Blog Post on OSE's Development Method
Exlainer Video Script
Intro screen. Open Source Ecology -- (ting) -- Home of Distributive Enterprise. ---
Open software is well-established, and has its development process figured out -- (pop in) -- Github, Wikipedia
The process for developing open hardware technologies, on the other hand, is much harder.
It requires materials, tools, facilities, logistics...
Nobody has figured out a coherent open source standard for how to do it. But it is so important - because technology shapes our options - and the best way to predict the future is to invent it.
After all, just about any new 'invention' is just a small step on top of all existing human knowledge.
Because many things are proprietary - there's a lot of reinventing the wheel.
But what if we can compress development times of hardware from years to weeks - the true promise of open source. Like Wikipedia lets the world write its own encyclopedia. (10,000 hours = 100 people with 100 hours each, or 40 people around the clock or 1000 people with 10 hours each. Realistically - we can expect 10 hours from a volunteer contributor per month. So we need 1000 people. That is formidable!!! That would take 100 leaders, and a team of 10 people each. This is feasible only with open tools and techniques, for tag teaming. Structure - 5 Superleaders leading 10 leaders each, and , each has 10 leaders.)
Open source hardware technology means distributing production. The market for distributed production is about $100 Trillion - the entire global economy.
Be a part of the change.
Open Source Ecology is starting a group on the Open Source Hardware Development Method. We will:
- Invite leading OSH practitioners (OSHWA logo + Peeps) to a Working Group
- Identify all the steps in open hardware development
- For each step, create standards, best practices, and develop a common language of icons and taxonomies
- Get feedback and adoption from the OSH community
Now the list of steps can be as long as detailed as needed, and across all sectors, from electronics to airplanes to regenerative agriculture. It can include metasteps, organizational, and enterprise aspects.
Why the complexity? Once everything is put on the table - then different open source projects can pick and choose what they need.
Say you need a basic documentation strategy. Here are the best tools and practices.
Say you need to build a legal framework, or a community. You get the picture.
If the Overall Method is Defined and Standardized - then it can serve as a backbone that can be mashed up, adapted, and developed, stylized, forked, or published. For open hardware projects to really build upon each other, the first step is a common language.
We have started work on this in 2013 by instigating the open source hardware documentation jam. We are continuing.
So sign up for our working group, and make history happen. --- Open Source Ecology. Home of Distributive Enterprise.
https://www.opensourceecology.org/open-source-hardware-development-method/
