Peter Dawe Wants You!

boxPeter Dawe, the Internet entrepreneur who brought the Internet to the UK (in the mid 1980s) and founded the country’s first ISP, has put out the call for “hardware tinkerers” who are competent and interested in becoming involved with his latest hardware project. Dawe is a bit of an unpredictable character and is known for his enthusiasm and tireless pursuit of innovation in the tech industry.

Recipient of the Order of the British Empire, Dawe works relentlessly to make technology more affordable and he is working on a solar powered water pump that will help developing nations maintain a clean water supply with little investment. His current project, tentatively known as the BabelBox, is effectively a set top box that runs Linux.

The BabelBox was made for the express purpose of being modified by user. The project shuns the common “walled garden” concept that has been implemented in many the set top boxes released by large companies like AOL. The very purpose for this project is to break down the walls and encourage users to dream up ways to make the device better suited for their lifestyle and desires.

Obvious uses for the BabelBox include porting DVR software like MythTV to turn it into a more expandable, configurable version of current generation digital video recorders. One of the most interesting things about the device is the fact that it does not support any of the DRM technologies in use, nor are there plans to implement support for it.

This could be seen as a disadvantage, but for people who think that DRM is troublesome and have no plans to use media that is encoded with DRM, the BabelBox could be an excellent test platform for creating and testing alternative (less invasive) content management solutions.

For the brave, creative souls interested in enlisting in the BabelBox development army, he is accepting submissions for potentially innovative ideas to be used with the BabelBox via his email. This part of the project is being run as contest, of sorts. Dawe has teamed up with the Reg Hardware website to help him attract potential tinkerers, judge the entries and then chose three developers to begin working on the BabelBox project.

Below is a simple diagram that outline the dimensions of the BabelBox:

 whoo

boxPeter Dawe, the Internet entrepreneur who brought the Internet to the UK (in the mid 1980s) and founded the country’s first ISP, has put out the call for “hardware tinkerers” who are competent and interested in becoming involved with his latest hardware project. Dawe is a bit of an unpredictable character and is known for his enthusiasm and tireless pursuit of innovation in the tech industry.

Recipient of the Order of the British Empire, Dawe works relentlessly to make technology more affordable and he is working on a solar powered water pump that will help developing nations maintain a clean water supply with little investment. His current project, tentatively known as the BabelBox, is effectively a set top box that runs Linux.

The BabelBox was made for the express purpose of being modified by user. The project shuns the common “walled garden” concept that has been implemented in many the set top boxes released by large companies like AOL. The very purpose for this project is to break down the walls and encourage users to dream up ways to make the device better suited for their lifestyle and desires.

Obvious uses for the BabelBox include porting DVR software like MythTV to turn it into a more expandable, configurable version of current generation digital video recorders. One of the most interesting things about the device is the fact that it does not support any of the DRM technologies in use, nor are there plans to implement support for it.

This could be seen as a disadvantage, but for people who think that DRM is troublesome and have no plans to use media that is encoded with DRM, the BabelBox could be an excellent test platform for creating and testing alternative (less invasive) content management solutions.

For the brave, creative souls interested in enlisting in the BabelBox development army, he is accepting submissions for potentially innovative ideas to be used with the BabelBox via his email. This part of the project is being run as contest, of sorts. Dawe has teamed up with the Reg Hardware website to help him attract potential tinkerers, judge the entries and then chose three developers to begin working on the BabelBox project.

Below is a simple diagram that outline the dimensions of the BabelBox:

 whoo

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