Awesome Economics of Open Source

https://opensource.com/article/18/9/awesome-economics-open-source . See Nobel Prize lecture there on outsourcing by Oliver Williamson. Contact the author to discuss the case of hardware.

At this point in history of open source, we can reflect on the evolution of open source. We may say that open source started in the 1970s when the first programs were open source - which turned priprietary with the rise of Microsoft and Apple - and Richard Stallman- in the 1980s - which then resulted in a balancing act in the formation of the Linux kernel in 1991 - which turned into widespread acceptance of open source where currently Microsoft is the number one contributor to open source projects.

At this time, an internet search reveals live discussion of open source as the norm - but only in software.

This seems to indicate that the same discussion will follow within a decade - for hardware.

Currently, open source hardware effectively doesn't exist. And when it does exist in the $1B open source 3D printer market - it is not recognized as a movement towards global transition to open source economics...

These are interesting times indeed for Open Source Ecology.