I'm retiring - and a request for comments.
Posted: 24 Mar 2015, 15:09
I made a subsite to be the definitive reference and knowledge dump on the hardware side of DIY Book Scanning. It's mostly complete as of 4/31/2015. Check it out here:
http://diybookscanner.org/forum/index.php
Hey all, I'm retiring from the project.
As you know, I've been working on DIY Book Scanning continuously since 2009. Although I've been quiet for the last two years here on the forum, I've actually been more involved and more invested than ever. For the last year and a half straight, I've committed every last night and weekend to developing and manufacturing the Archivist. I assembled a 1700SF workshop in downtown Los Angeles dedicated to developing book scanners. This shop was also my home - I literally lived among my tools, the tools for producing these machines, and slept in the sawdust-y bed in the corner. As you all know, I'm a man of outsized ambition and zealous motivation, and that manifested IRL in the time, effort, and machinery I put toward making the Archivist. There were months when I would go 20,000USD into the red, and then pay it all back the following month. On two occasions, I barely made rent. I spent 8-12 hour days at my day job in R&D making optical systems, and then I would come home to work on the Archivist for 3-5 hours a night, and all weekend. I've learned more than I've ever learned, and perfected more than I've ever perfected. It might seem strange that I was not on the forum this whole time - but now I can finally explain myself. When you work in an R&D lab whose sole purpose is "generating IP", you simply cannot participate in a public, Open Source way without "contaminating" the public ideas. In short, I was protecting the ongoing work here from corporate ownership/influence, while carefully and privately developing our next-gen technology, completely outside and unattached from corporate influences and resources. I'm so committed and fastidious about keeping these two worlds separate that I actually engineered in a gap in my job at Disney Research so I could release the Hackerspace scanner without issues. I've since left Disney Research and moved on to other gigs - in fact, several moves in the last six months.
My intention for the last three years has been to build the Archivist and the book scanner work into a sustainable business - ideally one that could live without me. While my public and private identity have become so completely intertwined with this project that I publicly call myself the "DIY Book Scanner Guy", the worst thing that I could do to a crowdsourced project is make myself central to everything - a lynchpin that could be pulled out and cause things to disappear. As a result, I've worked hard to bring on (and to, where possible, pay for) help, in the form of Scann, Noah, Matti, and others (and I've been able to send free equipment to core developers who helped wherever possible). Their help, and the help of other leaders like Duerig and Jbaiter, was way more than I deserved, and more than enough, but just too late for me to not burn out. It was my fault for not seeking help sooner. I mean, I still remember the first week after Scann took over communication for me, my phone didn't beep 30+ times a day with email... tears come to my eyes thinking about the peace and silence she afforded me. But still, I wasn't able to find a balance and build a self-sustaining system.
If you want a perfect example, it's this... after all these years I still haven't scanned even a third of my books. It's because I've repeatedly given away scanners (leaving me without), or I've spent those nights and weekends making more scanners for other people instead of solving my own problem.
The beginnings of this project catapulted me out of Fargo, ND to brief internet fame and then to Los Angeles, CA. It was kind of amazing. Imagine sleeping in a garage at night, and giving talks at Harvard the next day. When I was out giving talks about the project, and the cameras would turn off at the end, I would ask the room "Does anybody know where a weird person like me might get a job?? I have no vision" (and I didn't, I was poor and desperate) Most people would just wish me luck. But Harry Lewis, having seen me speak at D is for Digitize (J.G invited me there, thank you James!!) offered me something else. He told me I didn't seem like a grad student and said I should meet "a guy from Disney". The rest is history - I spent the next four years prototyping optical systems and crazy inventions for them in a superb lab in LA.
