Opensource 2.0: Open sourcing devices

My readers are probably not surprised that a populist and advocate of self-organization like me loves the idea of open source development. I have watched from the sidelines, but I am also looking for opportunities to get actively into the game. I'm not there yet, but I wanted to mention a few things I am particularly excited about.

Connecting developers with average users

A major impediment to the impact of the open source movement has been the huge gulf between open source developers and the "Average User." Open source developers are wonderful people, but they are generally technical wizards who have little interest in ease of use and the limitations of the Average User. Unfortunately, there are probably 100 or even 1000 Average Users for every open source developer. This means that the solutions developed by the open source community have had a relatively small audience. This is a problem not only for the average user, but also for the developers because they receive only a tiny fraction of the feedback that should be available to them in perfecting their designs. This means that innovation has proceeded more slowly than it otherwise would. And as a result even the developers cannot benefit from the innovation that didn't occur. 

I don't know if anyone has invented the equivalent of Moore's Law for feedback and innovation, but let me try to formulate something here.  

The Law of Feedback on Innovation: Innovation accelerates exponentially with the number of reviewers (the number of people using a product and providing feedback). I suggest exponential acceleration because each piece of feedback enables the next generation of feedback, and also because each feedback item that is open to the public can itself be evaluated by the public. In this way good ideas and important improvements will rise to the top and get handled sooner because they will be endorsed by more and more people. 

But I think, at least in the realm of software, that this impediment is starting to get torn down as the gulf between the average user and the open source developer is shrinking. There are three trends contributing to this change:

• The tools of development are getting more user friendly, which enables people who are not quite as technically savvy but more attuned to the needs of the masses to make improvements.
• Developers have started developing not just for themselves but for the average user. Consider Ubuntu and Open Office. I recently had a chance to try it out and I was pleasantly shocked by how familiar and easy to use it was. This is in stark contrast to previous versions of Linux that I have tried that required significant technical expertise to install, configure and use. Ubuntu is graphical, has a robust installer, includes major office software that most people use and that is compatible with the dominant Microsoft standard formats, handles updates and fixes automatically, and also allows people to download other software easily in the form of complete compiled packages. I consider this set of features to be essential in gaining adoption by the Average User.  This will result in much more feedback and accelerated innovation as the market for Linux expands dramatically.
• Functional chunks: Open source development has reach a qualitative change as a function of incremental improvements, and I believe the cause is the creation of meaningful, functional chunks of code that provide substantial real and visible value. It is all well and good for the operating system kernel to be well developed and stabilized, but when user interfaces can be easily adopted and reused, for example, then there exists a bridge to those average users.

Open source devices

This leads me to the second major thing that I am excited about, and that is the development of open source, physical devices. The Chumby is a very early step in this direction, but I think we have much further to go. I look forward to the day when a teenage gal in her garage can assemble a new open source car, for example, as easily as one can develop a new software program today. What we need are device components (like a chassis, motor, motor controller, etc.) that are standardized and make use of standardized interfaces so that people can easily plug and play with them. 

The open source car is really the holy grail, in my opinion. I am tired of waiting for Detroit to do the right thing: let's do it ourselves! When we can be assembling, testing and driving our own cars, then the Age of Open Source Devices will truly be upon us. The driving portion may be one of the biggest hurdles here, given safety regulations. The regulation of cars will need to change as their mode of development also changes. I know there are at least three groups already working on the open source car. SSM, Civic EV,  and OScar.

I look forward to the day in the near future where it is common for technical wizards, average users and genius artists and industrial designers to collaborate on open source projects of all types, both software and hardware. That will be real progress.