Golden Age of Open Source

The period of high hope in open source, from the early 2000s (2003 - Sparkfun, 2004- RepRap, 2004- OSE, Arduino - 2005, etc) which ended in the sellout of Makerbot and other appropriations of the commons around 2012. This marked the temporary end of the promise of the Zero Marginal Cost Society, where the true Third Industrial Revolution is yet to happen. Note that Jeremy Rifkin is claiming modest success, though none of the efforts that he is involved in appear to be authentic in the sense of the technical definition of Open Source in hardware. Other posterchildren are hobbling along. RepRap does not seem to be pursuing the original purpose of the Founder, and its most successful case, Prusa, is noteworthy as a major commercial success for only nominally open source. Precious Plastic achieved good success, with 2024 tribulations included. OSE may be at a turning point of a promethean effort. Etc. But it's all up to us currently - what kind of future do we want. So far, nobody has achieved the immortal status of changing the industrial paradigm - explicitly expressed at least by RepRap or OSE.