"We've taken a very different approach to creating a consumer electronic device," [head of software Duane Maxwell] says. "Rather than layering DRM and fighting a losing war with hackers attempting to repurpose the device, we've decided to trust the community to an extraordinary degree. The anti-DRM crowd has waved the 'trust the customer' banner for a few years now to no avail, but we're actually going to do just that. At this point, the hackers, developers, and users can destroy chumby by doing exactly what the big media companies are deathly afraid of. So this is a grand experiment in trust to which we've committed our careers and millions of dollars."
The first thing that struck me, besides how damn cool the chumby is, is that they are essentially offering a framework - a do-it-yourself kit. I was immediately reminded of the beginnings of personal computing as we know it, when hobbyists of the 1970s were able to build their own computers from parts readily available at Radio Shack and other places and subsequently program the machines themselves. Software was distributed on discs and in magazines. It was a golden age of sharing and invention. Not too long ago I read an article involving an interview with Steve Wozniak and the history of Apple and various things like how Segways are awesome; the pertinent point was that the reason the Apple took off is that it stripped away the hobbyist element and allowed anyone with a wad of cash to have their own gosh-darned, working, mainstream computer in their home, no soldering or programming experience necessary. Now, thirty years later, companies are innovating by returning to the hobbyist roots of computing.
"Grand experiment in trust"? Please.
If you let them build it, they will come.
