Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Technology is one of the fastest growing industries of our time. Over the course of human history
the amount of technological advances is tremendous and still growing today. The next advance
in this era, is open source technology. Open-sourced technology promotes people with experience
in the field to share their knowledge in a simple way so the common man can understand,
use and modify this to his needs. Open-sourcing your project allows others to have input in
your project and make it better with ideas. This new era of innovation is breaking the
barrier between professionals and common people who have amazing ideas but don't know how
to implement them. An example of open-source technology is the Arduino. The Arduino is
"a computing platform based on a microcontroller, and a development environment for writing
software for the board."The simplicity and feasibility of the Arduino and its open-sourced
technology allows people without much background in building or programming to let their creative
minds take over without devoting their whole life to programming or engineering.
Availability is one of the most important factors to consider when creating a product.
It is a key component to the success of the product. The Arduino has an extremely high
availability for various reasons. Firstly, it has open-source hardware and software.
Open source technology has vastly grown over the years and can take a role on the success
of the Ardunio. It is an advance in the technological era which allows for the common person to
access the source. Open source technology has greatly increased in popularity in the
past years and is being utilized with the Arduino. Arduino claims that " In particular,
we believe that people should be able to study our hardware to understand how it works, make
changes to it, and share those changes. To facilitate this, we release all of the original
design files (Eagle CAD) for the Arduino hardware." Secondly, the Arduino has variety a of different
products. Arduino holds kits for beginners, intermediate, and advanced users. the variety
of kits for differently skilled users will result in an increase in popularity. It has
over 30 different boards and shields for users to buy. Arduino also has Arduino Single-Sided
Serial board which can be easily etched and assembled for users who want to create their
own board. Thirdly, another factor to its availability is its cost. The Arduino has
a price-tag so the common user wouldn't be investing much. With the starter kit being
only approximately $80.00. The prices can range from $20 to $200. In conclusion, with
the utilzation of open source technology, its variety of kits and parts for different
users, and cost efficient price-tag creates large availability which will allow for the
Arduino to grow in popularity. A products' difficulty level can greatly affect
the success of the product. The learning curve should be small, so more people will be able
to understand and execute projects. Open source allows for the learning curve to become mild.
A large advantage to open-sourced technology is that inexperienced people can understand
it very easily, and quickly. The Arduino is a very good example of this because its extremely
simple to program, you can get projects and help from many online forums, and there's
many levels of projects to try out. Firstly, the basic programming language that the arduino
uses is both easy to get and easy to use. The code is similar to many other languages
as it is based off of AVR C programming language so the learning curve isn't steep. If you
need help, whether it be a hardware or a software issue, there are many online forums and Arduino
provides starter documents to help start inexperienced users on their projects. Lastly, if you don't
think you are ready for the massive and complex arduinos, you can settle for a simple one
like the Arduino Starter pack for starters, and move up to things like the Arduino Mega
2560 for larger projects. In conclusion, the Arduino and open sourced technology has adaptable
difficulties to allow for inexperienced users and advanced users to make use of the Arduino.
Although the Arduino seems really simple and easy to use, if you take the time to understand
it completely, you can make it do amazing things. Firstly, the world of bike safety
can be altered by the Arduino. There are many free online tutorials showing you how you
can build and program a jacket that with built in turn signals on the back. its made with
some off the shelf push-buttons and LED's. Miscommunication is a big cause of bike and
car accidents and this simple and easy project can help solve this problem and save a few
lives and broken bones. Secondly, the many sensors that the Arduino can handle can manipulate
the world of exploration as well. Again, you can find articles and blogs online that can
show you how to build and code an underwater ROV (remote operated vehicle) that is about
1000 times cheaper than the ROV James Cameron used to explore the Titanic. With only 5%
of the world's oceans explored at this moment, projects like these can help a lot in the
exploration industry. Lastly, war and military industry can be greatly altered by the Arduino.
For example, there are easy to build Arduino powered quadrocopters that are cheap and easy
to make and completely remote control. Things like this can be used both for good and for
bad in the war industry with heavily modified drones, as well as small improvised ones.
Unreliable sources. Counter: Open source technology can have less reliable sources to a certain
degree, as it is much easier to access the code. However, since many more people can
access such code, it allows for more people to find bugs and fix them so these unreliable
sources don't become a large issue.
Argument:open source is usually free or extremely inexpensive. Counter:
Some arguments can be made that open source technology doesn't generate enough profit
to run a business. So how do they earn revenue, there are various other methods open source
companies use to generate revenue. Paid support is one of the most common sources of revenue.
Companies also package more substantial (and expensive) professional services with open
source software. Often a customer needs help implementing the open source tech or may need
help customizing it for their particular needs. They'll pay to ensure it's expertly installed
and maintained. Other professional services may include quality assurance and training.
They can also sell licenses for commercial use.
The Arduino and open source technology will grow in popularity in the next 10 years. It
has availability, adaptability and capability to prove to be successful.