I mention these names and these big things, but there are hundreds of other humbling gifts from people along the way. I remember ThatTallGuy taking me on tours of Boston, I remember meeting crews of makers in NYC, I remember Rob driving there to hang; the countless kindnesses people offered, the advice, the thoughts, the beers, the sense that together, we could figure this out. That I would find a way to make it all work. I remember, very completely, every one of you that I met IRL. Spamsickle, Rob, ThatTallGuy, MellowYello, and many, many others. I was always so proud of every story that emerged from this place and this project, and I was so proud to talk about all these amazing stories. I led every talk with them.
And I can't forget the other gifts I've been given, or the ways we've all been recognized - the Maker Faire awards, the NYT articles, the Wired pieces, the fact that we're written up in books as a perfect example of crowdsourcing (we have always led by example), the fact that I'm a character in a book about books; that I met my best friend and the love of my life through this project, and that I learned more about "intellectual property" than I would ever care to know... this project changed my life.
But that also brings up the spectre of the future. The project began out of a strangeness in the world. I was injured by a human driving a car, which led a software algorithm to show me a camera, which taught me that cameras had become cheaper than textbooks - a strange world indeed. And from that unlikely place came all this. Now, we have a new component beyond "just" a cheap camera - we now have cheap computers. And when Johannes came along and showed us the incredible vision of what a new, integrated system could look like, in the form of Spreads on the Raspi, I felt my motivation completely renewwed. I knew that together, we could build something amazing, and we did. But Johannes and I are both the kind of person who, once we see the better way to build something, don't want to maintain old way, we want to build it the new, smarter way. And so when I met Jonathon Duerig, and saw him do the diligent and difficult work of making a stable version of Spreads during the Beta, I knew that he was the next person with the stamina and the depth to maintain the project into the future. And crucially, he is not just a good human, he is a programmer to the core.
The scanner has always been 50% software - at least. And in the process of doing all this manufacturing, I've neglected that half of myself. And to be honest with you, I have learned that I simply cannot "lead" software development like I can hardware -- in fact, I cannot take you into the future at all. Because the future is ephemeral; the future is not a hulking scanner but a machine made of light and software. I can't get you there at all because I'm not a skilled programmer, and that deficiency has left me with very mixed feelings about myself and the way I went about things. I could have learned to write software in six years, and it would have required no machines, no lab, no financial insanity. But Golan Levin once asked me, when I said I wanted to becomme a world-class programmer "Have you learned nothing from your own project??" And what he meant was that it was you, the reader, who should be helping out with software- that we should be doing it together and that I shouldn't think it's my responsibility. And I agree with him, but the deficiency is too severe and impacting to be left unaddressed for the sake of making a few thousand bucks filling more cardboard boxes with more plywood. I have learned that even though we can make a cheap and excellent scanner stand from common materials, the future is getting away from the physical. Truly, it mirrors what we're doing with books.
Another major frustration with the project has been Open Hardware. Although I used to be a very strong advocate of that approach, I no longer believe that the actual Open Hardware license is useful or has meaning. It is a copyright-based license which is trying to protect hardware, and that's wrongheaded and leads people the wrong way. In a first-to-file world, it means others can claim your work. The truth about Open Hardware is that it is a legal fiction, nothing more than a social contract. In addition, just making design files available doesn't teach people about your design rationale, which, in devices like this is more important than the gross shape of an object. So I have spent the last month converting the design into Public Domain, and documenting, in full, the design rationale in a way that seeks to educate an audience new to the technology. I want to lead by example. There is no hardware more open than Public Domain. So I created http://diybookscanner.org/archivist . Go there and you can see the amount of effort and thought that went into this new system, and you can also see what *I* think it means to be truly open. It's more than a logo and a social contract.
In closing, I want to thank everyone here for everything. I'll check in once in a while, but I'm handing over the future of production to Duerig. I trust him 100% with everything. I hope I can convince Scann to keep an eye on the forums. And I will miss our constant chat very, very much. But it's time for me to go do some work and learn some things to bring myself to the next level, and there's only one way to do that. Focus.
