"In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete"
Prof. Heinrich Jaeger’s research group examines materials and phenomena that appear simple at the surface, but which reveal tremendous complexity upon close examination. One such phenomenon is jamming, in which aggregates of randomly placed particles, including spheres or more complicated shapes, or even molecules, transition from fluid-like to solid-like behavior.
Miskin and Jaeger addressed a daunting question in their research: Given a design goal for the jammed aggregate, for example to have it as stiff or as soft as possible in response to an applied force, what particle shape will best produce the desired outcome? For this complex optimization problem, they faced an infinite variety of shapes to choose from. So Miskin employed a computer algorithm—referred to as an “evolutionary optimization” in the accompanying video—to answer this question….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
Photo Credit: TRF_Mr_Hydecc
On January 30, 1950, the development of the hydrogen fusion bomb was ordered by President Harry Truman. This new type of thermonuclear device was far more powerful than the fission bombs used against Japan in WWII.
1911
On February 1st, 101 years ago, fingerprints were used for the first time in the US to convict a person in a court of law. Thomas Jennings was sentenced to death and hanged in Cook County, Illinois for the murder of Clarence Hiller.
1903
Photo credit: BBC Hulton Picture Library
Crystallographer Kathleen Lonsdale was born 110 years ago yesterday. She developed new x-ray technology in order to study crystal structures. Her work, though seemingly esoteric, had an enormous impact on organic chemistry. She was the first woman to be elected (1945) to the Royal Society of London. Born into an Irish middle class family of ten at a time when it was rare for women to even attend college, she went on to become a tenured professor at University College London and the first woman president of the Union of Crystallography.
1855
The first commercially viable “mechanical calculating machine” was patented to a William Seward Burroughs, born January 28, 1855. The patent was submitted in 1885 and he formed his company, the American Arithmometer Company, shortly after, in 1886 (we kind of wish there were still companies around with names like that…) The wealth built by his invention enabled his grandson, William S. Burroughs II, to become a member of the beat generation instead of a banker. You could say his poetry was built partly by a calculator…
1400
Photo Credit: Cecil Sanders via cc
(Not specific to January, but sort of feels that way after last week…)
In 1400, and a few centuries before and after, it was significantly colder across the globe than normally… the world was in the midst of the Little Ice Age. Average temperatures across the globe plunged and stunted human population growth and agricultural potential for much of the (normally) temperate world. The Norse colonies in Greenland starved and vanished and the population of Iceland was halved. Certain agricultural products were abandoned because of changing rain patterns…orange crops in southern China failed and the Thames River in London froze. The Little Ice Age only ended about one hundred years ago, at the end of the 19th century or the early 20th century, bringing about another re-adjustment in agriculture and population (ahem, Great Plains).
The Open Source Hardware Association will be an advocacy group, mostly educating people on what open hardware is, the benefits, and best practices, as well as being a roof for all the various items built by the community so far, including the Open Hardware Summit, the open hardware definition, and our logo.
There are a lot of excellent things done by the community that don’t really have a cohesive web presence to live under. We hope to give the community a bit of structure by organizing information around open source hardware under the Association. The other reason is that currently a lot of our knowledge about open hardware is colloquial… We hope to create a resource to make all these things more transparent and provide a formal entity that can answer questions about how, why, what, and the best practices of open hardware.
…
The board of the Open Source Hardware Association currently consists of Alicia Gibb (President), Danese Cooper, Catarina Mota, Windell Oskay, Nathan Seidle, and Wendy Seltzer. We are in the process of electing more board members with public nominations, but haven’t worked out the details yet. Please stay tuned!
All donations and membership dues (beyond the cost of providing specific benefits) will be used to support the Open Source Hardware Association’s public-interest purposes. [Dues may be tax deductible as permitted by law if our tax status is granted.] Memberships are valid for one year and priced in USD. Please review the membership levels below. Not ready to become a member? You can also donate to our cause! We are designing a corporate membership for similar levels. Current membership is for individuals only.
