Open, collaborative, and agile: the next industrial revolution | Paolo Sammicheli | TEDxSiena
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0:15 - 0:17My name is Paolo Sammicheli,
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0:17 - 0:21and my next car will travel
at 40 Km per liter. -
0:23 - 0:26I am here to tell you
the story of Wikispeed -
0:26 - 0:29and of a modern hero,
with a heroic name: Joe Justice. -
0:31 - 0:33In 2008, Progressive Insurance
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0:34 - 0:37offered a ten million dollars prize
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0:38 - 0:39for an XPrize competition,
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0:39 - 0:44challenging the attendees to build a car
that could travel 100 miles per gallon: -
0:48 - 0:49for us Europeans,
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0:49 - 0:55this means 100 Km
with 2,8 liters of petrol. -
0:56 - 0:59In 2008 there already were
some 100Mpg cars. -
1:00 - 1:04But they were more like this bobsled:
they could just host the driver, -
1:05 - 1:08and sure they didn't meet
legal road safety requirements. -
1:09 - 1:12One of the things
the XPrize commission asked -
1:12 - 1:15us to do was to meet
these road safety requirements -
1:15 - 1:16to drive in United States.
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1:18 - 1:23Joe Justice decided to join,
and at first he was basically alone, -
1:24 - 1:28but thanks to social media,
he started sharing via web -
1:28 - 1:31his experiences, his mistakes,
and the lessons he was learning. -
1:33 - 1:34And pretty soon,
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1:34 - 1:38a community of 44 people,
from four different countries, -
1:39 - 1:42virtually knocked on his door to help.
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1:43 - 1:45And so Wikispeed was born.
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1:46 - 1:49Wikispeed, in just three months,
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1:49 - 1:52with no corporate or university support,
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1:53 - 1:57built the first prototype
and joined the competition, -
1:58 - 2:01achieving a whopping tenth place,
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2:01 - 2:04beating more than 100 other cars
from all around the world -
2:04 - 2:07sponsored by universities and companies,
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2:08 - 2:11in what the New York Times
called "incredible". -
2:14 - 2:15How did they do that?
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2:17 - 2:19Joe Justice, just like me,
is a software developer, -
2:20 - 2:23and he took the best practices
of software engineering -
2:23 - 2:27to enable him to create products
and innovate quickly. -
2:28 - 2:34Flexible methods with weird names
like Scrum, Kanban, eXtreme Programming. -
2:36 - 2:38With the $10.000 consolation prize,
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2:39 - 2:42the team could afford
their car's road legalization tests. -
2:45 - 2:48In 2011, Wikispeed received an invitation
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2:48 - 2:52to show the car in the world's
largest auto show. -
2:53 - 2:57In Detroit, Michigan, in a sense
"the belly of the monster". -
2:57 - 3:01The world's most important
car brands would also attend. -
3:03 - 3:05Great excitement
in the team, but also panic! -
3:06 - 3:10The Wikispeed team wanted
something nicer, for a car show, -
3:10 - 3:14than the prototype
they used for the challenge. -
3:14 - 3:17But creating a custom shell,
would take three months and $36,000. -
3:21 - 3:25So Joe came back to school,
and took training in composite materials. -
3:27 - 3:29Once back with the team,
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3:29 - 3:32they started making models
of the new Wikispeed body. -
3:32 - 3:37Small at the beginning,
and a full size model later on. -
3:38 - 3:41And in only three days,
at a cost of just $800, -
3:42 - 3:45they built a carbon fiber body
for the exhibition. -
3:48 - 3:49It was so beautiful.
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3:49 - 3:53Thankfully, because
they were placed on the main floor, -
3:53 - 3:55between Ford and Chevrolet.
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3:56 - 3:58Everybody talked about them that day:
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3:59 - 4:03The New York Times Online;
The National Geographic; Wired Magazine; -
4:03 - 4:06even Rai 3 with "Report", in Italy.