I'll check in for about a week more for comments on this post. Please check http://diybookscanner.org/archivist and let me know your thoughts.
Scan the planet.
Daniel
http://diybookscanner.org/forum/index.php
Hey all, I'm retiring from the project.
As you know, I've been working on DIY Book Scanning continuously since 2009. Although I've been quiet for the last two years here on the forum, I've actually been more involved and more invested than ever. For the last year and a half straight, I've committed every last night and weekend to developing and manufacturing the Archivist. I assembled a 1700SF workshop in downtown Los Angeles dedicated to developing book scanners. This shop was also my home - I literally lived among my tools, the tools for producing these machines, and slept in the sawdust-y bed in the corner. As you all know, I'm a man of outsized ambition and zealous motivation, and that manifested IRL in the time, effort, and machinery I put toward making the Archivist. There were months when I would go 20,000USD into the red, and then pay it all back the following month. On two occasions, I barely made rent. I spent 8-12 hour days at my day job in R&D making optical systems, and then I would come home to work on the Archivist for 3-5 hours a night, and all weekend. I've learned more than I've ever learned, and perfected more than I've ever perfected. It might seem strange that I was not on the forum this whole time - but now I can finally explain myself. When you work in an R&D lab whose sole purpose is "generating IP", you simply cannot participate in a public, Open Source way without "contaminating" the public ideas. In short, I was protecting the ongoing work here from corporate ownership/influence, while carefully and privately developing our next-gen technology, completely outside and unattached from corporate influences and resources. I'm so committed and fastidious about keeping these two worlds separate that I actually engineered in a gap in my job at Disney Research so I could release the Hackerspace scanner without issues. I've since left Disney Research and moved on to other gigs - in fact, several moves in the last six months.
My intention for the last three years has been to build the Archivist and the book scanner work into a sustainable business - ideally one that could live without me. While my public and private identity have become so completely intertwined with this project that I publicly call myself the "DIY Book Scanner Guy", the worst thing that I could do to a crowdsourced project is make myself central to everything - a lynchpin that could be pulled out and cause things to disappear. As a result, I've worked hard to bring on (and to, where possible, pay for) help, in the form of Scann, Noah, Matti, and others (and I've been able to send free equipment to core developers who helped wherever possible). Their help, and the help of other leaders like Duerig and Jbaiter, was way more than I deserved, and more than enough, but just too late for me to not burn out. It was my fault for not seeking help sooner. I mean, I still remember the first week after Scann took over communication for me, my phone didn't beep 30+ times a day with email... tears come to my eyes thinking about the peace and silence she afforded me. But still, I wasn't able to find a balance and build a self-sustaining system.
If you want a perfect example, it's this... after all these years I still haven't scanned even a third of my books. It's because I've repeatedly given away scanners (leaving me without), or I've spent those nights and weekends making more scanners for other people instead of solving my own problem.
The beginnings of this project catapulted me out of Fargo, ND to brief internet fame and then to Los Angeles, CA. It was kind of amazing. Imagine sleeping in a garage at night, and giving talks at Harvard the next day. When I was out giving talks about the project, and the cameras would turn off at the end, I would ask the room "Does anybody know where a weird person like me might get a job?? I have no vision" (and I didn't, I was poor and desperate) Most people would just wish me luck. But Harry Lewis, having seen me speak at D is for Digitize (J.G invited me there, thank you James!!) offered me something else. He told me I didn't seem like a grad student and said I should meet "a guy from Disney". The rest is history - I spent the next four years prototyping optical systems and crazy inventions for them in a superb lab in LA.
I mention these names and these big things, but there are hundreds of other humbling gifts from people along the way. I remember ThatTallGuy taking me on tours of Boston, I remember meeting crews of makers in NYC, I remember Rob driving there to hang; the countless kindnesses people offered, the advice, the thoughts, the beers, the sense that together, we could figure this out. That I would find a way to make it all work. I remember, very completely, every one of you that I met IRL. Spamsickle, Rob, ThatTallGuy, MellowYello, and many, many others. I was always so proud of every story that emerged from this place and this project, and I was so proud to talk about all these amazing stories. I led every talk with them.