Join if you’d like to support the OSHWA. We are excited that a group is going to represent, help and educate regarding OSHW. Most of all, they’re going to represent and celebrate open source companies like Adafruit
Alicia Gibb, President
Alicia is the founding president of the Open Source Hardware Association. In her spare time, Alicia is starting an open source hardware company specific to education. Previous to becoming an advocate and an entrepreneur, Alicia was a researcher and prototyper at Bug Labs where she ran the academic research program and the Test Kitchen, an open R&D Lab. She is a member of NYCResistor, co-chair of the Open Hardware Summit, and a member of the advisory board for Linux Journal. She holds a degree in art education, a M.S. in Art History and a M.L.I.S. in Information Science from Pratt Institute.
Danese Cooper
Danese has a long history of advocacy for open-source, earning her the nickname “Open Source Diva”. She is a Board Member at Drupal Association, an Open Source Strategist (consulting) at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an Emeritus Board Member / Observer at Open Source Initiative (OSI), and a Member at The Apache Software Foundation. Previously, she was Chief Technical Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation and, for six years, an open source advocate at Sun Microsystems.
Wendy Seltzer
Wendy is a Fellow with Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, previously a fellow with Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy; the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado; and with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. She was a Visiting Fellow with the Oxford Internet Institute, teaching a joint course with the Said Business School, Media Strategies for a Networked World. She has previously taught at American University’s Washington College of Law, Brooklyn Law School, and Northeastern University School of Law, and served as staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Before joining EFF, she taught Internet Law as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University School of Law, and practiced intellectual property and technology litigation at Kramer Levin in New York.
Catarina Mota is also on the board, but we posted about her earlier today
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
phd fellow, co-founder of @openmaterials and @altlab, member of @nycresistor and OSHWA.org, co-chair of the Open Hardware Summit, TED fellow
Catarina also listed out some great women on her Facebook page too!
Happy Ada Lovelace day. Thank you to the talented and strong women in the open source community who inspire me everyday: Alicia Gibb, Dustyn Roberts, Limor Fried, Leah Buchley, Ayah Bdeir, Sylvia Todd, Erin Kennedy, Amanda Wozniak, Hannah Perner-Wilson, Lenore Edman, Becky Stern, Lynne Bruning, Alison Powell, Alison Leonard, Kate Hartman, Kat Braybrooke, Gabriella Levine, Shannon Dosemagen, Liz Barry, Katherine Moriwaki, Louisa Campbell, Liza Stark, Margarita Benitez, Addie Wagenknecht, Myriam Ayass, Lizabeth Arum, Paola Guimerans, Jie Qi, Meg Pirrung, Benedetta Piantella, Ellen Jorgensen, Max Whitney, Ari Lacenski, Kelly McGuire, Diana Eng, Astrida Valigorski, Mimi Hui, Dia Campbell, Nina Tandon, Juliana Rotich – and so many others!
Today is Ada Lovelace day! Celebrating the achievements of women in science, art, design, technology, engineering and math! Ada Lovelace Day is about sharing stories of women — whether engineers, scientists, technologists or mathematicians — who have inspired you to become who you are today. The aim is to create new role models for girls and women by celebrating amazing women making and doing cool things. If you’re looking for a worldwide Ada Lovelace Day event? Please visit the Finding Ada events page. Be sure to check out all our posts today and from previous years here of amazing women!
Today everything in the Adafruit store is 10% off, just use the code ALD12 on check out, use this code to pick something special person in your life that will spark her imagination for a lifelong career or hobby!
Once again, the Senate is considering a bill that would allow fashion designers to sue people for knocking off their designs. The “Innovative Design Protection Act,” S.3523, is being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill, like its predecessors, would create a three-year term of protection for clothing, handbags, eyeglass frames, and other types of apparel, preventing anyone else from using the same design as the original designer. For a look at some of the arguments around earlier versions…
This would be a marked departure from the state of the law now. Currently, apparel designers can apply for design patents to gain limited monopolies on many of their products, and trademark law prevents knockoff manufacturers from pretending to sell originals. But the proposed law would create an entirely new right for clothing designs—something that hasn’t existed in U.S. law.
