ModKit Micro: Ed Baafi
ModKit Micro is about the “democratization of programming and engineering”. It builds on the solid foundation laid by Scratch and other graphical programming environments by lowering the bar to give new users access to the tools and techniques that were formerly the exclusive domain of engineers. Rather than typing code, users drag programming ‘blocks’ into stacks to write their programs. These programs can be uploaded to microcontroller boards that can be used to “add behaviors to everyday objects and electronic gadgets.” If you are familiar with Scratch, think of it as Scratch for hardware.
Ed Baafi, ModKit Micro’s founder, comes with strong credentials on the theory side of things, having done his graduate work at the MIT Media Lab, as well as a solid grounding in a practical setting. He put theory into practice while working with students at Boston Fab Lab and the Teach 2 Learn program. ModKit Micro was developed in direct response to student needs that were identified when working on these two projects. There is little to report about Mr. Baafi’s business acumen. This appears to be his first foray into the business world. The project is still in its early stages. They have released beta versions of their software to a closed group of users but have yet to produce a full release for the public. They are however, off to a good start. They secured funding through Kickstarter, reaching their goal of $20,000 in just 12 days. By the time they reached the end of their Kickstarter fundraising drive, they had raised over $53,000USD. The project has already developed partnerships with a number of major distributors of electronics for education and hobbyists.
Two more people round out his team. Colin Reisdorf, the Design Lead, comes with education and experience in graphic design and Amon Millner, the Learning Lead, leads the research in the educational space. Dr. Millner worked as a core member of the original design team for Scratch. Mr. Baafi does not appear to be anyone on the team with a great deal of experience in business.
As a teacher, i can certainly see the potential of this project. It provides a great alternative to much more expensive products such as LEGO Mindstorms. Their plans to monetize the project remain a little murky. They have distributed copies of the program on USB sticks to all of their Kickstarter backers and given them access to the online development environment. I have made a few attempts to contact them for more information and so far, haven’t received a response. Their blog seems to indicate that they are a little bit behind on meeting deadlines, but things are continuing to move along. This should be an interesting project to follow.
i am also planning to review this product for my A1 project. Any thoughts on this? Since information is a bit scarce, I am a little unsure, but I have been following the project for a while and I think it’s pretty exciting.
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
kstackhouse 8:42 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
While I am not familiar with this venture it does remind me of the emergence of WYSIWYG applications, such as our blog that allows the user to create great looking web-content without having to know the background codes involved. Even embedding a video is a copy and past of the url. This lends to your statment of “democratization”. Putting the power to create in the hands of more people. Sounds good to me.
tomwhyte1 7:13 pm on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I find the information regarding Kickstarter to be quite interesting. In my experience, Kickstarter has been a form of natural selection (or crowd sourcing with money) for small projects to get off the ground. Those that have enough potential usually get funded, those that have limited potential, well, receive limited funding.
Therefore, I wonder if like this company, will future ventures go this route to start the company to show its potential, and for investors to want small companies to show their potential by having these small investments to start them off…?
Thoughts?