The Internet of Things can change the way citizens live, travel, and take care of each other. These developments are being supported by large corporations as well as startups. Arduino has been part of the conversation since early on.
We believe that the best way to grow this environment is to develop open source platforms and protocols to propose as an alternative to the myriad of proprietary hardware and software platforms each one of the big players are developing.
We believe in creating tools that make these technologies understandable to the most diverse set of people as possible, this is the only way to make sure innovation benefits most of humanity.
We propose that connected devices should be: Open, Sustainable and Fair.
Arduino believes that by building new connected products with open source software, hardware and communication protocols we can enable a more innovative environment for makers, entrepreneurs & corporations. By giving users the ability to share their work more openly, we share challenges, solve problems and build better connected products together.
We believe that the best way to foster diversity in innovation is to build tools and technologies that are useable by as many people as possible. The more people we bring to this field the more innovative will be the ideas we’ll have access to.
Many new connected products are developed with little concern for long term user experience or sustainability. Most connected products are expensive, so when we ask people to make an investment, it should last for a long time. Startups get acquired and products stop getting updated, eventually fail and are thrown away.
Arduino believes designing a connected product should be done using design for disassembly, Cradle to Cradle, Open Design or any other methodology to make sure the product can be easily given a new life, upgraded or moved over to other cloud service providers.
We believe in an approach to timeless product design which invites people to develop long term relationships with their objects. Forcing people to buy a new products every 6 months is not a sustainable solution.
Design & technology should also be universally accessible and not a luxury. This means that products can be designed, manufacture and supported in different places around the world taking advantage of the diverse manufacturing capability available.
Connected products are usually paired to a variety of cloud services and APIs. Often their core functionality depends on those services collecting data in a variety of ways. This data is often stored and used by third parties hiding behind thick terms and condition contracts. The more connected products become, the more the opportunity for data collection, control and surveillance. Arduino believes you should have control of your own cloud service and control who accesses your data always. You should learn to build and maintain this yourself, help others build their own or use services which pledge to support these values (Arduino Cloud.)