Profile: Arduino
Authors
- Caleb Coffie
- Wyatt Winters
Rationale
There are so many subjects you could choose to profile, so why did you choose this one? What drew you into wanting to know more about the organization? How did you/your group decide on and agree?
Arduino has a huge influence on the maker community. This community is very open to FOSS. The team was wanting just learn more about Arduino and the the relationship between Atmel and Arduino.
Organizational Details
Is the subject of your profile a corporate entity?
Yes
What type?
Corporation
When was it founded?
1984
By whom?
George Perlegos
Original founder(s) still active?
No, he was actually fired. (source)
Publicly Traded? Since when? Initial Stock Price? Current stock price?
Yes, since 1991. Started at 13.50, currently 8.53 as of 2015-03-18. (source)
Has the company made any acquisitions? If yes, which companies, and what were their core products?
- Quantum Research Group Ltd. (Capacitive Sensing)
- Advanced Digital Design S.A (Power line communication)
- Smart metering product lines of IDT Corporation (Metering)
- Newport Media (IoT) (source)
Has the company made any investments in other companies? If yes, which ones.
None found.
Number of Employees?
5000
Where is HQ?
1600 Technology Drive
San Jose, California 95110
Does it have any other offices or locations?
Website?
Wikipedia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmel
Does your organization file any annual reports? Please include links to any relevant documents (i.e. 990, Annual Report, Year in Review, etc...)
Yes, they are all conveniently organized here
Communications
Social media for Atmel / Arduino
Does your subject participate in social media? If yes, please list a URL for each account, and reach within that community.
- Atmel:
- Twitter: @Atmel - 32.3K followers
- LinkedIn: 29K followers
- Arduino:
- Twitter: @arduino - 125K followers
Communications channels for Atmel / Arduino
What communication channels does your subject use to reach their public? Briefly describe and include a URL for each.
- Since Atmel is a gigantic corporation, this doesn’t cleanly apply.
- They do have a blog: http://blog.atmel.com/
Atmel / Arduino Conference Participation
Does your subject organize or participate in any conferences? If so, list them here, and provide links to any relevant sessions, keynotes, or content.
- Atmel has a nicely organized list of past conference appearances.
- Arudino organizes an Arudino Day.
Community Architecture
Your subject likely runs or contributes to one or more Open Source products or projects. Choose one (or more) of these and answer the following questions (provide links is applicable).
The project's IRC Channel
#arduino on freenode
Source Code repository
Mail list archive
Documentation
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Documentation
Other communication channels
Forums: http://forum.arduino.cc/
Project Website and/or Blog
Describe the software project, its purpose and goals.
Arduino - Create an easy to use open hardware made for makers.
Give brief history of the project. When was the Initial Commit? The latest commit?
- Initial commit: Thu Aug 25 21:06:28 2005 +0000
- Latest commit: Likely within 24 hours
Who approves patches? How many people?
Many people approve patches on their github repo. At first glance it looks like there are 15 people who can merge.
Who has commit access, or has had patches accepted? How many total?
About 15 have commit access and there are currently over 400 pull requests.
Has there been any turnover in the Core Team? (i.e. has the top 20% of contributors stayed the same over time? If not, how has it changed?)
It seems many of the contributors only contribute for a short period of time. There are only a couple people who have continually contributed. https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/graphs/contributors
Does the project have a BDFL, or Lead Developer? (BDFL == Benevolent Dictator for Life)
No there have been many people with commit access access and many of the developers have contributed.
Are the front and back end developers the same people? What is the proportion of each?
N/A
What have been some of the major bugs/problems/issues that have arisen during development? Who is responsible for quality control and bug repair?
There is a dedicated bug tracking forum here.
How is the project's participation trending and why?
It is increasing slowly. https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/graphs/contributors
In your opinion, does the project pass "The Raptor Test?" (i.e. Would the project survive if the BDFL, or most active contributor were eaten by a Velociraptor?) Why or why not?
Yes, it would survive because there are others that are actively contributing to the project and know their way around the project.
In your opinion, would the project survive if the core team, or most active 20% of contributors, were hit by a bus? Why or why not?
It would probably survive but would take a while to recover.
Does the project have an official "on-boarding" process in place? (new contributor guides, quickstarts, communication leads who focus specifically on newbies, etc...)
- The IDE itself has significant documentation.
- If you’re looking to contribute to the project I can’t seem to find anything besides their Contributor License Agreement
Does the project have Documentation available? Is it extensive? Does it include code examples?
Yes. It’s everywhere on their official site and even on the 3rd party sites explaining how to use arduinos.
If you were going to contribute to this project, but ran into trouble or hit blockers, who would you contact, and how?
Probably the IRC channel. #arduino on freenode
Based on these answers, how would you describe the decision making structure/process of this group? Is it hierarchical, consensus building, ruled by a small group, barely contained chaos, or ruled by a single or pair of individuals?
It seems like the project is ruled by a small group.
Is this the kind of structure you would enjoy working in? Why, or why not?
The community structure seems stable, and are continually on top of pull requests and issues.
Technology/Product
Section adapted from EFF Worksheet
Who invented, created, or sponsored the technology?
Arduino
What is the technology designed to do? How is it used?
Easy to use microcontrollers. Many Makers use the microcontrollers for various different projects.
Who would benefit from using this technology?
Anyone trying to break in using hardware in a project.
What kinds of companies or organizations (stakeholders) might have been concerned about the development of this technology? Why?
Startups or companies with small teams that need to prototype hardware projects.
Does/Did an aspect of copyright law play a role in controversies about the technology? How?
Copyright plays a part with it being open hardware. They open the code up to anyone to use on their own boards.
Business and Revenue Model
How was this organization funded originally?
Unknown, actually.
How does this organization make revenue?
Selling / licensing hardware
Which specific Open Source Revenue Models are utilized?
Widget Frosting
What investments/acquisitions has the organization made?
Covered above.