The author poses a good question of "how can anyone make money" if they give their work away for free. The answer is interesting in that it emphasizes what marketers have known for years, it's all about the brand. Those that choose to make a living with OS Hardware try to create a niche for themselves as experts in their field and this has the effect of others looking to them for input, guidance, and collaboration on new devices. People find the inventors. The power of their brand gives them a chance at new business before anyone else, and this is extremely valuable and can be sold.
As we shift more from the traditional - design it, build it, patent it, and profit from the product approach - it seems that value is created not so much in the product as in it's design. Utility is maximized by the fact that hardware can be created and destroyed at a faster pace than ever before; design changes can be implemented in much less time and far cheaper than at any other time in history. This trend will continue and it's effects will be profound. The advances in nanotechnology will only accelerate this phenomenon into the next 10 years. Software is already converging with organic matter in ways we could only imagine 10 years ago. We have developed tiny (atomic) robots to perform various life saving functions in the medical field already.
These tiny machines will be designed, programmed, and brought to market much faster under the new OS Hardware economy. There is no stopping the new wave, you can't even hope to contain it. Government regulation would be the only way to even curb it, but it's effect is debatable considering the various and sometimes opposing laws governing every country.

What do you think?

Electric Cars

I recently watched the documentary, "Who Killed The Electric Car". If you haven't seen it, you should. For those of you who have seen it, bear with me as I lay some context for those who haven't. The premise of the movie revolves around investigating some questionable business decisions that auto giant GM made back in the mid 1990's related to their own electric car. Essentially, GM introduced an electric car that consumers loved then completely removed it from the market, and despite consumer demands to build more, destroyed every last one of the cars. The movie ends in sad fashion with potential consumers wondering what happened to the cars they loved so much.

10 years later...
Google is partnering with GE to develop an intelligent power grid that includes plug in hybrid electric vehicles. My, my, my - I bet GM execs are wondering what the hell is happening right before their very eyes. When they decided to kill the electric car they gave environmentally conscious consumers every reason imaginable as to why they couldn't mass produce them. They claimed that the cost/profit ratio was too high making them economically unreasonable. They said that the feedback from consumers was "lukewarm" and generally unfavorable. They provided a healthy list of other reasons outlining why it couldn't be done despite clear evidence that people were hungry for new and refreshing options.
It's a new world now!

I never thought that Al Gore would kickstart one of the most important issues, if not the most important issue, humanity has ever faced. But his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", has created arguably one of the most important movements of our time. I am surprised by the players stepping up to tackle the clean energy conundrum and I am confident in our ability to find the solutions we need by working together, supporting these efforts, and by innovating new business models that consider our environment first.

It's a shame that it won't likely be one of the American car companies that leads the way to change what needs to be changed, even when they are in the driver's seat for finding viable solutions. Perhaps GM, Ford, and Chrysler are victims of the ever-popular boiling frog analogy.

Check out this video from Google's RechargeIT program.





Thoughts?