FirstBuild, a new global co-creation community, debuted its first product, Green Bean (retail $19.95), at MakerCon in New York City. The open-source maker module enables users to hack into and create appliance controls for select GE appliances through a software development kit. GE is granting tinkerers and programmers access to the microcomputer inside specific GE appliances so that anyone can build apps to customize and control them.
FirstBuild.com is a physical and online community dedicated to designing, engineering and building the next generation of major appliances. Community members identify market needs, participate in product development and watch via social media as ideas move from mind to market in only a matter of months at the FirstBuild Microfactory in Louisville, Ky.
“Ideas are only the starting point,” said Taylor Dawson, FirstBuild product enthusiast and GE Appliances engineer. “At FirstBuild, we believe that we can create better products by teaming up with a diverse community, building our ideas and experiencing the benefits of the things we build. Green Bean is the ultimate embodiment of this vision. By giving anyone and everyone a direct path into the brain of our home appliances, we are endowing them with the ability to reprogram and reimagine the way that their appliances could work. Green Bean is limited only by your creativity and programming skills, and for FirstBuild, it’s a way to create appliances collaboratively with the best minds from around the world and bring them to market in only a matter of months.”
