This isn’t the sort of update I like giving because I can’t provide much clarity. But we think it is important to provide you all with some information on the Mycroft Mark 1 and Mycroft World Congress now rather than later.
Matrix Display Fulfillment
If you recall, the factory producing the matrix displays resumed work after the Chinese New Year to complete fulfilling our December order for the last part we need to manufacture the Mark 1 faceplate. They hummed along updating us as the product was packaged and finally shipped to us. It arrived in customs as expected. Then we were contacted by the shipper for a little more information to get things cleared to enter the United States and into our hands.
Murphy Strikes
We anxiously awaited the turning of the gears with U.S. Customs. Daily we checked for updates. Then one morning I found this:
Umm…what just happened?!?
To Err is Human…
The last message surely couldn’t mean what we though it meant, could it? We contacted the shipper and played customer service tag. Finally, we received this note (name and number blocked out intentionally):
This email is to advise that the shipment was returned due to XXX error. It was returned in error by XXX. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. I have sent urgent messages to XXX China to immediately return the shipment upon receipt back to the United States due the XXX error caused and have requested from them if possible the timeline expected for the shipment to be back in the United States.
We will follow up with you no later than March 6th by 5 pm your local time with further updates. If you have any new information, feel free to contact us at ###–###–####.
We’ve waited patiently over the weekend for our update. Then I asked for any update yesterday and finally spoke to someone today who is promising an update by 10am tomorrow.
As I said, I don’t want to wait yet another day before updating everyone. Especially with the real possibility of having no additional clarity at that point. We will update you as soon as we know more.
Mycroft World Congress
As you read on this blog, we are delighted to be in the 500 Startups program and with Jaguar Land Rover. These programs are providing us invaluable support and we are gaining a ton from them that we can use to improve our service to the Mycroft community. However simultaneous programs are stretching our team thinly across the country. Combined with the delays in shipping of the Mycroft Mark 1, we fear holding the Mycroft World Congress next week will be premature and we wouldn’t provide the experience we want to give the attendees. Plus we will be ramping up for assembly and shipping right around that time, and we don’t want to delay shipment due to something that is in our control
We decided to push it this event back after we ship and complete these incubators. We are looking at several alternatives in the next few months that believe will be more valuable to our developers and advocates in the Open Source community. We’re reaching out to all existing registered attendees to help them adjust plans.
Again, I apologize for not being able to provide solid information on the revised dates. We will be less uncertain soon and will share the news as soon as possible!
Steve has been building cutting edge yet still highly usable technology for over 25 years, previously leading teams at Autodesk and the Rhythm Engineering. He now leads the development team at Mycroft as a partner and the CTO.