[Cialug] OT - Toys

[Josh More]

Given the numbers of our little group that are spawning sub processes,
I've been thinking about toys.

Open source toys, to be specific.

See, the problem with toys is that kids outgrow them so quickly.  This
makes sense for the monolithic toy industry, as they can make lots and
lots of money.  Those parents who cannot afford it, are forced to either
buy toys on the grey/flea market, or make their own.

Of course, there's nothing stopping every parent from making their own
toys.  But there is the matter of quality.  See, on one hand, you have a
large company making toys, and employing hundreds of employees to make
the newest ten-gallon superduper soakers, robots that can turn into
gumdrops, and baby dolls that eat, sleep, cry, and require emergency
midnight visits to the ER only to be perfectly fine once you actually
get there.  On the other hand, you have Joe, working in his basement, to
make his kid a hand painted wooden ball in a cup.  ("The ball is on a
string and attached to the cup.")  The two models just don't compete.

That's where we come in.

I propose that we organize all of the little, independent toy designers
into a planet-wide movement.  All they have to do is release their
designs into the public domain.  Then, other designers can look over
their designs, and either improve it, or incorporate aspect of their
design into their own.  Obviously, we'd have to be careful to protect
this intellectual property, so that the big guys, like MegaToyCorp
couldn't just take it.  I suggest we use a form of viral licensing so
that if a big player takes a design, than they have to share all of
their toys too!

I figure that above this level, we'd find companies that are interested
in producing new and novel(l) toys like red hats and fedoras for dress
up, yellow dogs for the young ones, balancing toys with both stable and
unstable branches (hey, you try punning "debian" and "ubuntu").

Obviously, it would help if everything were built in a modular fashion,
so that everyone could actually save work and money in the deal.

I figure, we can start with horses, since most kids like them.  We can
call it "Our Little Ponies"

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Sorry, blame Nathan for giving me the idea.


-Josh More, RHCE, CISSP, NCLP, GIAC 
 morej at alliancetechnologies.net 
 515-245-7701