1.
We are all hackers now
but will we become builders too?
SIGCHI Belgium
Mark Vanderbeeken
Senior partner, Experientia (Turin, Italy)
Brussels, 29 June 2009
1
Today I want to present a new phenomenon that
shifts the balance from corporations and
institutions, to people. I am not sure how
important this trend will become, because there
are many obstacles, which I will talk about as
well. But I think we need to be aware of it, start
envisioning its possibilities -- something we will
start with in the workshops -- and perhaps even
support it wherever we can.
This is the first time I give this presentation, and I
therefore invite you to provide me with ample
feedback and comments, so that I can improve it
later on.

2.
2
Arduino the Cat, Breadboard the Mouse and
Cutter the Elephant
By Seaweed Studio
www.vimeo.com/4313755
www.seaweedstudio.co.uk/eat/archives/65
Publicly available content

3.
Before mass production
Basic materials (wood, stone,
metal, plants and animals)
widely available.
Transportation expensive.
Main exchange: knowledge
Read-Write culture (L. Lessig)
3
Mike Kuniavsky at LIFT France last week quoted
Lawrence Lessig (Stanford University) who
invented Creative Commons.
Read-Write Culture: strong diffusion of making
things, everyone made things, and these
variations/innovations were pushed back into
culture and society
www.orangecone.com/archives/2009/06/when_bits_meet.html

4.
20th Century
We moved into a
Read-Only culture
4
Self-expression is limited to selection among
pre-packaged options.
You got low prices but at the expense of the
flexibility of ideas.

5.
The world of To and For
“Industrialisation created a
world in which goods and
services were delivered to and
for people. “
Charles Leadbeater, The Art of
With, March 2009
5
Often in the name of doing things for people
traditional, hierarchical organisations end up doing
things to people.
Companies say they work for consumers but often
treat them like targets to be aimed at, wallets
to be emptied, desires to be excited and
manipulated.
www.cornerhouse.org/media/Learn/The%20Art%20of%20With.pdf

6.
“The world of To and For
starts from people as
bundles of needs, rather
than as bundles of
capabilities and potential.”
6

7.
Coping mechanisms:
adaptation
Convenience adaptation
Performance adaptation
Economy adaptation
Social significancy and identity adaptation
Pleasure adaptation
Suzan Boztepe, “User-Value-Based Product
Adaptation” (2005)
7
Convenience: three types of ovens, or saving vs.
reordering/managing time
Performance: food processors to prepare tarhana:
crush more than 100 lbs of boiled peppers and
several kgs of dried dough
Economy: product adaptation to increase a
product’s economic value, e.g. through after sales
services
Social significance: status, maintaining face
Pleasure: making products more aesthetically
appealing.
http://ead.verhaag.net/fullpapers/ead06_id166_2.pdf

8.
21st Century
Advent of digital technology
8
With the current pervasive presence of digital
technology, these digital 'tools' are increasingly
defining how we live, communicate, learn and work.!
Many think of this as nauseating and constraining.
We feel that we are forced to live the way big
corporations have designed it for us. We feel no
longer free to do what we want.

9.
21st Century
Could we be moving back
to a Read-Write culture?
9
Lessig suggests that digital technology has made the
21st Century a Read-Write culture again, but that
our 20th Century laws and organisations have not
recognised it, and are actually actively seeking to
prevent this.

10.
The world of With
“The web invites us to think
and act with people, rather than
for them, on their behalf or
even doing things to them.”
10
The web is an invitation to connect with other
people with whom we can share, exchange and
create new knowledge and ideas through a
process of structured lateral, free association of
people and ideas.
The principle underlying the web is the idea of
endless, lateral connection.”

11.
“Innovation invariably comes
from a version of with:
creative collaboration and
conversation in which people
share and blend their ideas”
11

12.
Why shouldn’t we?
12
Why can't we design our own tools anymore?
Is it really true that corporations always know
better what we want?
What about those people who fall outside of the
mainstream, and have needs and contexts of life
that require special tools, that these people can
design themselves better than anyone else?
And are we not all sometimes out of the
mainstream?