The association has its own logo! Our shiny new logo echos a circle of the same Pantone 3135C color blue we all know and love from the OSHW logo. Also note how the circles look like derivatives of one another. We thought that was pretty neat. Special thanks to our graphic designer, David Steele Overholt, who worked with our schedule to release the new design in time for the Summit!
Some history: OSHWA decided to create its own logo as we began thinking deeper about what the OSHW logo meant to our community. We wanted to differentiate ourselves as an organization and avoid confusion with regard to whether the current OSHW logo stood for the definition or the organization.
And speaking of logos, thank you everyone for being patient while OHSWA continues to work with OSI to come up with a solution beneficial to everyone. I’m happy to report that OSI’s lawyer and OSHWA’s lawyer have been working hard on a co-existence agreement.
To sum it up, everyone keep using the gear logo for your hardware like you always have for your open-source hardware. The open source hardware association now has it’s own stand-alone logo for the organization that newly formed.
José Manuel Hermo Barreiro, “Patelo”, is a pensioner from Galicia (Spain). He’s a retired naval mechanic and he has built the smallests engines in the world. This is his story.
I’m very happy to announce that Arduino 1.0.1 is now available on the software page. This release includes a ton of bug fixes and new features (see the release notes for details). The biggest additions are support for the Arduino Leonardo and translation of the Arduino development environment into multiple languages. We’ll be doing a blog post on the Leonardo soon but, for now, see its getting started page and hardware page.
The translations were the work of many people, particularly Shigeru Kanemoto (who internationalized the software and translated it into Japanese) and David Cuartielles from the Arduino team (who coordinated the translation process). Languages in Arduino 1.0.1: Arabic, Aragonese, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Danish, Dutch), English, Estonian, Filipino, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuaninan, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese – Brazil, Portuguese – Portugal, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tamil. (For details or to help with the translations, see this page on the playground.)
At a meeting on Capitol Hill last month hosted by Public Knowledge, open-source hardware enthusiasts discussed why they choose to invent without patents, and why patents don’t provide the “fuel of interest” they once did. Alicia Gibb, head of the new Open Source Hardware Association, explained that patents were created in the spirit of open sourcing. “When you get a patent, you have to open-source the designs,” Gibb said. “You have to tell people what you’re doing and how you did it.” The difference, of course, is that patents give creators 20 years of exclusive rights to their invention.
The open-source model, on the other hand, invites anyone to re-create, redesign, and improve a product as they wish. Many small or independent inventors (or makers, tinkerers, etc.) post their designs online to get feedback from the community. Since they don’t really want exclusive rights, they don’t see value in securing patents. Instead, they want their products to spread around and be improved upon rapidly. To them, as Public Knowledge attorney Michael Weinberg describes it, patents are a barrier rather than a shield.
Also in that article – Inventive Abe. In 1849, a future president patented an ingenious addition to transportation technology.
The Open Source Hardware Association was recently announced and a familiar face is leading this monumental effort, Alicia Gibb. You may recall her from the Open Hardware summit (co-chair) as well as Bug Labs. The following is an interview via email with Alicia, the president of OSHWA.
Inspired by the success of the open-source software movement, a group of technology enthusiasts is looking to unite the fragmented open-source hardware community in an effort to promote hardware innovation.
A group of technologists are establishing the Open Source Hardware Association, formed to promote the creation and sharing of hardware or electronic designs. The association hopes to foster growth in the open-source hardware movement, which carries the open-source ethos of a community working together to tweak and update hardware designs with the goal to improve products.
The concept of open-source hardware loosely relates to releasing designs of physical hardware — processors, machines or devices — to the public for reuse. But there are licensing and legal issues with the concept, as there is with open-source software, and the association hopes to explore those issues while also educating people about the benefits of open hardware, said Alicia Gibb, founder of OSHA.
