Cloud-based design and collaboration tools, online development environments and services for mashing up data are changing the practice of prototyping digital devices. New audiences and disciplines are embracing digital hardware. Meanwhile, making, moving and paying for physical things continues to be difficult, but that's changing, too. What used to be a one-off prototype in a box can now be a limited-edition product that's tightly coupled to multiple cloud-based services in a variety of ways. This opens new creative possibilities, while adding complexity to an already challenging discipline.

Some questions we will consider:

• How does cloud-based tools change the practice of hardware design?
• How does cloud-connected devices change sketched hardware?
• Does desktop manufacturing transform what people can conceptualize when sketching?
• How does the ability to make short-run consumer electronics changes the practice of teaching sketching in hardware?

Sketching in Hardware 2012 is sold out.

Organizer:
Mike Kuniavsky<mikek@sketching-in-hardware.com>