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4:08 - 4:14Today Wikispeed has 1000 members
from 40 countries, and they build cars. -
4:14 - 4:16If you go on the Wikispeed website
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4:16 - 4:19it's just like any open source
software project: -
4:19 - 4:23you can download the plans for free
and build it yourself; -
4:23 - 4:27or you can order the parts,
and mount it yourself; -
4:27 - 4:30or you can ask them
to build one for you. -
4:30 - 4:34And they are doing
other interesting projects -
4:34 - 4:38like micro-houses
that cost less than 100 Usd -
4:38 - 4:41with a bed, a bathroom,
and a lockable front door -
4:41 - 4:45to help involuntary homelessness
with recycled material. -
4:46 - 4:48But the most stunning thing
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4:48 - 4:51that Joe Justice
and the Wikispeed team did -
4:51 - 4:56is showing that you can apply
some specific software methodologies -
4:56 - 4:58to build tangible products,
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4:58 - 5:01debunking a common belief
that this wasn't possible. -
5:02 - 5:07They organized the team
with a method called Scrum, -
5:07 - 5:11that in software creates cohesive
and very productive teams. -
5:12 - 5:17All members work in pairs,
taking the idea from eXtreme Programming, -
5:17 - 5:21so that knowledge is passed
from a team member to another, -
5:21 - 5:24thus also increasing quality and safety.
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5:27 - 5:28And the car is designed
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5:28 - 5:31with what we call in software
"object-oriented programming", -
5:31 - 5:37destructuring the car
in pre-defined modules, -
5:37 - 5:41with stable connecting interfaces
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5:41 - 5:45so you can change or improve
single parts of the car -
5:45 - 5:47without redesigning the entire project.
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5:49 - 5:51Still today, the Wikispeed chassis
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5:51 - 5:54is the lightest chassis
on sale in the United States -
5:54 - 5:58with a five-star rate
equivalency in a crash test. -
5:59 - 6:01They achieved it because security tests
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6:01 - 6:06are designed and created
even before the components to test. -
6:06 - 6:09We took this idea from software also:
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6:09 - 6:11it's called "Test-driven
development". -
6:12 - 6:17But above all, they proved
that even in building physical products -
6:17 - 6:20a team's mood
is a productivity multiplier. -
6:22 - 6:25Every industry
can benefit from these ideas. -
6:25 - 6:29And today, Joe works as an advisor,
helping companies all around the world -
6:29 - 6:32to find new ways
to create better products. -
6:32 - 6:36And here's where I met him last summer,
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6:37 - 6:41Colorado, north of Denver,
at the Scrum for Hardware Gathering, -
6:41 - 6:43which was the first international meeting
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6:44 - 6:45of these crazy software guys
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6:45 - 6:48driven by the idea
of contaminating the industry -
6:48 - 6:49with ideas coming from software.
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6:51 - 6:54We've been discussing for two days
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6:54 - 6:57about those software practices
that are best portable to hardware, -
6:57 - 6:58and the less portable ones.
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7:00 - 7:02Eventually we wrote
a document, a manifesto, -
7:02 - 7:06with principles and values
coming from our own experience. -
7:08 - 7:12Saturday morning we went
to a garage, at Hubert Smith's home, -
7:12 - 7:14the guy with the glasses behind me.
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7:15 - 7:17We had a Wikispeed build party -
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7:17 - 7:20namely, we built
a Wikispeed car from scratch. -
7:22 - 7:24Upon my arrival to the United States,
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7:24 - 7:25I said to myself,
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7:25 - 7:29"I'll probably be the only Italian,
maybe even the only European." -
7:30 - 7:32I was wrong.
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7:32 - 7:35Upon my arrival,
seven out of 30 participants, -
7:37 - 7:40plus me, were Italians, all working
on a company based in Ivrea, -
7:40 - 7:43founded decades ago
by former Olivetti employees. -
7:44 - 7:46During the day,
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7:46 - 7:48we had a lot of fun building the car.
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7:48 - 7:50It was also quite tiring.
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7:51 - 7:54At the end of the day Joe was super happy.