After two amazing and inspiring iterations (2011 and 2010), we are excited to announce we are passing the Open Hardware Summit torch!
We had an amazing two years: we collectively created the first OSHW definition (which has been adopted by CERN), communally created a logo for our movement, grew into a community that supports each other on forums, mailing lists and sponsorships, launched the first Open Hardware Scholarship, turned a conference goodie bag into something you would wrestle over, and created a geek red carpet that would have the Oscar’s drooling!
It was inspiring serving such an impassioned community, and we will both continue to serve in our own ways. The Open Hardware Summit is a mission-driven conference. It’s non-profit, and a labour of love. Our aim is to continually involve more and more of the community. In that effort we are announcing Catarina Mota and Dustyn Roberts as the two new co-chairs for the 2012 Open Hardware Summit.
With Catarina’s expertise in Open Materials, and Dustyn’s work in open mechanisms and robotics, each will bring a unique new dimension to the term “Open Hardware” and together broaden the relevance and reach of our movement and summit.
Thank you all for the support, we cannot stress enough that this is your movement, and everyone here has helped make it happen. The support for the Summit, from helping hands to donations, made it possible. Please continue to support the movement as it goes forward.
We can’t think of 2 better people to continue making the Open Hardware Summit THE best event for open-source hardware makers. Congrats to Catarina and Dustyn!
Open Hardware Summit co-chair Alicia Gibb brought a wonderful surprise to this year’s event – handcrafted silver pendants made by her father, James Gibb. This is my new favorite necklace! James cut each of ten Open Hardware logo gears to make these beautiful pendants, wouldn’t you like one?… Naturally, the logo design files are available in every imaginable format at the official OSHW logo repository.
Suw Charman-Anderson, Violet Blue, Margery Conner, Xeni Jardin, Annalee Newitz, Gina Trapani, Sara Winge, Cindy Cohn, Shari Steele, Kellie Brownell, Andrea Chiang, Eva Galperin, Gwen Hinze, Marcia Hofmann, Rebecca Jeschke, Cherese Logan, Lori McCoy, Corynne McSherry, Abigail Phillips, Rebecca Reagan, Rainey Reitman, Katitza Rodriguez, Julie Samuels, Stephanie Shattuck, Lisa Wright, Jillian York, Laura Baldwin, Addie Wagenknecht, Diana Eng, Sylvia, Syuzi Pakhchyan, Benedetta Piantella, Jennifer Magnolfi, Cynthia Breazeal, Catarina Mota, Carolyn Porco, Erin RobotGrrl, Gabriella Levine, Myriam Ayass, Jan Axelson, Amanda Wozniak, Daniela Antonietti, Jessica Uelmen, Melissa Godsey, Yuki Nakagawa, Carol Reiley, Christy Canida, Shawn Connally, Bethany Shorb, Bonnie Ignico, Kate Hartman, Mary Lou Jepsen, Leah Buechley, Dustyn Roberts, Helen Greiner, Jenny Holzer, Jeri Ellsworth, Louise Glasgow, Sherry Huss, Lenore Edman, Becky Stern, Alicia Gibb, Ayah Bdeir.
If we missed anyone it’s only because we ran out of time or it’s because we’ve been up for a day working on this Please be sure to post a special woman in your life who inspires or has inspired you.
See you next year! Or perhaps sooner – this can be everyday, right? “We are what we celebrate!”…
#ADA11 – Alicia Gibb – Formerly of BugLabs – Open Hardware Summit co-chair…
I work at Bug Labs in New York City. It is a start-up where we make a Linux-based, open source prototyping platform. I recently was awarded an NSF SBIR grant which is what I’m currently working on. I’ve published BUG-inspired papers at TEI and in Linux Journal. I also co-chair the Open Hardware Summit with Ayah Bdeir.
