Whenever LEGOs are mentioned my mind wanders and I can hear the sound of my dad’s footsteps walking down the hallway after putting us to bed. Suddenly a cry of pain would signal to my brother and I that it was time to act asleep. For some reason, my dad managed to always find the one or two rogue LEGOs we had missed when picking up our toys. The funniest/ saddest part of the story is that I am the oldest of seven children and through out all those years he never was able to escape those rogue LEGOs.

Naturally, as I skimmed through Wikinomics this week and saw LEGOs mentioned, I was eager to see what has happened since then. The book mentions the mixture of mass customization and peer production that happens at mindstorms.lego.com and the free downloadable NXT software that LEGO offers to encourage tinkering and programming.

As was mentioned in the book, these LEGO enthusiasts are as passionate as they come. This past month the NXTLOGgers’ challenge was to design a NXT robot that would help maintain a healthy, sustainable environment in support of Earth Day. The winners included: The TP-Bot 2008, The Tree Doctor, and Vestas windmill.

Sorry to bring up LEGOs Dad, but look at it this way, at least these ones have the power to put themselves away.
