Now this is funny. (Score 1)

This post deserves a thoughtful response, because I think it has the potential to give a lot of people the wrong impression about what Josh is going for. In fact I really have to wonder whether you even bothered to follow any of these links. 1. Mr. Lifton makes no claim that learning steno isn't hard. In fact, one motivation for developing low cost steno hardware and software (as well as education) is precisely because of its difficulty. Imagine if the cost of learning to ride a bike was upwards of $10,000 -- including the initial purchase, the cost of lessons, and ongoing maintenance. Biking would then be something that would only be worthwhile to an elite few, and there would be an alarmingly high failure rate. Happily, anyone can get a serviceable bike for $300 and immediately start commuting to work. And yet this is precisely what's missing from stenography today, and that's what makes this idea so revolutionary. With a lower barrier to entry, it won't matter that not everyone is able to make it to 180wpm. If they plateau, fine. At least they won't have blown their savings in the process. It will be worth it once you can steno as fast as you type -- then you'll be able to justify making the switch (no pun intended). 2 & 5 -- both statements about "the market." That it's small and shrinking. For starters, it's improbable that these are both true. If it's small, regression to the mean is likely. Second, you're presupposing that these guys won't make every effort to expand the market to more people. And lowering the costs of entry are meant to do exactly that: if people are able to buy these machines that become useful as soon as they're able to substitute them for their existing keyboards, and they're able to reach that point quickly, it's not a hard case to make. I think you might even be conflating two different things -- the market for this particular hardware and the market for court reporting and closed captioning. I think I've addressed the former adequately, and the latter is anything but a normal "market." It's a function of various state and federal regulations, to do with verbatim reporting requirements for court proceedings, administrative hearings, and meeting minutes as well as accessibility regulations like the Americans With Disabilities Act. 3 -- The fact that we've currently got an oligopoly is all the more reason to rock the boat. Nuff said there. 4 -- I assume you mean that the "requirement for support" from the aforementioned companies is super high. Again, Mr. Lifton's objective in making this open source hardware and software is to reduce those ongoing costs (and dependence on this tiny cartel of manufacturers). There's no reason to think he won't be successful in that endeavor. The current state of the industry reminds me a great deal of the classic "razors and blades" strategy -- rope people in on the razors, and charge an arm and a leg on the blades. Except that in this case, the "razors" cost a pretty penny, too.