I attended Pratt Institute and graduated with my Masters of Science in Art History and a second Masters of Information & Library Science. My concentration for Art History is New Media Art, specifically flexible programming platforms in robotics and art. While in school, I curated two New Media Art show at NYCResistor, one called Art of the Game and one based on my thesis called Art, Design and the Arduino: A Lineage. In Information & Library Science, my interests were and in many ways still are user-centered design, and usability. Information Science led me to concepts such as source code and the Internet of Things.
Check out these cool pendant necklaces from the Open Hardware Summit. Becky writes:
Open Hardware Summit co-chair Alicia Gibb brought a wonderful surprise to this year’s event – handcrafted silver pendants made by her father, James Gibb. This is my new favorite necklace! James cut each of ten Open Hardware logo gears to make these beautiful pendants, wouldn’t you like one? Show support in the comments if you’d like to see these made more widely available.
Previous BOFs have ranged from presentations followed by Q and A to facilitated brainstorming sessions about a topic of shared interest. In the past, BOFs have brought together women interested in mobile computing, networking, student-led mentoring programs, and academic hiring issues. We particularly encourage students to submit BOF topics!
A BOF proposal should include a title, a brief description of the topic, a description of the expected audience, a description of the format of the BOF, and a summary of the qualifications of the session leader(s). Submissions can be no more than two (2) pages in length (using no less than 10pt type) and they must be submitted electronically. References do not count as part of the 2 page maximum. Your file upload must be in one of the following formats: pdf, postscript, ascii text, or MS Word.
Our dream BOF would be the following:
Ayah Bdeir – littlebits / Open source hardware conference
Leah Buechley – MIT / Lilypad Arduino
Christy Canida – Instructables
Lenore Edman – Evil Mad Science
Jeri Ellsworth – Engineer
Limor Fried – Adafruit Industries
Alicia Gibb – Buglabs / Open source hardware conference
MJ – iFixit
Jillian Northrup – Because we can
Erin RobotGrrl – RobotGrrl
Becky Stern – MAKE Magazine / CRAFT Magazine
Jessica Uelmen – Parallax
All about open source hardware, making things and sharing…
For each kit, the company publishes the computer-aided design files, schematics for circuit boards, and the firmware or software code that runs inside a device. Anyone can use this material under a Creative Commons license, provided they credit the source and publish any related works under a similar open- source license.
In addition to publishing designs, the company offers online tutorials, and Fried co-hosts a weekly video chat with Adafruit designer Phillip Torrone to teach lessons and answer questions. “She’s really educating people. It’s almost like she’s running a school in addition to everything else she’s doing,” says Alicia Gibb, another organizer of the Open Hardware Summit who works as “gadget wrangler” at Bug Labs, an open-source hardware company developing wireless devices.
…
Fried says her mission as an entrepreneur is to spread the kind of innovation that flows from opening up electronics and learning how they work. “We have so little connection to what’s in these plastic boxes,” she says. “The point of the company is to teach people and to learn. It’s not just to buy and consume.”
There are the official Open Source Hardware Summit 2010 photos by Bill Ward. I have to give extra-special props to Bill for taking all these amazing photos and being the go-to IT guy at the same time. Nice work, Bill!
And once again congrats and thanks to Alicia, Ayah, and all the fantastic volunteers that made this such a memorable event. You guys rock!
Also, I’m pleased to announce that there is an #openhwsummit flickr pool. If you took any photos at the Summit and want to share them, you can add them here!
Yesterday, the Open Source Hardware Summit took place at the NY Hall of Science. More than 300 attendees came together for the event, many of them meeting face-to-face for the first time. It is one sign of the growth and health of this core community that is a major re-thinking and re-working of the design and development of hardware. (Congratulations to organizers Alicia Gibb, Ayah Bedir and Peter Semmelhack.)
What I think we’re seeing is the emergence of independent hardware developers. Increasingly, engineers have the opportunity to work for themselves — developing products and processes by themselves or in small teams. They can get access to good facilities and expertise without being part of a large company. They get to do what they love doing, and take on the risk of succeeding or failing. Most importantly, they’re able to keep fueling the fire that made them decide to become an engineer in the first place.
