Much like open-source software, open-source hardware thrives on community collaborations. By sharing work and receiving feedback, makers can improve their designs.
Open source hardware (OSH) allows for designs to be shared to create the same product, or a modified version, with the same level of quality, from anywhere in the world. OSH is essential to lowering the barriers to distributed manufacturing, allowing for more participatory production and a step toward the democratisation of technology and hardware. Open source hardware has the ability to make an impact in multiple industries, including humanitarian aid, health, science, education & innovation.
To learn more about the definition of Open Source Hardware, click here:
An action that emerged from the 2022 Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) was a searchable and indexable directory for open science hardware projects. Since then, workshops, co-working sessions, papers and funding bids moved this action forward toward connecting the existing directories of Open Hardware – something that could further enable an hardware search engine based on Open Know-How. The open hardware directory group was launched as a partnership between open hardware networks and Alliance community members.
Local Economies
Being able to produce products on local scales increase the effectiveness and longevity of products as they can be modified, repaired and updated to best suit local environments.
Global Standards
To advance the capabilities of open-source hardware there needs to be work towards global standards that will enable efficiency and quality assurance in distributed manufacturing - carrying on from DIN SPEC 3105 on Open Hardware: requirements for technical documentation.
Inspirations
The Library of Open-Source Hardware is a consolidated database for open-source hardware specifications, to promote their use by the maker community, both in production and contribution to the database.
Mekanika are a company that distribute opensource CNC milling machines that are versatile, customisable, and independently repairable, allowing for elevated individual control over your organisation’s machinery, as all the device plans are open source
