Tim O’Reilly talks to Enthusiasts
March 2016 – At the 2016 HardwareCon in San Leandro, CA, Publisher, entrepreneur and advocate of the Maker movement Tim O’Reilly spoke to the primarily “maker centric” audience about trends and the transition to bigger things. The basis of his talk was all movements that drive change start with enthusiasts. These people have an inherent belief in something – a product, an idea, a problem or a solution.
The belief drives the creation of a system to support and address the issue. The solution is typically more than just software that resides on a device or in the cloud, but it is also hardware that is designed to address the problem and a use model for the combination of the two. The new solution space is made available to enthusiasts through new economics. Hardware is small, cheap and ubiquitous; software is in a new golden age that is defined by AI; and the combination of software and hardware is the new standard of unlimited compute and constant availability.
HardwareCon 2016 – IoT Projection from Tim O\’Reilly Keynote
His talk continued that the creation environment is not the same as in the past. The MakerBot product and community was enabled by the Thingaverse Open source and design community. This allows for the simplified and low cost sharing of ideas amongst members as well as finding new applications for technology. A philosophy that is he presented was – IoT is not just the things, it is the software above the level of a single device that direct the machines to support and help solve a problem. In this avenue, the components that make up a smart phone, with addition of a few pieces are the same core that makes a drone – the components are not unique to the application anymore.
It is this commonality and software based diversity around a hardware commonality that brings enthusiasts to the forefront. Understanding the principles in STEM with the applications and creativity of the enthusiasts and artist community is the underlying strength of the maker community as the feeder to the commercial marketplace.
