The last 15 years have seen makers go from the garage to prime-time. I sat down with Jamie Hyneman from Mythbusters and Dale Dougherty from Make Magazine to chart this incredible revolution.
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“Open and closed systems seem to be the Ying and Yang of the universe,” he says. “We will always have both, I believe. Perhaps closed systems are better for some business ventures. Yet, open systems are necessary and I think they can thrive even while competing against closed systems.”
He concludes, “The maker movement is based on an open ecosystem, where open source projects provide standard components such as Arduino. Openness means anyone can play and contribute.”
Hyneman goes a step further: “Open source and open hardware are going to happen one way or another. People might as well just embrace it, and ride the wave. If they don’t, they will be left behind.”
Both Hyneman and Dougherty are spot on. Part of the reason why the maker revolution happened has been a sense of openness, community, and sharing.
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