The 100 Lego fans named last week have a chance to help develop the product by road-testing it in ways Lego never anticipated, and then share their impressions with Mindstorm executives.
The Mindstorms developer program is just the latest example of that customer embrace. "Lego is saying, 'What does it harm us if someone comes up with an alternate way of doing (things)?'" "Companies are (often) worried they'll get sued over something, and they lock themselves out of opportunity," Gray said. Instead of going after them with lawyers, Lego responded by saying, essentially, "That's terrific."
Last year, for example, some Lego fans figured out a way to hack the development tools on a company Web site. Legos, which range from the old-fashioned building blocks to the cutting-edge Mindstorms sets, have enjoyed "geek chic" status in recent years, and much of that has to do with the company's efforts to embrace its often-rabid customers. Gray and his fellow selectees will be the first members of the public to get their hands on Mindstorms NXT, the latest generation of the company's programmable robot toys. When Geoff Gray got a phone call at work from Lego recently, the longtime fan of the iconic plastic bricks did a little dance around his cubicle.
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