Shonzilla, a pattern-seeking animal

TechCrunch wants to build “A Dead Simple Web Tablet For $200” that’s as slim as Apple Air and is based on Linux, FireFox, and Skype - technologies that would enable regular internet users to Get Things Done.

This initiative launched by Mike Arrington cause a significant number of comments at TechCrunch. People suggesting ideas and offering their know-how are coming from various backgrounds: server-side software development, web development, Linux hacking, user experience, hardware design…

Although I’m excited by an idea and would like to get engaged (if I weren’t swamped by invoicable and fairly interesting work already), I’m a bit sceptical. A couple of reasons:

• So far not a single crowdsourced hardware project has succeeded .
• Serious coordination is needed in such a multi-faceted project (concept design, hardware design, software development, industrial/UI design and user experience all tied together)
  
• Seed money is necessary (preferably backed by a consortium of companies without a conflict of interest in the web tablet market niche)
• Better invest time&effort into further expansion of a community around one of open mobile platforms like Android, OpenMoko, LiMo, and last but not least Symbian. As an added bonus, you get to phone your friends (and fellow collaborators). :-)

Anyway, my (founded) skepticism aside, I believe TechCrunch should rise to the occasion and show more committment in this initiative. They could do thins in several ways:

• Approaching potential partners. Perhaps the “home of crowdsourcing”, Cambrian House, or more hardware-oriented CrowdSpirit should be involved as well.
• Taking pre-orders. Committed future customers can be used as angel investors. Has this be done before?
• Build a serious community. Community (web site) dedicated to this effort would be a “Web2.0 way” to structure an direct efforts is necessary in such a complex project.
• Start small by modifying existing open-sourcesoftware, then iterate. Today, software is almost free replicate but can become more expensive to produce than hardware. Though, hardware design has a higher barrier of entry and it takes some viable software platform solution in order to build hardware for it, especially on a crowdsourced project. Therefore, I would start by modifying open-source software and testing it out on commercial multi-touch tablets out there.
  

Interested? You have skillz? Help them build it!