Creative Hardware
Hardware as Platforms, and the Rise of Firmware Communities
In three and a half weeks, M-VAVE's FM-1 went from a cheap FM synth to a platform with its own substrate, its own emulator, its own Android host and its own in-jokes. The same thing happened to the Archos Jukebox in 2001 and the Linksys WRT54G in 2003, and both times it took years. Five instrument makers have now answered the question in thirteen months, and they gave five different answers.