13.
Very few companies
understand the world of With,
so we all hack
13
In!fact, we are increasingly becoming tech hackers
and tinkerers, adapting our digital tools to a great
variety of human needs.!
Tinkering is about seizing the moment: it is about
ad-hoc learning, getting things done, innovation and
novelty, all in a highly social, networked
environment.
This phenomenon has only just started. The open
source hardware revolution has hardly kicked off,
also due to the fact that digital technology that
surrounds us is not always easy to modify, and
because the legal framework is not there.
Here are some examples

14.
“Street hacks”
14

15.
How Matt Gross of The New York Times is
cheaply connected to the US:
• Incoming: US phone > US mobile > Skype In >
forwarded via Skype out > Italian mobile
• Outgoing: Fring (on iPhone) > SkypeOut
(via WiFi)
15
frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/staying-in-touch-internationally-on-the-cheap/

16.
16
Telephoto mobile phone lens hack by UK artist
Kerrin Mansfield.
Photo by HD41117
www.flickr.com/photos/hd41117/2538184989/sizes/o/
Available under Creative Commons - Attribution - No commercial - No derivative license
via Jan Chipchase, Nokia
www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/2008/08/bending_light_l.html

17.
17
Spanish teenagers armed with only a 90 euro
camera and latex balloon have managed to take
stunning pictures of space from 20-miles above
Earth.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-capture-images-of-space-with-56-
camera-and-balloon.html
www.flickr.com/photos/meteotek08/sets/
Photo by Meteotek08
Available under Creative Commons - Attribution - Share Alike 2.0 license

18.
18
Dual SIM card allows two SIM cards to be used in
almost any GSM mobile phone at the same time.
Tinkering is bottom-up, iterative, experimental,
practical and improvisational: informal and
disorganized, accessible to anyone who is willing to
learn.
Photo taken in Accra, Ghana, 2007 by Younghee Jung, Nokia
From presentation by Jan Chipchase, Nokia, publicly available at:
www.janchipchase.com/blog/presentations/
JanChipchase_DuncanBurns_StreetHacks_vFinal_external.ppt
Available under Creative Commons license

19.
19
Potenco pull-cord charger generating enough
power for 20 minutes of talk time from one minute
of pulling.
www.flickr.com/photos/maneno/2932277363/sizes/o/
Photo by Maneno
Available under Creative Commons - Attribution - No commercial - No derivative license

20.
Hacks by communities
20

21.
21
Arduino - an open-source physical computing
platform based on a simple I/O board and a
development environment that implements the
open source Processing / Wiring language.
www.arduino.cc
Photo from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arduino_Diecimila.jpg
Available unde r GNU Free Documentation license

22.
22
Lilypad, a microcontroller board designed for
wearables and e-textiles.
www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad
Photo by designdana
designdana.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/communication-is-the-key/img_38201/

23.
23
TinkerKit is an Arduino-compatible physical
computing prototyping toolkit aimed at design
professionals.
www.tinkerkit.com/
Illustration by Lok Neville Lee, Tinkerkit
www.tinker.it/files/tinkerkit.pdf

24.
24
DIY Drones
diydrones.com/
Photo by DIY Drones
api.ning.com/files/i91jfgppQACVTQ-G8AzVmfXNlfpbezSRUs-uyiHKn1QK3jbZqHSFteCNTs8LY2-
BO8NlodeOXaDADL4GRCj120JEwFI3vHSt/DSC04511ar.jpg

25.
25
Blimpduino
diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844%3ABlogPost%3A44817
Photo by DIY Drones
api.ning.com/files/
uhMlCtYK9RZ5JBKdUMc0HkOj1g6AkkyuXv0QJjZGoSTmBL85ug3u8lEU3A3d7dMiC9NeT7j36MMDX
MlpetLnIPv2oLYRJUDv/IMG_4507.JPG

26.
26
Linksys wireless router that was released in 2002
as a simple $150 router for home use.
But hobbyists quickly discovered that its firmware
was based on Linux and thus legally open source.
Within months, hackers had written new code that
gave the device radically new features: They
boosted the antenna power, turned it into a signal
repeater, and constructed self-healing
neighborhood mesh networks.
Based on the free work of amateurs, the router is
now one of Linksys' all-time best-selling products.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series

27.
27
BerkShares
www.berkshares.org
Photo:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ognFOelLQ4U/Rqyflq5WPQI/AAAAAAAABEA/luOqztLFbFc/IMG_0792.JPG

28.
Small scale
commercial initiatives
28

29.
Zoybar - open source
hardware platform
for music making
29
A co-creation community inspired to develop and
create innovative music instruments and effects in
an open platform environment.
www.zoybar.net
Photo by Zoybar
http://www.zoybar.net/photo/zoybar-hardware-parts-2?context=featured

30.
30
modu is a concept of a modular phone which is
both a standalone phone and also the core of a
range of variety of terminal devices.
modu contains not only a slot for a SIM card, but
also all the transmission technology needed for a
mobile device to work.
www.modumobile.com (from Israel)