Come meet them at Maker Faire — as President Obama called them “the doers, the risk-takers, the makers of things.”
Bug Labs, Creative Commons and MAKE invite open hardware advocates to submit a talk to the Open Hardware Summit. The Open Hardware Summit will be a venue to present, discuss and draw attention to the open source hardware movement currently happening. The summit will focus on hardware as a system, thus encompassing conversations of software, management, legal, and other factors surrounding open source hardware. Talks should focus on your research and insights in manufacturing, materials, licensing and hardware as a system, offering advice to foster and inspire new open hardware innovations. A panel will decide on speakers, however break-out rooms for mini-lectures and discussions will be available. Talks targeted toward marketing your product will not be accepted.
Talks will include topics of:
* Optimal paths to create hardware
* Open Source legalities
* Supporting derivatives and community interaction
* Manufacturing / Timeline advice
* Why Open Source Hardware is important
* Geographical hurdles in developing hardware
Submissions should be no longer than one page in length and be accompanied with a bio of the speaker (That’s you!). Tell us in two separate paragraphs the subject matter of the talk and what makes this talk significant to the open source hardware community.
Speaker abstracts and bios are due on July 31 by 11:59pm (EST). Submissions should be emailed to Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir with the subject line “Open Hardware Summit submission”. Talks will be be accepted by a panel of reviewers. Plan to speak for approximately 45 minutes. The Summit will take place on Sept. 23rd from 10am-5pm at the Hall of Science. Please direct questions and submissions to Chairs Alicia Gibb and Ayah Bdeir.
Laboral Centro de Arte, Spain, has commissioned the creation of a documentary about Arduino. The filmmakers are almost done with it and today they released the trailer to it. A lot of the footage was shot during the Arduino Uno meeting in March 2010, that took place at ITP, New York University. In the video you can see among others: Phil (Make, Adafruit), Zach (Makerbot), Alicia (Buglabs), Eric (ITP), Igor (Telefónica), Tom, Dave, Massimo, and David (me), as well as many Arduino ethusiasts, developers, and users.
The documentary is CC licensed, which means you guys can use it in class, public display, etc. The official release including the 45m TV version (with English and Spanish subtitles), the full interviews to all of us, videos taken at Makerbot, Adafruit, NYC Resistor, etc will be soon announced at the film’s website: arduinothedocumentary.org. If you want to volunteer making the subtitles in your own language, feel free to contact the guys behind it.
Open Source hardware advocates want a hard-core license – Within one day of the release of a definition for “open source” hardware, the document has garnered endorsements from 50 people, many of them affiliated with manufacturing businesses. The document is only in its 0.3 draft version, so it’s likely to change before being finalized.
AN OPEN SOURCE HARDWARE (OSHW) group has published an updated draft definition. It has issued version 0.3 to give developers guidelines when evaluating licenses for OSHW.
Open Source Hardware Definition 0.3 Released by Bunnie. There’s been a flurry of blog posts today about the new Open Source Hardware Definition, which is currently on rev 0.3 (link), and a corresponding summit in NYC… It’s very exciting to see the open source hardware movement maturing to the stage where there is a flourishing and fecund community of participating innovators. As many of my readers know, I’m very fond of open source hardware and it’s nice that the field is getting less lonely and more credible by the day.
Hardware history in the making – An open hardware definition has been mulling around in a few emails ever since the Opening Hardware Workshop, put on by Ayah Bdeir. Tonight, a draft of the definition was released as well as an announcement for an Open Hardware Summit to discuss everything about Open Hardware.
Open Source Hardware Definition released, first Open Hardware Summit in NYC, Sept 23 by Cory Doctorow. The Open Source Hardware folks are making progress toward a unified movement. Today, they announced the first public draft of the “Open Source Hardware Definition” (mirroring OSI’s Open Source Definition, which sets limits on what is and isn’t open), and announced the first Open Hardware Summit in NYC for Sept 23.
