2007: User Generated Devices

Time Magazine made "you" the person of the year, largely on the basis of what is happening on the web - blogging, social networking, YouTube, wikipedia, etc. This is from the Time column I just linked to:

It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.

Yes, the web has brought this power of the user to the forefront of our society, enough to make us the person of the year. That's cool.

But what is cooler is that this is part of a larger revolution in information technology that started back in the early 90s with Linux. It's the open source movement and it's about opening up technology so that anyone and everyone can contribute to the collective good.

And I believe its time for this revolution in information technology to move into the hardware space. It's time for user generated devices.

I have a broken Canon SD 550 with me on our family trip to Italy. The screen is cracked so I can't see the photos after I take them. I can't even control the flash or anything else via the user interface. Why don't I get a new camera? Well I will when I get back, but this camera lists for $400. It's not a disposable camera, it's an expensive piece of electronics.

What I'd really like is a new screen to snap into the back of my camera to replace the one that cracked. That's the only thing wrong with it. It still takes great photos as you can see on my flickr page.

And as long as I am talking about what I'd like, I'd also like to be able to snap on a wifi module so the best photos can be automatically uploaded to Flickr in real time, not hours later.

But the existing consumer electronics manufacturers aren't interested in modularity and giving the user more control over their devices. Their desire to tightly control the user experience will lead to a movement much like what has happened on the web.

Users are going to take control of their devices and I think 2007 is the year we will start to see it happen.

Comments

[Stephen L. McKay]

You are all missing the point.

[CoryS]

Josh and Stephen,

My final conclusion of a OEM+support supply chain is where I'd like to see things end up. Having worked for a large consumer products company, there are a few challenges to getting their participation, but that shouldn't mean that an aftermarket for electronics couldn't become more mainstream (it has successfully happened in automotive). As less-so of a tinkerer and more of a breaker of things I work on, I've noticed that a well edited support function (there are many that fit this function in the PC/Mac arena) along with OEM options was where I come out on this.

If component suppliers got innovative on new features AND you could get end user support, then it gets very interesting.

[Dick Costolo]

Cool, hardware services. One of the ways that's fun to think about these things is not look at the current state of affairs and think "why can't this happen right now" or "what are the hurdles", but rather to think ahead 10,20 years and wonder what will obviously be different. In 2016, it seems obvious to me that if your camera wifi breaks, you'll not have to fork over another 500 dollars, ditto for other hardware services on the device. But there are two possible outcomes - one is that you have plug-n-play component parts (you know that the first instantiation of this will look like an apple newton I....huge and clunky, but that will be a good sign that we're on our way), and the second possibility is that most of the favorite devices we use will become price point disposable. I guess probably both of these possibilities happen....you have disposability at the low end and 'hardware services' at the high end. Fun to think about.

[Jason Preston]

Fred,

Last time I was in Europe, I dropped my SD400 and cracked the screen - I had the exact same frustrations. Canon support was really great and repaired the screen for free (once I was back in the US).

The total turnaround time was about a week and a half. The whole process was painless, and I blogged about it here. I recommend giving it a shot with your camera as well.

[Chris Fralic]

Hey Fred:

I had a similar experience with my laptop, and used eBay for some faster/cheaper repair.

Take a look:

http://nothingtosay.firstround.com/2006/12/service_20_trad.html

[Guyro]

Hardware now is like personal computers back up to the mid-1980s. Every piece of hardware comes with its own OS, application set, and that's the end of it.

Just as my PC's webcam can be operated by a number of different apps, including the one supplied by the manufacturer, I want my camera's, umm... camera to be accessible by a choice of app. A bit of competition won't hurt to give the manufacturers a push to improve usability. Maybe some geek will make a cool open-source CameraOS to beat all those built-in ones. Maybe iPods' excellent hardware could have some other software running it. Maybe my phone can do a lot more than just download silly Java games that do nothing. Well, phones/PDAs are a step ahead of the rest, but not quite at the finishing line yet.

Devices, welcome to 2007.