TECHWISE : We’ve been hacked!!

TO: Bob Carter
FROM: Murray Small
SUBJECT: We’ve been hacked!!
Hi Bob
You’re not going to like this!
I was browsing on the web in the weekend, and I discovered someone’s managed to reverse-engineer our Wizzoo. They posted our code on the net, and now everyone’s making changes to it! What should we do? Time to call the lawyers?
Murray

TO: Murray Small
FROM: Bob Carter
SUBJECT: Re: We’ve been hacked!
Hi Murray
Yeah, isn’t it great? I wasn’t sure we’d hit the mark with the Wizzoo, but this confirms it. Let’s get the product documentation, code and everything up on the web. I want to give those hackers everything they need – this could turn out to be real winner! Talk soon,
Bob

Does this sound like some kind of crazy fantasy conversation? It could be less fictional than you think.
Lately I’ve been coming across examples of product-hacking that, far from being problem for the company making the products, have turned out to be godsend. It’s called customer-led innovation, and whether it happens by accident or intention, sometimes it can result in the development of hugely successful products or even whole new markets.
Take Lego for instance. When it launched new product – build-it-yourself robot kit called Mindstorm – it wasn’t long before an enterprising audience of hackers reverse-engineered the technology and built bunch of unofficial tools that could program Mindstorm robots in ways the Lego team had never envisaged. Instead of reaching for the legal team, Lego encouraged this innovation, and Mindstorm rapidly became one of the most successful Lego products of all time.
Ditto for the robotic toy, Robosapien, designed and built by ex-US government robotics expert Mark Tilden. Websites have sprung up showing how to add cameras and other features, and how to use voice recognition to command the robot’s movements, allowing it to, amongst other things, dance.
Yet another example I uncovered recently is device from Linksys known by the uninspiring name of the NSLU2. The NSLU2 – or Slug as its community of users calls it – is small, inexpensive (under $200) device allowing home or small business network users to attach one or more hard drives to their network without the need for server.
Because the Slug runs Linux – the popular open-source operating system – and because Linksys engineers had not completely locked up the device, number of users found the device could be hacked, and quickly community of Slug hackers formed. This community provides information and tools to turn the Slug into, amongst other things, media-server, web-server, or firewall instead of, or in addition to, its original disc-sharing function.
Without the world wide web to provide the infrastructure for communities of Slug or Robosapien users to coalesce, these initiatives would never have got off the ground. Instead, communities of like-minded individuals have used the web to come together, exchange information, test each other’s modifications, and work together to massively enhance the original products.
These examples offer couple of salient lessons. Firstly, they’re reminder of the power of the web to allow us to work with customers to produce products and services that better meet their needs.
Secondly, they’re reminder that whatever we produce, customers always want to customise, improve or integrate them with other products. Would the Apple iPod have succeeded over its rivals to the same extent that it has without its thriving market of third-party add-ons and customisation products?
Too often we’re guilty of second-guessing what customers want to do with products. We’d be better off making stuff flexible enough so that customers themselves can customise it to their needs.
So next time you’re thinking about developing new product or service, it’s worth considering how you can involve customers in the design process. It might just deliver the innovation that turns your product into the next big thing.

Mark Evans runs Techtelligence, consultancy specialising in ICT, internet and media strategy, research and communications. [email protected]