Arduino and Massimo Banzi are at the forefront of the revolution around customizable open source electronics. EB had a great time interviewing Massimo.
EB: I got introduced to Arduino through a colleague of mine a few months back. I managed to get my hands on the board 3 weeks back and I have been loving it. It was easy for me to start with it even without any knowledge in electronics. The Arduino is an open source project, and after reading a bit about open source hardware, I wanted to talk to the person behind the Arduino. Massimo’s views on open source and programming really resonated with me. I hope you enjoy the interview just like I did.
If you are looking to learn Arduino, visit www.arduino.cc. If you are looking to build some Arduino project together, feel free to reach out to me.
My favorite snippets –
“Everything we touch contains electronics. Even the food processor you buy at the supermarket contains a piece of electronic that drives it. We want people to be able to use this complex technology, and we want common people to access this technology, even kids. If you can use this kind of technology, then you can really re-design the world around you. I think the big idea is to make the technology simple so that more and more people can participate in the creation of today’s world.”
”I also think another big idea behind Arduino is that it’s open source, so the design of the board and the software are all freely available. Some people who can modify can build up on our work; they can create businesses that feed from Arduino. I think that’s also important as a way to spread the idea more than just the technology itself.”
“If we lose that open source nature, we become a regular company which loses that spirit of cooperation, freedom, and helping each other – all that we like.”
“Now were having a chat in English, but English is not my first language. Now I think programming is becoming the language that you need to be part of the 21st century.”
“I travel, I go see different places, I meet people, and during that time I get to hang out with people who use Arduino to do interesting things.”
“It’s important that we teach kids that technology is not only something that you buy, plug in and play with, but that it’s something that you can build and modify.”
Full interview, as always, on RealLeaders.tv
A Learning a Day 