OStatic

In February, I wrote about GizmoForYou, an interesting site that has been described as Santa's workshop for gadgets. Registered members create wish lists for hardware inventions, and then skilled people execute the best ideas. After thinking about the model that the site uses, I began to think that a similar model might work well for open source software development. The idea is actually not new. For example, Mozilla has routinely called for users to submit ideas for Firefox extensions, and then encouraged developers to execute the ideas. Along the same lines, in this post I've come up with three ideas for open source applications that aren't available to me now (at least I don't think they are) that I would very much like to have. I also think there could be business prospects for them.

We've written a few times about offbeat hardware ideas that take advantage of collaboration principles from the open source arena. In the links just provided, you'll find open source robots, Linux-based gadgets targeted for outer space, and more. The latest spin on this idea is GizmoForYou. As LinuxDevices notes, the site functions like Santa's workshop, building devices to order, based on wish list requests from registered members. The gadgets that get built by developers based on community input go up for sale, but there are some core open source principles at work beneath the hood. Here's how it works.