31.
31
Bug Labs is creating a Lego-like hardware platform that tinkerers
and engineers can use to create their own digital devices.
Users start with the BUGbase and add Bugmodules to create a
several in one gadget.
The BUGbase is a general-purpose Linux computer about the size
of a PlayStation Portable, encased in white plastic.
This has four connectors that plug right into the motherboard.
The modules include an LCD screen, a digital camera, a GPS unit, a
motion sensor, a keyboard, an EVDO modem, and a 3G GSM
modem. There are also places to add USB, Ethernet, WiFi, and serial
ports. Bug Labs is planning on making 80 modules over time, and
hopes outside companies and developers will create their own.
“The Long Tail of Gadgets”: from a small number of companies
building gadgets with markets of millions, to millions of innovators
creating devices for the few.
www.buglabs.net

32.
BUG vonHippel
32
A breakout module to which you can connect
sensors, wires, and USB devices.
This module is named after Dr. Eric von Hippel of
MIT who wrote the book Democratizing
Innovation.
www.buglabs.net/modules/bugvonhippel

33.
OpenMoko
Social Electronics
33
OpenMoko, a spinoff of Taiwan's First International
Computer, established to build an open source
touchscreen smart phone.
Developers have created multiple widget toolkits,
telephony frameworks and user interface shells
that have been successfully programmed to run on
the OpenMoko hardware.
Social Electronics, an approach that leverages
community involvement and collaboration with
consumers.
www.openmoko.com

34.
Open Prosthetics Project
34
Open Prosthetics Project, a project to create useful
and innovative prosthetic devices and release the
designs into the public domain.
This project is an open source collaboration
between users, designers and funders with the goal
of making the creations available for anyone to use
and build upon.
Their hope is to use this and our complementary
sites to create a core group of “lead users,” and
to speed up and amplify the impact of their
innovations in the industry.
openprosthetics.org

35.
35
VIA OpenBook
Released under a Creative Commons Attribution
Share Alike 3.0 license giving customers the
flexibility to bring their own innovative style and
brand value propositions to the Mini-Note market
segment. This also helps customers reduce product
development costs and speed time-to-market.
www.viaopenbook.com

36.
36
XORP is the industry's only eXtensible Open
source Routing Platform
www.xorp.org

37.
37
Asterisk, an open source telephony engine and tool
kit. It is a telephone private branch exchange (PBX)
originally created in 1999 by Mark Spencer of
Digium.
www.asterisk.org

38.
38
Shapeways - printing steel
www.shapeways.com

39.
What might this mean?
39
What would our world be like if technology was
easy to modify?

40.
Emerging markets
40
What could!this all mean for people in emerging
markets?

41.
Advantages
• Knowledge transfer
• Cost reduction of design
process
• Explore and encourage
innovators
• Accommodate different
points of view
41

42.
42
Mobile phone repair shop, India
Photo by Jan Chipchase, Nokia, 2005, publicly available at:
www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/2005/07/post-3.html
Available under Creative Commons license

43.
43
Working on the circuit board
Photo taken in Accra, Ghana, 2007 by Duncan Burns, Nokia
From presentation by Jan Chipchase, Nokia, publicly available at:
www.janchipchase.com/blog/presentations/
JanChipchase_DuncanBurns_StreetHacks_vFinal_external.ppt
Available under Creative Commons license

44.
44
Reverse engineered repair manuals
Photo taken in Delhi, India, 2005 by Jan Chipchase, Nokia
From presentation by Jan Chipchase, Nokia, publicly available at:
www.janchipchase.com/blog/presentations/
JanChipchase_DuncanBurns_StreetHacks_vFinal_external.ppt
Available under Creative Commons license

45.
Uganda tech incubator and
software development firm
45
appfrica.org facilitates, mentors and incubates
entrepreneurs in software in East Africa and
Uganda.
The mission is to offer opportunities and work
experience for East African software entrepreneurs
so that they can then use their talents to bolster
the growing local markets by offering products and
services.

