Open Hardware Funding Platform Crowd Supply to Continue Production and Availability of Pinoccio Scouts

RENO, Nev., Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Filament (formerly Pinoccio,Inc.), the company making it easy to connect legacy infrastructure using secure, wireless mesh networks, announced today that it will be transitioning its Pinoccio Scout product line to Crowd Supply, a funding platform and store for open source hardware. As of today, Pinoccios are available for purchase on Crowd Supply, which has taken over sales, fulfillment and product support.

Pinoccio was created to enable Internet of Things (IoT) developers to build and link products to each other and to the web. It raised over $100,000 on Indiegogo in 2013 and shipped 3,500 devices in early 2014.  The centerpiece of the Pinoccio project is the Scout -- completely open-source, Arduino-compatible microcontrollers that communicate with each other via low-power radio in the field to form a mesh network, or "Troop." The Troop then connects to the web by attaching a Wi-Fi Backpack to a Lead Scout, requiring only 1/14th the power of standard Wi-Fi for the same range. They are suitable for a range of connected device applications, from home and building automation to industrial monitoring.

Eric Jennings, co-founder of Pinoccio, Inc. (now Filament) described the strategy behind the company's decision: "While Pinoccio still has meaningful demand in the IoT and Maker space, we recently increased our focus on industrial-scale networks and have relaunched as Filament. Meanwhile, we knew that discontinuing the Pinoccio line was not an option. We remain committed to the maker community and to supporting the development of open source technologies. We are working with Crowd Supply to take over Pinoccio's development, manufacturing, sales, and support. Once transitioned, Crowd Supply can ensure Pinnocio remains available, in production, and well-supported for its enthusiastic developer community."

While best known as a crowdfunding platform, Crowd Supply supports hardware creators throughout the lifecycle of hardware-based product development with strategy, sales, fulfillment, marketing, and sometimes supply chain support. Working with Filament isn't the first partnership of this kind for Crowd Supply, which also manages sales, fulfillment, and operations for the Novena laptop open computing product line developed by Andrew "bunnie" Huang and Sean "xobs" Cross.

Crowd Supply's co-founder and CEO Joshua Lifton, who holds a PhD from the MIT Media Lab, added: "This further strengthens our efforts toward being a home where open source projects can thrive - from launch to ongoing operations. The success of an open source project is the extent to which the project takes on a life of its own. It's a pleasure to work with Filament to help the Pinoccio project make that leap."

Pinoccio's community, customer support and API will now be managed by Pinoccio super user David Van Duzer, founder of the SCUPPER™ Foundation:  "Scouts, along with the Pinoccio software ecosystem, offer a fantastically flexible prototyping platform for experimental games and interactive installations. Increasing access to powerful creative tools is a critical part of our mission at the SCUPPER Foundation. We are thrilled that organizations like Crowd Supply are supporting the open source hardware ecosystem, and this is great news for creative technologists and enthusiasts everywhere."

Pinoccio Scouts are available for purchase immediately on Crowd Supply (www.crowdsupply.com). Visit the Pinoccio forum here, or read the documentation here.

About Filament

Filament (formerly Pinoccio, Inc.) is a technology platform company focused on the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The company's latest product offering enables mesh connectivity for remote and industrial environments, using an updated protocol stack for decentralized communication and enclosed hardware called Taps. Using Filament's decentralized IoT stack, any device can discover, connect, interact, and transact value without central authority requirement. Filament's offering includes its authored distributed peer-to-peer protocol Telehash; a successor to XMPP instant messaging protocol, which more than one billion people use daily. The company is based out of Reno, NV, with offices in Denver, and San Francisco. For more information, please visit: http://filament.com

About Crowd Supply

Crowd Supply is a launchpad for hardware and manufactured goods that embrace the principles of free and open design. It empowers product creators to bring their ideas to life with the tools and services they need the most, from strategy and crowdfunding, to ongoing sales and fulfillment. It is the only platform of its kind to be endorsed by the Free Software Foundation for respecting the privacy and freedom of its users, and the only crowdfunding platform where every funded product has successfully been made and delivered to backers. Notable product launches include the open Novena laptop by bunnie & xobs, Purism's Librem laptops, and Circuit Stickers by Chibitronics. Crowd Supply is based in Portland, OR, and was founded by a team of product engineers from the MIT Media Lab. To shop or launch a product of your own, visit: www.crowdsupply.com.

SOURCE Filament

Related Links

http://filament.com