OSHW and design tools – Finally, there’s some movement towards a unified concept of what “open source hardware” really is. Adafruit has posted their opinion on the matter for some time, and there have even been a couple of attempts to make an actual license to cover it.
Advancing open hardware with a few clear words by EMSL – Over the last few years we’ve been excited to be part of the rapidly growing open-source hardware community. One of the recurring issues in this community has been the lack of agreement on what constitutes an acceptable license for open hardware.
Draft Licence for Open Source Hardware published – A number of well known developers from the open source hardware scene have published a draft of a new licence under the name of Open Source Hardware (OSHW) for free hardware projects.
Announcing the Open Hardware Summit by Alicia Gibb – Bug Labs is excited to announce the Open Hardware Summit in conjunction with MAKE, and Creative Commons, and a little help from our friends at NYSCI, littleBits and Eyebeam!
Open Hardware Summit, Sept 23, 2010 by Tom Igoe. So what exactly is open source hardware? We’re getting closer to a consensus definition, thanks to Ayah Bdeir and Eyebeam.
Open source hardware defined by credit By Dana Blankenhorn. The idea is that innovations should build communities, innovators should get credit, but that the innovations themselves should be available. Just as with open source.
Today is a big day for anyone who designs (or builds) open source hardware. For about 5+ years or so the term “open source hardware” has been used more and more to generally describe projects in which the creators have decided to completely publish all the source, schematics, firmware, software, bill of materials, parts list, drawings and “board” files to recreate the hardware – they also allow any use, including commercial. Similar to open source software like Linux, but this hardware centric.
There were, will be, and are – many ways to define open source hardware but some of the leading makers and thinkers on the subject got together and I’m really thrilled to help announce that there is a draft of the Open source hardware (OSHW) definition version 0.3 and a summit this year, right before Maker Faire NYC.
Ayah Bdeir (Eyebeam fellow & coordinator of these efforts) has this to say about the first round of the definition and the summit. She writes…
I started getting interested in Open Hardware as a vehicle for innovation and social change while at the CCG group at the MIT Media Lab, and got fully immersed in it while a senior fellow at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York. Now, I am a (crazy!) strong believer in the power of Open Hardware. When I started littleBits, I jumped into the many challenges of porting the Open Source movement to hardware.
As I worked closely on legal strategy with incredible advisor, John Wilbanks, VP of Science at Creative Commons, we decided to create a venue for the community to interface with CC, and embark on a mission to help catalyse an Open Hardware license. The workshop, entitled “Opening Hardware: A workshop on Legal tools for open source hardware” took place at Eyebeam on March 17th and featured OH pioneers such as Arduino, Adafruit, Buglabs, MakerBot, Chumby as well as Jonathan Kuniholm (Open Prosthetics), Chris Anderson (Wired), Mako Hill (OLPC, Wikipedia), Jon Philips (Qi), Shigeru Kobayashi (Gainer), Becky Stern (Make) and Thinh Nguyen and John Wilbanks (CC) and us (littleBits, Eyebeam). Since then we, and an incredible group of OH stars (Evil Mad Scientist, Parallax, Sparkfun, Lilypad), have started putting together a definition that today, we are very excited to release in version 0.3 for public comment.
Recently, I have been appointed as Creative Commons fellow – a very important step which shows CC’s commitment to our community. And on September 23rd, Alicia Gibbs (buglabs) and myself are chairing a summit as part of MakerFaire: the Open Hardware Summit. We will be discussing the license, and hope to put version 1.0 out to the world! Please join us, sponsor us, support us, or just follow us!
Ayah Bdeir
July 14th, 2010
So, what’s next? Check out the open source hardware definition, help get us to 1.0 – for the last 4-5 years I’ve written up the hundreds of projects each year – and we’re finally arriving at some consensus from the people who make the hardware what it is and what the challenges are ahead. Open source hardware exists, it’s real – dozens of companies are thriving making millions of dollars creating great products and sharing the “recipe”.
