This is my trial at launching a new serious research and development project with the goal of providing valuable resources from which the keyboard community as a whole can accelerate development of modern keyboard technology.
This project is based on a core observation (which is a matter of my opinion) that I have made regarding keyboard tech as stands on this day, the 15th of June, in the year 2018 of the BC/CE calendar. It is as follows:
Though there has been significant advancements in commodity keyboard technology, high-end keyboard tech has remained (essentially) unchanged for the past 25 years.
I have observed numerous attempts to advance keyboard tech in that time. From what I have observed (which has informed my opinion derived), the primary reason why none of these attempts have been successful is that either; (a) the approach was far too exotic to implement at scale, or (b) the market-appeal of improvements in the attempt(s) could not justify adoption which could sustain the effort.
That said, there are many new options which the mechanical keyboarding community has embraced and are quickly being implemented. Unfortunately, (in my opinion) the lion's share of these are only available to people who are; (a) willing to pay upfront and deal with often-delayed group buys, and (b) more often than not require significant knowledge and practical skills to assemble, solder, and program.
[Fair Disclosure: (more than) a bit of *****ing follows]
This has led me, once a (self-described) afficianado of mechanical keyboards, to just about leave the hobby entirely. I love keyboards, and I love the aesthetics, mechanics, electronics, and code which power them, but I am sick and tired of having keyset a which has (theoretically) perfect sculpting arrive with crappy inconsistent dye subbing. I am sick and tired of having a group buy keyboard case arrive on time, just to have to wait for my (mass) delayed key-cap set. I am sick and tired of settling for cherry style switches because I can't get keycaps for anything else or (heaven forbid) I have to get a degree in electrical engineering to design my own electrocapacitive pcb.
There has to be a better way
This is my attempt to collect community feedback, and hopefully help, to find novel solutions. We must unite the clans. Our kids keebs could depend upon it...