46.
uses Facebook
Connect to allow
questions to be
a local mobile asked and answered OhmSMS - get an
portal for in a Twitter-like SMS when your
Facebook interface power is back on
46
status.ug – an inexpensive, and efficient, mobile
gateway for Ugandans to update Facebook via their
mobile phone.
answer bird
www.appfrica2.com/ugtek
OhmSMS – Get an SMS when your power is off at
home or at the office, simply by keeping a cheap
mobile phone plugged into an outlet.
http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/1815

47.
Handasa Arabia
Internet based organisation
that aims to support
electronics innovation and
research in the Arab world.
Working on the OFOQ, the
Arabic open source PDA.
47
www.handasarabia.org

48.
FabLabs
MIT-sponsored personal
fabrication workshops
48
General-purpose platform for making just about
anything using a collection of computer-controlled
manufacturing machines.
fab.cba.mit.edu

49.
49

50.
50
FabLab in Afghanistan

51.
Sustainability
51
Open Sustainability Network:
open source water pumps, solar panels, weather
kits and wind meters

52.
www.platform21.nl
52
www.platform21.nl

53.
Open Source Sensing
53
This is an open source-style project with the goal
of bringing the benefits of a bottom-up,
decentralised approach to sensing for security and
environmental purposes.
The intent of the project is to take advantage of
advances in sensing to improve both security and
the environment, while preserving — even
strengthening — privacy, freedom, and civil
liberties.
www.opensourcesensing.org

54.
54
Tweet-a-Watt, an open wireless home-power
monitoring system.
www.ladyada.net/make/tweetawatt

55.
Education
55

56.
Aalto University
New programme is fully based on
prototyping, hands-on learning and multi-
disciplinary teams.
MIT
What would happen if state-of-the-art
research infrastructure, large library
collections and world-class faculty were
no longer scarce?
56
http://www.aaltoyliopisto.info/en/

57.
57
E-puck mobile robot, designed for micro-
engineering education by EPFL (Lausanne,
Switzerland).
Michael Bonani and Francesco Mondada at the ASL
laboratory of Prof. Roland Siegwart
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-puck_mobile_robot

58.
Politics, policy
and development
58
Democracy? Participation?

59.
European Commission
• Working document
(29/09/08): “Early
challenges regarding
the ‘Internet of
Things’”
• Communication
(18/06/09): “Internet
of Things - an Action
Plan for Europe”
59
www.smart-systems-integration.org/public/documents/publications/Internet-of-Things_in_2020_EC-
EPoSS_Workshop_Report_2008_v3.pdf/at_download/file
ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/future_internet/swp_internet_things.pdf
eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2009:0278:FIN:EN:PDF

60.
Rwanda tech strategy
60
Everywhere you go in Rwanda, there are huge spools of fibre optic
cable. In two years, every district of the country will be connected
to each other and the Internet.
Rwanda sends 300 students at a time to India Institute of
Technology to develop skills in hardware, software and telecom
they can bring back to their home country.
First steps will include all government forms are moving online
in the country, along with medical records.
Ambition: to become a place that can churn out IT services for
Rwanda first, and surrounding countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
second.
IT is core not only for the education, connectivity and productivity,
but the future economic development of Rwanda.
www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/24/how-to-cross-the-digital-divide-rwanda-style

61.
India
“Open source hardware could
well be India’s best bet to get
started with a hardware
industry, without spending years
designing microchips from
scratch.”
Express Computer, June 2009
61
www.expresscomputeronline.com/20090601/market01.shtml

62.
What are the
bigger companies
doing?
62

63.
63
one laptop per child
laptop.org

64.
64
Simputer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simputer
www.simputer.org
www.amidasimputer.com

65.
65
Lego mindstorms - They’ve open sourced the code
and the hardware, and now offer a service called
Lego Factory which allows fans to build novel
models and pieces and have them produced by
Lego’s real-world factory.
mindstorms.lego.com

66.
66
OpenSPARC - an open source processor used in
Sun SPARC servers
www.opensparc.net

67.
67
www.android.com

68.
68
www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20090623corp_b.htm
www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1324456

69.
69
An Alcatel-Lucent venture, based in Antwerp,
Belgium
www.touchatag.com

70.
So why is this
happening?
• Cultural change because of
the web
• Price of designing and
making goods is dropping
• It has an ethical force: from
passive consumers, to active
and enpowered creators
70
While the price of moving goods will be increasing,
the price of moving knowledge is decreasing. This is
likely going to fundamentally change how things are
made and our relationship to this production.

71.
Barriers
• History of To and With
• Legislation and regulation
• Intellectual property protection
• Lack of expertise
• Physical implem. and testing
• Lack of business models
71

72.
72
Creating is inherently pleasurable.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0HCW7lyIHQ

73.
Thank you
mark@experientia.com
www.experientia.com
www.experientia.com/blog
twitter.com/vanderbeeken
73
In the short term, proprietary products are
generally going to win because they can more
tightly control inputs and output and therefore
provide a more complete user experience.
In the long term (10 years +), I think that open
systems will almost win, because the systems will
adapt better to people’s needs, be better
understood from end to end, there will be more
places for individual innovations to happen, and
people will come to expect a more open
ecosystem.