Greetings from Bug Labs

We're out of the gate.  The decision to start talking publicly about what we're up to here at Bug Labs was a little hairy.  Are we starting too early?  Too late?  Ultimately, we chose to just start the conversation and let the story unfold.  To that end, Jeremy Toeman (my head of marketing) and I had dinner last night in San Francisco with some well-respected thought leaders in high tech - Dave Winer, Ryan Block, Robert Scoble and Jerry Michalski.   Dave posted about it already (twice!) and sums it up nicely.  Update:  Robert Scoble has posted here (thanks).

I wanted to take a moment to share a bit about the Bug Labs vision.  For us, the consumer electronics industry is due for a change.

Consumer electronics products come to market today in a way that has not changed in decades.  Companies employ smart people who try to divine what the majority of their target customers will want to buy, fund massive market research programs, build expensive production lines, execute huge marketing campaigns and the majority of the time fail to achieve their objectives (see "Innovator's Solution", Christensen, "The Change Function", Coburn).

On Monday, NY Times reporter G. Pascal Zachary wrote an article that succinctly points out where this trend originated - "There is an unbroken line between Henry Ford (with his Model T) and Steve Jobs. The new iPhone similarly reflects the elite, corporate innovator's drive to find one size that fits many."  It's an expensive, wasteful model for everyone involved - producers, suppliers, customers and last but not least, the environment.

We see ourselves, our company and our product as a "bug" in the system of traditional CE; an agent for change.  We want to put more power in the hands of the individual to decide what gadgets they want and what features they should include.  We envision a world where CE stands for community electronics, where the long-tail of devices profitably exists and hardware mashups are as prevalent as their software counterparts.

So what is BUG exactly?  It's Legos meets Web services & APIs.  Imagine being able to build any gadget  you wanted by simply connecting simple, functional components together.  Now imagine being able to easily program, share and connect these gadgets in interesting ways.  In essence, we're building an open source-based platform for programmers to build not only the applications they want but the hardware to run it on.  Over the coming weeks and months I will update this blog with our latest progress.  And while I used wooden blocks at the dinner last night (easier to get thru airport security!) I will show pictures of the actual products soon.

We expect an interesting, windy road ahead.  I look forward to sharing the journey and would love to hear any/all thoughts on what we're up to.

Peter

Comments

[Dave]

Hi:

I've been waiting for you guy's to announce more, ever since I saw you mentioned on Feld Thoughts. When will you have API's and Hardware interface documents available? I've been thinking about some Zigbee things, but the Zigbee to something usefull part is where I'm having trouble.

Thanks
Dave

[Brian Marsh]

Great concept! I envision a small array of industry standards for cabinet sizes to accomodate modular components with standardized interfaces. How about unified display standards for showing the components' status, coupled with a customized touchpad interface that responds to whichever modular device is currently active? That would remind me of many universal remote designs that adapt to a variety of equipment.

[Elad]

This must be one of the best idea I heard in a long time.
I can't wait to put my hands on something like this and be able to make hardware as cool and easy to build (relatively) as software is.
Keep posting!

[Rob]

Lego Mindstorms for the masses ? I can't wait.

[Victor Agreda Jr]

I have been waiting for something like this since I first picked up a TAB book on robotics in the 80's (I was just a kid).

While I would argue there is a place in the market for closed-loop devices, I can't wait to watch your journey. Good luck!

[Nate Westheimer]

I love where this is going. One-size fits all has got to go -- that's why this blog looks different from my blog and from Dave's blog. While they're composed of the same parts, we modify them as we see fit.

I'm curious to see how other software will interact with your platform. For instance, BricaBox (I am alluding to now) has a similar philosophy as The Bug, but from a CMS stand-point (not hardware). Will BricaBox -- a platform that combines web services -- be able to operate on The Bug?

Clearly I don't know enough about The Bug and you don't know enough (yet) about BricaBox to answer these questions, but as an entrepreneur who is excited about the vision and hints you've put out there, these are some of the questions that crop up.

Best of luck!
Nate Westheimer
BricaBox.com

[Jeff Barson]

I'll be watching with more than idle curiosity since I've got a medical device company that this might work well for.

[Martin Edic]

I respectfully have to disagree with lumping the iPhone in with the proprietary world of gadget history. Two things are different. It has an operating system that can run a lot of stuff and can be upgraded at any time. And it has unfettered connectivity including a true browser that will run web apps. So it is possible to user-configure this device to a much greater degree than those historical gadgets.
That aside, congrats on your unintentional launch!

[Jeff Barr]

I'm not quite sure what you are building, but I am pretty sure that I want them.

Please do feel free to contact me if you are looking for a beta tester (as if you will have a shortage of those).

[Charlie]

Welcome to the Blogosphere. :)

The site needs team photos above the bios... makes it more personal.

[Steven Groves]

I have been reading Robert Scoble and Dave Winer for a bit - just found Fred's VC blog (well, not found, but finally subscribed)

I cover a beat on real estate technology and would love to understand more about how the bug concept might benefit a real estate professional.

... and I agree w/ Charlie - need some pics...

[Peter Semmelhack]

Hey everyone - I was traveling all day yesterday so I didn't have a chance to respond. Thanks for the great comments! Your encouragement and well wishes are much appreciated. There are a bunch of questions regarding product specifics and uses - stay tuned, we'll be talking more about all that in the coming weeks.

Charlie - pix are on the way!

[Skip Adkins]

I am very excited about what you're envisioning.
I've been wanting to put together some gadgets for a while now, but don't have the technical skill to do all the little things that are required to make it work.
If you can I will be one of your most loyal followers.

[Kent Johansen]

Hey - I am that kind of hybrid. I design circuits, lay out the PCBs and have programmed over 4 million lines of code in my time.
I call it one-stop prototyping. Yes it takes a lot to keep on your toes with all the diverse kinds of magic from transmission lines and strip antennas to .NET ans SOAP. But we are a curious bunch, aren't we?
Kent

[Ben]

I need to build a device. It needs to have a digicam (3+ megapixel) linked with a portable computer and small display running some custom software that is open source. I need it to be ruggedized and come with a lightbox for illumination through a diffuser towards the camera lens.
It would be great if these items could be generated-at -the-time-of-order because the market is larger than the custom device market but smaller than the consumer device market - it is the research lab market.

Is this the sort of project Bug Labs will be able to support?

[Peter Semmelhack]

Ben - sounds interesting. We should discuss your requirements further. Helping you build gadgets is what we're all about.

[Kit Plummer]

Very interesting indeed. I was curious how long it would be before a commercial stab was made at OSH.

Don't forget, this isn't something entirely new. I haven't completely scoured the "comments" yet - but wanted to make the reference to Arduino...just in case it hasn't already made an appearance.

http://www.arduino.cc/

[Moudy]

I really like this thing. but i want to know how much it is.

[cassian]

what are the specs on the camera - will have video function? if so, will it be possible for 30fps and 640x480 or higher resolution? can the lens be modified to wide-angle? can more than one camera be linked to the same bugbase through some sort of expander module.
inquiring minds want to know...

[njema]

Good going lads. neuer thot i'D hear of bugs in open source. but u people are visionaries truly. keep up the good work!