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> It would be cool if there was a "Wikipedia" of reverse engineering, whereby every consumer item out there has a web of articles, and an army of the curious ha

> It would be cool if there was a "Wikipedia" of reverse engineering, whereby every consumer item out there has a web of articles, and an army of the curious has fun by stripping devices down and collaboratively documenting innards to the lowest level possible. Not to be too shameless, but I was excited to see someone else explicate the idea. A few buddies and I are building a platform for precisely that[1]. Images can be annotated with hover-over notes with linked components, and it is possible to search for things by component (ex. c:msp430). We have also been bringing e-waste to Maker Faires to give kids the opportunity to get comfortable disassembling things and identifying components and basic engineering concepts. 1. https://www.takeitapart.com https://www.takeitapart.com

DarkLinkXXXX 12y ago
THANK YOU!
raphman_ 12y ago
Nice idea. However, you might want to make it clearer what the value of your service over other services is. I do not really see a big advantage over Flickr or Wordpress. Having a nice editor is enough, given the following issues: It is also not clear to me how you want to earn money from this service. Therefore, I would hesitate to put my content on your site without knowing whether it will still be online in a few years, and how you will monetize my contribution. The lack of open licensing options (Creative Commons, GNU FDL, whatever) and obvious export formats immediately put me off. I would guess a large part of your target demographic (of content creators) would be hesitant to put hard work into content that is not freely shareable and modifiable. Given the focus of your site, this is also an interesting requirement in the TOS: > [You agree] Not to decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of our software or Site;
- tomkinstinch 12y ago
  The value is simple: It makes it easier to tell a narrative, and it is a central repository with a common goal and central theme. It is easy to bulk upload a set of images, crop, rotate, sort, and annotate them into a composite disassembly guide that includes photo notes, required tools, and a Bill of Materials of consituent components (with links to Octopart). I invite you to create a guide and see how much easier it is to document disassembly, than by using something like Flickr (which is great, but less specific in application). As for the TOS clause, that's standard legal protection. The terms also explicitly permit derivative works within the site. We're evaluating open licenses for the future, but for now it is easier to let content owners retain copyright.

DarkLinkXXXX 12y ago

THANK YOU!

raphman_ 12y ago

Nice idea. However, you might want to make it clearer what the value of your service over other services is. I do not really see a big advantage over Flickr or Wordpress. Having a nice editor is enough, given the following issues: It is also not clear to me how you want to earn money from this service. Therefore, I would hesitate to put my content on your site without knowing whether it will still be online in a few years, and how you will monetize my contribution. The lack of open licensing options (Creative Commons, GNU FDL, whatever) and obvious export formats immediately put me off. I would guess a large part of your target demographic (of content creators) would be hesitant to put hard work into content that is not freely shareable and modifiable. Given the focus of your site, this is also an interesting requirement in the TOS: > [You agree] Not to decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of our software or Site;

tomkinstinch 12y ago
The value is simple: It makes it easier to tell a narrative, and it is a central repository with a common goal and central theme. It is easy to bulk upload a set of images, crop, rotate, sort, and annotate them into a composite disassembly guide that includes photo notes, required tools, and a Bill of Materials of consituent components (with links to Octopart). I invite you to create a guide and see how much easier it is to document disassembly, than by using something like Flickr (which is great, but less specific in application). As for the TOS clause, that's standard legal protection. The terms also explicitly permit derivative works within the site. We're evaluating open licenses for the future, but for now it is easier to let content owners retain copyright.