The Internet’s transformation of electronics innovation and the maker culture Electronics News

Apple started with Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne hand-building a personal computer kit with off-the-shelf electronics.

From breadboards to potential multi-million dollar enterprises, tinkering with electronics has been a hobby for both students and professionals for some time.

But the Internet is now a massive avenue for these electronics tinkerers, incubating a large number of innovations, any of which could easily hatch into the next big thing. Understandably, the big enterprises are paying attention.

Current state of flux

The big news recently was Autodesk’s acquisition of Instructables, a community dedicated to sharing DIY projects, effectively allowing anyone who is interested to apply existing, easily-accessible materials and technologies to new uses. At the time of writing, it has approximately 786 electronics projects.

The online nature of DIY communities and the open source hardware movement means they are able to leverage the accelerated evolution of ideas encouraged by the Internet – another DIY project, for a book scanner, has seen the community build on the original idea with thousands of improvements.

And relatively open devices such as the Microsoft Xbox Kinect have seen hundreds of hacks, repurposing the system for a whole range of different applications.

Let’s talk platforms

It is impossible to talk about electronics innovation online without stumbling across Arduino, “an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software”.Compact and highly configurable, the Arduino platform has been repurposed for a wide variety of uses, like accessories for Android, Kinect modifications, and recently, in a TAFE NSW program encouraging girls to work with electronics.

Microsoft’s move to introduce its own open-source hardware and software platform in the form of the .NET Gadgeteer is a firm step on the part of the tech giant to capitalise on this trend and compete in the space – whether the new kit can compete with the massive head-start that Arduino has is another matter altogether.

Kicking off

And let’s not neglect to mention KickStarter, a “funding platform for creative projects”. KickStarter is not DIY, of course. Rather, it seeks to leverage the financial backing of the masses to materialise ideas into real projects and objects.The site is host to a whole spectrum of weird and wacky concepts (albeit all subject to an approval  process), but with popularity tied tightly to funding, only the most worthy will make it through the funding rounds. For those paying to fund those projects (the “backers”), a high-enough pledge gives them rewards, like first dibs at the final product.While the site, like Instructables, caters to a wide range of interests, its Technology and Photography categories yield some highly innovative and intriguing electronic projects by budding entrepreneurs.

Some interesting projects include an open-source 8-bit synth kit, an illuminated, Arduino-based turn-indicator glove for cyclists, a heart sensor, a camera shutter trigger, an Arduino-powered stepper motor board, and solar-powered modular electronic squares which quickly snap together.

Free (or cheap) is the future

The core reason behind Autodesk’s acquisition of Instructables is because the company needed the injection of that indie innovation and passion into its own community-based sites.

Like many other big companies, Autodesk is seeking to connect with its users and potential users on a grassroots level, and build a community which revolves around using its tools – not just the paid professional-level solutions, but free tools like 123D, SketchBook, Homestyler, and Pixlr. Instructables is a fast-track way to do that.

Free (or cheap) and flexible are key rationales behind the DIY and maker culture. At the heart of DIY is the drive to achieve functionality (whether existing or something entirely new) on a budget relatively free of the profit margins normally associated with the commercial or “professional” spheres.

Of course, the passion for DIY is not an entirely budgetary consideration – many find great satisfaction in seeing their own creations coming together and operating in a rational, planned manner.

It is also likely that as 3D printing becomes more common and accessible to non-commercial users, even more turnkey projects will become possible as maker electronics merges with object printing – think DIY gadgets with customised enclosures and parts, robots, etc.

Whatever comes, one thing is clear – tech companies are now paying attention, and the maker movement is due for a boom in commercial interest. Whatever happens, innovations will continue to flow, and tinkerers will keep tinkering.
The Internet's transformation of electronics innovation and the maker culture Electronics News