Rationale for Open Publishing

We typically ask people, when they are getting involved with or interacting with OSE, to publish their information, application, sample assignments, or proposals openly. We hold this position, unless we are discussing private or personal information that can compromise one's right to privacy. In general, there is a practical reason for open publishing based on development efficiency. When content is published openly, we publish it once, and it is free for everyone to see, learn from, or build upon - as in the nature of the Open Source Hardware Definition. This means that we can simply refer people to that material - instead of first determining what we can share or not, and then sending the information. The latter case is an example of competitive waste - in that it takes energy to protect one's IP. Such competitive waste is to us not constructive towards our goal of open innovation. When others can see our information openly - without us having to maintain such security - we save time - especially when we are working with a large distributed team - where the transaction costs of having to reveal information on a case by case basis are simply too high. A good example of this is Wikipedia - imagine if every reader had to obtain permission before reading any article. This barrier would make the utility of Wikipedia much lower. It is in this nature that we consider openness in general - as the potential of building upon open content far outweighs the benefit of profiting from information closure. This is our philosophical stand, and an essential component of OSE Culture.