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7:55 - 7:57We mounted the four
suspensions on the chassis; -
7:58 - 8:02attached the wheels, the brakes,
the steering mechanism; -
8:02 - 8:05fixed the body, which got damaged
during the shipping; -
8:06 - 8:07and integrated all the parts
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8:07 - 8:10to ensure a perfect coupling.
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8:11 - 8:12According to Joe,
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8:12 - 8:16
we did two and a half days worth
of a normal team's work -
8:16 - 8:19and could we have stayed
four more days in the US, he told us, -
8:20 - 8:22we could have turned our Wikispeed car on!
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8:24 - 8:28At the end of the day, exhausted
as we were, we all drank a beer together. -
8:28 - 8:31I went close to our host and I said,
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8:31 - 8:34"Hubert, your next car
is going to be built -
8:34 - 8:37by a bunch of nerd programmers,
and most of them come from Italy. -
8:40 - 8:43I suggest you buy
an all-inclusive insurance!" -
8:43 - 8:44(Laughter)
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8:45 - 8:50That day, a community of people was born,
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8:50 - 8:53with the idea to contaminate
industries of all kind -
8:53 - 8:55with ideas coming from software.
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8:56 - 8:58They wrote a document, a manifesto
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8:58 - 9:00with principles and values
around this idea. -
9:01 - 9:05In English, firstly, then
translated into Italian. -
9:06 - 9:07A website was then made
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9:07 - 9:10with experiences from companies
around the world -
9:10 - 9:12who started using these ideas.
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9:12 - 9:16In English, firstly
translated into Italian. -
9:17 - 9:19I felt something similar
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9:19 - 9:21during my first travel
to the US, years ago. -
9:22 - 9:27I went to California, to Silicon Valley,
to attend a conference at Google HQ. -
9:29 - 9:32On Saturday, with other colleagues,
we went to visit some museums. -
9:33 - 9:35And in San Jose,
-
9:35 - 9:39the administrative capital
of Silicon Valley, -
9:39 - 9:42at the Museum of Science and Technology,
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9:43 - 9:44we found an exhibition
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9:44 - 9:47about Leonardo da Vinci,
a 16th century engineering. -
9:48 - 9:50Once in, just around the corner,
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9:51 - 9:54I found the history of Siena's engineers
and our old aqueduct. -
9:55 - 9:56On my way out,
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9:56 - 9:59our district's flags
hovered around the ticket office. -
10:00 - 10:02I basically flew across the ocean,
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10:02 - 10:04going to the world's
most technological place, -
10:04 - 10:07to find out that the world's
most technological place -
10:07 - 10:09was my own town, but 500 years ago.
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10:11 - 10:14Now it looks like a new
Industrial Revolution is coming, -
10:14 - 10:16they call it the Fourth
Industrial Revolution. -
10:17 - 10:21They say that it will no longer
be the bigger fish eating the smaller, -
10:22 - 10:25but the faster fish eating the slower.
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10:26 - 10:29That's exactly what happened
in the software industry -
10:29 - 10:30in the last 15 years.
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10:31 - 10:34In a few years, a bunch
of young guys in a garage -
10:34 - 10:38beat the giants of the stock market.
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10:39 - 10:41So if all the things
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10:41 - 10:44that gave glory to software
in the last 15 years - -
10:45 - 10:50the sharing, the open source,
the team work and the audacity - -
10:51 - 10:52if all these things
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10:52 - 10:55are about to seep
into all kind of industries, -
10:56 - 10:58well, I'm sure it's going to be awesome!
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10:58 - 10:59Thank you!
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10:59 - 11:01(Applause)
- Title:
- Open, collaborative, and agile: the next industrial revolution | Paolo Sammicheli | TEDxSiena
- Description:
-
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Paolo Sammicheli has been a ICT entrepreneur for about 25 years.
In this talk, the staggering success of Wikispeed shows us the beginning of a paradigm shift in which new co-design practices, coming from the software world, are about to contaminate the traditional manufacturing industry, creating a real industrial revolution. - Video Language:
- Italian
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 11:07