The below is the license v.0.3 pasted from FreedomDefined. For the original, please go to: http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW
Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Draft Definition version 0.3
OSHW Draft Definition 0.3 is based on the Open Source Definition for Open Source Software and draft OSHW definition 0.2, further incorporating ideas from the TAPR Open Hardware License. Videos and Documentation of the Opening Hardware workshop which kicked off the below license are available here.
Introduction
Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is a term for tangible artifacts — machines, devices, or other physical things — whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things. This definition is intended to help provide guidelines for the development and evaluation of licenses for Open Source Hardware.
It is important to note that hardware is different from software in that physical resources must always be committed for the creation of physical goods. Accordingly, persons or companies producing items (“products”) under an OSHW license have an obligation not to imply that such products are manufactured, sold, warrantied, or otherwise sanctioned by the original designer and also not to make use of any trademarks owned by the original designer.
The distribution terms of Open Source Hardware must comply with the following criteria:
1. Documentation
The hardware must be released with documentation including design files, and must allow modification and distribution of the design files. Where documentation is not furnished with the physical product, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining this documentation for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The documentation must include design files in the preferred form for which a hardware developer would modify the design. Deliberately obfuscated design files are not allowed. Intermediate forms analogous to compiled computer code — such as printer-ready copper artwork from a CAD program — are not allowed as substitutes.
2. Necessary Software
If the hardware requires software, embedded or otherwise, to operate properly and fulfill its essential functions, then the documentation requirement must also include at least one of the following: The necessary software, released under an OSI-approved open source license, or other sufficient documentation such that it could reasonably be considered straightforward to write open source software that allows the device to operate properly and fulfill its essential functions.
3. Derived Works
The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original hardware. The license must allow for the manufacture, sale, distribution, and use of products created from the design files or derivatives of the design files.
4. Free redistribution
The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the project documentation as a component of an aggregate distribution containing designs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale. The license shall not require any royalty or fee related to the sale of derived works.
5. Attribution
The license may require derived works to provide attribution to the original designer when distributing design files, manufactured products, and/or derivatives thereof. The license may also require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original design.
6. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
7. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the hardware in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the hardware from being used in a business, or from being used in nuclear research.
8. Distribution of License
The rights attached to the hardware must apply to all to whom the product or documentation is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
9. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
The rights attached to the hardware must not depend on the hardware being part of a particular larger product. If the hardware is extracted from that product and used or distributed within the terms of the hardware license, all parties to whom the hardware is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original distribution.
10. License Must Not Restrict Other Hardware or Software
The license must not place restrictions on other hardware or software that may be distributed or used with the licensed hardware. For example, the license must not insist that all other hardware sold at the same time be open source, nor that only open source software be used in conjunction with the hardware.
11. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.
Afterword
The signatories of this Open Source Hardware definition recognize that the open source movement represents only one way of sharing information. We encourage and support all forms of openness and collaboration, whether or not they fit this definition.
Endorsements
OSHW Draft Definition 0.3 is endorsed by the following persons and/or organizations. Please feel free to add (your own names) to this section. Listing your affiliation is optional for personal endorsements, and endorsements are presumed to be personal unless the organization name is listed separately.
David A. Mellis, MIT Media Lab and Arduino
Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries
Phillip Torrone, Make and Adafruit Industries
Leah Buechley, MIT Media Lab
Chris Anderson, Wired and DIY Drones
Nathan Seidle, SparkFun Electronics
Alicia Gibb, Bug Labs
Massimo Banzi, Arduino
Tom Igoe, Arduino, ITP/NYU
Zach Smith, MakerBot Industries
Andrew “bunnie” Huang, bunniestudios
Becky Stern, MAKE
Windell Oskay, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
John Wilbanks, Creative Commons
Jonathan Kuniholm, Open Prosthetics Project/Shared Design Alliance
Ayah Bdeir, littleBits.cc/Eyebeam/Creative Commons
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