The Homebrew Mobile Phone Club is a new organization modelled on the Homebrew Computer Club, the seminal Silicon Valley hobbyist organization that gave birth to the personal computer. It was once inconceivable that a person could own or build a computer — computers were multi-million dollar behemoths that giant corporations owned and built. The Homebrew Computer Club convened a place where hobbyists turned the inconceivable into the practical and now we have all the technology that's followed since, from the Osborne to the Apple ][+ to today's screaming-fast laptops.
Mobile phones are a lot like mainframes. While it's common for average people to own phones, it's inconceivable that the average person will build, reprogram, or make meaningful improvements to her phone.
Thus the Homebrew Mobile Phone Club: a physical and virtual club to do to mobile phones what Jobs and Woz did to computers.
I'm announcing the formation of the "Silicon Valley Homebrew Mobile Phone Club." Our purpose is to provide support and guidance for individuals building their own "convergence devices." We're going to have monthly meetings where we discuss designs and applications with the idea that two heads is frequently better than one. Don't toil in solitude, trying to get your latest wireless hardware hack to work. We're "hackers" only in the classic sense, no phone cloners please.
Our first meeting will be held at 7:00PM on the evening of the first Thursday of May (May 4th, 2006) at an as of yet undetermined location. (We'll announce the location here as soon as we know it.)
