The Dark Ages of Open Source

This is the best summary so far on the lack of imagination that has to date prevented viable open source business models from being replicated widely in the 3D printer space.

From Jonathan Quesnel:

hello marcin what would be your answer to this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68FkIwCc_eo

This is a very important subject I think.

MJ: Yes, we are unfortunately in 2023 in the dark ages of open-collaborative enterprise. This has been the case - in my mind - ever since Makerbot made the clear proposition that 'open source hardware business models do not work'. But it is also baked into the Open Hardware Definition, which does not require collaboration, just openness. I have observed that we must always make the distinction of not only open, but open-collaborative - to capture the essence of higher virtues that are possible with The Promise of Open Source

The fact is, nobody to date has yet created a replicable, open source business model around hardware. OSE and Precious Plastic are the 2 closest that I am aware of. The distress-sale of Lulzbot in 2019 cemented the sad state of affairs. And in 2023, Shuttleworth Foundation shut down. OSE, having watched this history unfold since 2003 - is committed to showing the first case of open-collaborative business model scalability. We are working on this with the Seed Eco-Home 4 right now, creating the necessary conditions that allow open collaborative innovation to flourish. The goal is lofty - Distributed Market Substitution (80% market share of open-collaborative production) of the house construction space within 10 years of proof of concept of the revenue model. We are a few months away from such proof at present. See more at The Economic Advantage of Open.

Learnings

A disciplined business model and economic engine needs to be created to make open harware work for a specific enterprise. See Good to Great and Built to Last. Open source design is only a part of it. A business model, a distribution/replication mechanism (education in our case) - must be developed as well. Open source is not a business model. A specific business model created around an open design can be a viable business model. But in our view, it must be collaborative at the core, it must include creation of culture to escape the moral philosophy of slavery initially proposed by Socrates but still alive today - and it must include a clear economic flywheel. In our view, it must create culture through education, and that education must be a core aspect because we literally need to re-indoctrinate society to a post-scarcity culture. The model must possess fundamental virtue, as opposed to simple strategic use of open source (see Strategic Open Source).