At the end of last year the feud that has for so long split Arduino asunder seemed to have been resolved.  Massimo Banzi announced at the World Maker Faire New York that a single united IDE is being created in a nonprofit foundation. He went on to say “The Arduino Foundation will allow us to champion the core values of the Arduino Community within the open source ecosystem and make our commitment to open source stronger than ever.” It also has a manifesto (in PDF) outlining many beautiful ideas and goals for the foundation. There are also some troubling undercurrents...

The recently appointed managing director of Arduino Frederico Musto has been hard at work removing references in all his professional profiles to a doctorate which he claimed was awarded by MIT and to his time allegedly spent at New York University. His CV now just states that his education included a spell at the Montessori kindergarten in Turin; so far, this claim has not been disputed.  However, he holds a 50% stake in the now united ‘Arduino AG’, so it’s all quite troubling.

The founder of the make-Ezines Dale Dougherty has called for an Arduino Foundation to be established to free Arduino from Federico Musto and ensure that “this open source hardware project is responsive to the community that cares about Arduino and its ecosystem”. Confidence in the personalities who wield power at Arduino now seems to be badly damaged. This ongoing soap opera does nothing to build confidence in the future direction of this important development platform.