In a few words? Because we want you our growing and talented community to share code, learn and grow!
When we setup Pycom, it was all about innovation and sharing information between all levels of developers whether those be hobbyist or professionals. Opening up the source code is the essential ingredient in giving the tools to get the job done AND have fun in the process!
It is great to see the quality of code becoming available from the Pycom community and you can expect to see many innovative new features and enhancements to the products being delivered by such talented, passionate developers. All of this will benefit everybody. Only yesterday evening we received news of some graduates at US (west coast) University having built their own Quad copter controlled by some LoPys: Well done Michael!
So here are the key points to remember:
Fun in flexibility. By opening the source code we give everybody something that is at the core of what Pycom’s all about: the freedom to Go Invent. Every Pyoneer (developer) using our boards can now do exactly what they want while deep diving into the source code. One of them has already come back to tell us that even at first glance “….having the code answers many of the questions I have been thinking about asking”.
Accountability. We understand what we are accountable for and what it takes to bring a new generation of products to market. As a founding team, we already have more than 60 years combined experience in bringing technology products to market. But, Pycom is still only 12 months in and we’re still a small (but growing) team. Less people takes longer to complete things and that is somewhat incompatible with the behaviour of our most innovating Pyoneers who are inherently impatient (and rightfully so!). So, it’s simple. We know that by giving access to our source code we give you insight into what we are doing, the progress we are making and an opportunity for real participation. In parallel we will continue innovating whilst maturing the software.
Better security. Hot on everyone’s IoT agenda and eventually something that Pyoneers will need to consider too. We expect to see the Pycom boards in use in all sorts of products. It’s the same equation as above – more minds equals more grey matter to create better security solutions.
Finally, on a personal note, nothing is more satisfying than seeing and hearing our community interact with our products. Those same products that we brainstormed only a few months back and that are now a reality.
We know there’s been frustrations around our firmware progress being slow and we’re with you all on that. While out of our control for a long time, we’re, as you know, making progress and will have a fully functioning set of ESP32 based products during December. Espressif is an investor in Pycom and we are able to leverage this close relationship to accelerate development.
Despite the frustration, it is heartwarming and humbling to see developers who are passionate enough about our products to take time out of their busy lives to give us feedback – the good, the bad and the ugly. Hopefully, less of the ugly from now on and I’m not talking about Fred’s photo!
We’re writing a couple of other documents to support this initiative, amongst others an FAQ to address some of the most common questions answered. In the meantime, check the open source stuff out on github: https://github.com/pycom/pycom-micropython-sigfox
Bettina