And I can't forget the other gifts I've been given, or the ways we've all been recognized - the Maker Faire awards, the NYT articles, the Wired pieces, the fact that we're written up in books as a perfect example of crowdsourcing (we have always led by example), the fact that I'm a character in a book about books; that I met my best friend and the love of my life through this project, and that I learned more about "intellectual property" than I would ever care to know... this project changed my life.
But that also brings up the spectre of the future. The project began out of a strangeness in the world. I was injured by a human driving a car, which led a software algorithm to show me a camera, which taught me that cameras had become cheaper than textbooks - a strange world indeed. And from that unlikely place came all this. Now, we have a new component beyond "just" a cheap camera - we now have cheap computers. And when Johannes came along and showed us the incredible vision of what a new, integrated system could look like, in the form of Spreads on the Raspi, I felt my motivation completely renewwed. I knew that together, we could build something amazing, and we did. But Johannes and I are both the kind of person who, once we see the better way to build something, don't want to maintain old way, we want to build it the new, smarter way. And so when I met Jonathon Duerig, and saw him do the diligent and difficult work of making a stable version of Spreads during the Beta, I knew that he was the next person with the stamina and the depth to maintain the project into the future. And crucially, he is not just a good human, he is a programmer to the core.
The scanner has always been 50% software - at least. And in the process of doing all this manufacturing, I've neglected that half of myself. And to be honest with you, I have learned that I simply cannot "lead" software development like I can hardware -- in fact, I cannot take you into the future at all. Because the future is ephemeral; the future is not a hulking scanner but a machine made of light and software. I can't get you there at all because I'm not a skilled programmer, and that deficiency has left me with very mixed feelings about myself and the way I went about things. I could have learned to write software in six years, and it would have required no machines, no lab, no financial insanity. But Golan Levin once asked me, when I said I wanted to becomme a world-class programmer "Have you learned nothing from your own project??" And what he meant was that it was you, the reader, who should be helping out with software- that we should be doing it together and that I shouldn't think it's my responsibility. And I agree with him, but the deficiency is too severe and impacting to be left unaddressed for the sake of making a few thousand bucks filling more cardboard boxes with more plywood. I have learned that even though we can make a cheap and excellent scanner stand from common materials, the future is getting away from the physical. Truly, it mirrors what we're doing with books.
Another major frustration with the project has been Open Hardware. Although I used to be a very strong advocate of that approach, I no longer believe that the actual Open Hardware license is useful or has meaning. It is a copyright-based license which is trying to protect hardware, and that's wrongheaded and leads people the wrong way. In a first-to-file world, it means others can claim your work. The truth about Open Hardware is that it is a legal fiction, nothing more than a social contract. In addition, just making design files available doesn't teach people about your design rationale, which, in devices like this is more important than the gross shape of an object. So I have spent the last month converting the design into Public Domain, and documenting, in full, the design rationale in a way that seeks to educate an audience new to the technology. I want to lead by example. There is no hardware more open than Public Domain. So I created http://diybookscanner.org/archivist . Go there and you can see the amount of effort and thought that went into this new system, and you can also see what *I* think it means to be truly open. It's more than a logo and a social contract.
In closing, I want to thank everyone here for everything. I'll check in once in a while, but I'm handing over the future of production to Duerig. I trust him 100% with everything. I hope I can convince Scann to keep an eye on the forums. And I will miss our constant chat very, very much. But it's time for me to go do some work and learn some things to bring myself to the next level, and there's only one way to do that. Focus.
I'll check in for about a week more for comments on this post. Please check http://diybookscanner.org/archivist and let me know your thoughts.
Scan the planet.
Daniel
