Wired Magazine cover and article about drones

J

jdennings

Member
Wow ...

A few observations and opinions ... just that, opinions!!!

As a fairly long-time member of DIYDrones, (3-4 years) and for a time very closely following development (circa apm 2.3-2.5, I've toned it down since and at times totally given up, but that's another story) I never saw the kind of behaviors (criticism censored, moderators ganging up on members, etc ...) mentioned earlier. I did see encouragements to lobby developpers for bug fixes. I've seen more than one user blowing up a la "how come after two weeks of messing with paramaters x, y,z," I can't come even close to what I get after one hour unboxing my wk-m", and Anderson reply that it's not comparable, $1k vs $200, open-source vs closed, etc ... True to some extent.

Yet ... I find the title of the article absolutely ridiculous. Later in the article, Anderson writes: " Every industry has its garage-creation myth. Here's mine, on the start of the personal drone movement". Jesus! What the ...!!! Anderson started the personal drone movement? Embarassing ... The boys at MK were doing follow-me and RTH, esc were converted to i2c, Simonk was releasing opensource on esc mods, barrel rolls were done with kk boards when DIYDrones was only dreaming of carrying a key-chain camera 50' up without crashing ...

I cannot understand the kind of delusion Anderson is living in to write something like this. To me it's even worse that Gore inventing the Internet (Gore's original words were not as clear). Hypothesis: Either Anderson has lost touch with the outside world of DIY Drone making and unconsciously convinced himself that DIY Drone Making and DIYDrones is one and the same. Too busy counting his newest 1000 signed up members (every god knows when), a number of which may or may not build a multi ... ever ... Or (as Jes1111 seems to be convinced of) he is clearly and knowingly trying to lie his way through a re-write of history for personal profit. I dunno ... I have no problem with self-promotion in the business world, for a business cause. I have no problem with DIYDrones being a business. (Anderson makes no bones about it, and says it is the best way to support Open Source. I mainly buy that, and Opensource is a big deal to me, the ability to get anywhere in the source I changed or hack what I want).

But I do have a major problem with plain self-promotion based on invented reality. DIYDrones and Anderson is but a small factor in the current drone revolution, witness the AR.Drone, the Rabbit FCs, clones of OpenPilot Opensource and showing up for $50 on GLB in China, and the relative small audience Arducopter has on this forum and RCG.

So diydrones fame getting to Anderson's head, or cold calculated dishonesty?
Maybe a bit of both, no clue in what proportion.

EIther way, sad.
Really sad.
 

ChrisViperM

ChrisViperM

Active Member
I have followed this thread although I have no closer insight of how the game is played in all the OpenSource projects. I know that people who are involved in OpenSource are normally very dedicated people with a high tchnical knowledge, but also a little ego-driven (I don't mean that in a bad way)...so it's called OpenSource, but it is still a small "insider circle".....that might be the reason why there was not too much response to the thread. For the Joe Average like me it is alredy hard enough to cope with the (most of the time faulty) products the industry is offering, since most of us have a regular job or are running a company, others a professionals in Video and Foto and are just looking for reliable solution to get their camera into the air. In short words, most people don't have the time and knowlede to get deeper into OpenSource, but in order to understand this thread you HAVE TO go deeper.
Having that said and still trying to get more knowledge obout the "behind the scene" game in OpenSource, the whole thing reminds me of the story of Apple:

On one hand Steven Wozniak who was at that time a prgramming genius with a vision, on the other hand Steve Jobbs - an ego driven ice cold business man....Now knowing the history of Apple we know who of the two succeeded...and that shoud indicate who of the people mentioned in this thread will eventually succeed. It's like anywhere in live....the sad thing is we could change this game, but we won't....History has proofen this.

Chris
 

J

jes1111

Active Member
jdennings & ChrisViperM - two well considered, intelligent responses - I thank you - indicates (to me) that the time spent was worthwhile :)

So diydrones fame getting to Anderson's head, or cold calculated dishonesty?
Maybe a bit of both, no clue in what proportion.
Click to expand...
Definitely both, but more calculation. Certainly he's the type of character that revels in being contentious and feeds off the sycophancy around him. He positions himself as a visionary, a ground-breaking thinker. He's relentless in his self-promotion, selectively discarding the less successful efforts and monetizing the wins. But there's always a purpose behind such behaviour - a goal. My guess is that he's working for stardom - he's aiming for the White House. Not behind the desk in the Oval Office, but in front of it - as a policy shaper, a trusted advisor, a celebrated thinker. By the way, his next book is coming out soon - Makers: The New Industrial Revolution - in which he'll no doubt tell us how he kick-started domestic 3D printing ;-)
 

ChrisViperM

ChrisViperM

Active Member
It's always difficult to read in peoples minds and find out what is the motor and the motivation behind their actions, and standing in the light might most propably be a major one...BUT he is also a business man....and he is not dumb. One of the reasons he is trying to lift himself into a more powerful position - politically wise - might be the fact that he smells - or even knows - what kind of restrictions from the political side this "industry" is facing, and one thing is for sure - restrictions are about to come as sure as there is an Amen at the end of every prayer....and restrictions are going to hurt sales and turnover. Never before it has been that Joe Average is playing around with technology which was strictly reserved for the Military, and this is creating fear in the heads of a lot of politicians....and by becoming a "policy shaper" he could try to shape the upcoming laws and restrictions in his favor....

just my 2 cents...
 
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Breezemont

Breezemont

Member
The drone/multicopter world is an incestuous and vicious one.
Coming from the wide open and friendly world of scratch built foamies this behaviour in the RC world -- while not unusual on the innertubes -- is strange and somehow fascinating to me. Much like a train wreck, I can't not look.

dankers, the irony in your posts is ... well.... View attachment 5183
 

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J

jes1111

Active Member
Breezemont - not sure what you mean, but...

There is, surely, a distinct difference between foamies and autopilot systems - in terms of time, money, expertise and so on. Any functional autopilot system represents a massive investment and has a huge "value". Imagine a commercial company - how much money and time would they have to invest to go from a blank sheet of paper to a saleable product? And how much potential profit would such a Market-ready product represent? Is it any wonder that the people involved tend to take it rather seriously?
 


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