Topic: Chumby's Market Blog Post

Seeing the comments are closed (why?) on the chumby blog page, I will post my comment here.

I am 99% sure you haven't forgotten your third major market base...or have you? I'm a not a connected youth (young at heart, yes). I am definitely not a "hacker" (although I enjoy IT and gadgets). (Perhaps you categorise me as a soft hacker...).

I am a designer/crafter. I make beautiful objects.

We are a sizeable market...that is why your friends at O'Reilly produce Craft: magazine...many of us are the ones who pay to keep the youth, boy hackers and grandma connected. I love chumby because I can personalise it to suit my sense of style, both internally, through flickr and other widgets, and externally. The functionality is secondary to me. I'd buy one even if it was only a potentially more attractive clock-radio. Grandma is welcome to join me in this market sector...personally my Mum and Grandma could make a chumby bling with the best of them...who do you think taught me? Mum is a very net literate lady and extraordinary crafter in her 50s...she could set up chumby to suit her in a blink.

I know the craft forum isn't buzzing with excitement yet...but you haven't released the product and we never really know what we want to do with something until we live with it, touch it and look at it a while. We are very visually oriented individuals. This kind of forum is not inspiring for us. When you organise galleries...that is where we'll be.

You have gone and hurt my feelings now. You will have to make it up to me somehow....sob...sniffle...

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

I think you're right - once the product becomes more widely available, I think the craft part of the forum will be one of the most active, and certainly the most interesting.

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

Yes...but again only if images are uploadable...I think we both know most of the stuff will end up on blogs and flickr etc. anyway rather than in this bland, text-based forum. I don't see that a lot of teenagers would want to interact in this space. Teens think e-mail and these types of forums are for communicating with teachers and other oldies...not cool.

That said, I'm enjoying being able to get a bit of headstart in the craft idea department....counting the days to when the flat pattern gets put up...(no pressure).

Lots of chumby crafting adventures to come...

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

Agreed. The craft hacking side of chumby is extremely important and one of my favorites (my main task on chumby was creating the soft housings for chumby). Hosting images on the forum is a tricky proposition because people could post large files, irrelevant files, etc. Right now the only method of embedding pictures into your posts is if you host them externally (on your own site, etc.)

Once people get more chumbys into their hands and get over the fear of ripping them open, I think this forum will start to really take off. I have a bunch of great craft hacking pictures from FOO Camp that I'm planning to post shortly, just to show the possibilities smile

Joe

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

^^

theres my hosting

http://nophus.com/useru

username is chumby
password is chumby

i think the username and password is correct, but theres another link in one of the forums. ill put it in my sig once the site is fixed (my host is having a few troubles).

need upload space for the forums or a chumby blog? right here then
http://www.nophus.com/useru
username is chumby
password is chumby

6 (edited by Angela 2006-09-07 17:39:32)

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

You're my kind of guy Joe! cool Looking forward to those piccies...

You weren't the one who attacked Pooh with an xacto knife, were you? That could change my perception of you...that was totally criminal! yikes

Speaking of ripping apart the chumby...how are the hard plastic parts connected to the material (fabric) at the back?
Glue? Sitting in under the tension of the fabric only?

So setting up a blog when chumbys are released with lots of modded chumby pics is going to be no problem copyright wise? How about selling the covers you design? Not sure of the legalities of all this....

I'm also wondering if there is an electrical fire (sorry there's been a few of those lately, even though chumby doesn't have a battery) could the cover designer be sued...because of the flammability of the materials?

We get a lot of power surges due to electrical storms here in the sub-tropics...

Maybe quoting me in a new thread may be a better way to continue this...I've gone a bit off topic, sorry.

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

Sorry, Angela, didn't mean to offend you or any other Crafter with that post.  BTW, not sure why comments were originally set to "OFF" on my post but I went back and turned the "ON".  When I used the term "hacker" in that post discussing the markets for Chumby, I really meant to use the term very loosely, i.e., hackers, crafters, and flashers as we say on our site -- in other words, a "hacker" as anyone who is turned on by the prospect of taking a chumby and adding to its potential rather than simply just consuming the work of others, which is certainly fine too smile

Let me see if I need to re-edit that post or otherwise comment on it there.

st

Re: Chumby's Market Blog Post

Oooops...you'll figure out my sense of humour soon enough! smile  At least you have someone impassioned about the craft aspect of chumby and not afraid to shout about it. *blush*

I wasn't actually really offended. Just thought I should stand up for my crowd here. Make sure we are seen...which I do know we are...but in the common person's mind perhaps we would get lost under the hacker label...you know what you are referring to, being an practising geek who is at the leading edge of thought regarding Society 2.0 but many others have not yet engaged with the emerging concepts...

Bunnie defined a hacker very well in his book....we are going back to an older pre-80s version of the term which is *fantastic * but I think it is easily misinterpreted, particularly amongst the "millenials"...

Initially I  found it quite strange as a crafter to be lumped together with hackers...but my brain has absorbed the concept now...we do the same things for the same purposes. We like to tinker and want to make things better/less uniform. Obviously, Tim O'Reilly figured this out and this is why he is launching Craft: and why you are launching chumby with a craft element.

I am just glad that the connection has finally been made because this is how we are going to get girls engaged with technology. One day I hope to somehow organise an opportunity to teach what I know about e-textiles and craft in general to younger girls.

Craft has become very cool again, particularly in California. It still has a bit of an image problem in Australia. It is starting to change a little, particularly in Brisbane, and that is one of the big reasons I came here. It supports creative individuals on many levels.