Dennis L Hitzeman's world of science and technology
 
 

May

Posted at May 10, 2011 by

Dear <fill in the blank with the name of a major technology producer CEO>,

I understand that you want to make supertanker loads of money so that you can vacation in the Mediterranean and eat your lunch off nude prostitutes, and I know that people who take your technology and use it for things other than what you were able to imagine they should is really scary, but I hate to break it to you: hackers and makers are really your friends.

You see, whenever a hacker or maker takes your product and does something with it you did not imagine they could, they essentially hand you a new product for free with the potential for even more supertanker loads of money (and hence, more nude prostitute sushi). Further, every time someone develops a new use for your product, based either on the original product or on a new development someone hacked, that’s a new supertanker.

In essence, all of these hackers and makers represent an entire free product development division that won’t demand any more benefits than to have the right to open something they’ve paid for, to see how it works, and to use it they way they want.

In fact, if you encourage such initiative by making your products hackable and makeable, you might find out that people might start to like your company even more and not get so upset with your supertankers full of money and nude prostitute sushi. What’s more, if you take some of that money–just a tiny little bit–and use it to fund contests to see what people might be able to do with your products, you might even accelerate the process.

Or, you could just do things the way you always have, jealously guarding your products against such intrusions while hackers and makers do what they’re going to do anyway. That is, those hackers and makers will do it until they get bored or something better comes along, maybe some other company’s product that isn’t afraid to put it out there and see what happens. Then, that company will get the supertankers full of money you wish you had while you’re stuck sharing your cheeseburger with your dog in Greenland.

DLH

 
 

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  1.  dlhitzeman said:

    May 10, 2011 @ 7:10 pm

    Now, before all the hackers and makers out there who come across my post get all upset because they think I’m encouraging corporations to take advantage of you (and me), let’s be real people: we can’t do the things we want to do without corporations. Sure, sometimes the corporations can be a pain, but they bring things to the table we sometimes can’t. What I want to help foster is a dialog and a relationship that spans the spectrum from hacker and maker to corporate headquarters. We can’t do that if the hackers and makers are always pissed off and the corporations are always scared.

 
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