Open Design Engine
http://www.innovationsts.com/blog/?p=3924
from founder:
Thank you for forwarding this email to me, and for the virtual introduction to the team organizing the Open Source Hardware Documentation Jam. I'm excited to know an event like this is happening, and appreciate the team's work in organizing it. We (Mach 30 - http://mach30.org) have been working to promote/discuss/solve the challenge of sharing and collaborating on open source hardware for approximately 3 years, and it is great to hear about other like minded folks.
The core of our work to date (focusing on sharing and collaborating open source hardware projects) has been the development of a project portal for open source hardware projects called Open Design Engine (https://opendesignengine.net/). It is based on an open source software package called Redmine (http://www.redmine.org/) which has a very flexible plugin architecture, giving us a solid foundation for building up a very custom site while still leveraging the power of Redmine's core features. Open Design Engine's prototype was funded internally by Mach 30 (after consulting with another open source spaceflight organization - http://cstart.org/forum/software-projects/cstartmach-30-joint-venture-for-web-based-engineering-project-management/), and the first public release of Open Design Engine was funded through a Kickstarter in 2011 (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/373493158/open-hardware-needs-a-sourceforge-of-its-own). We are currently in public Beta, and self-registration is available on the site. Our next round of development is in planning, with a focus on growing the site through stronger branding, sustainable income, and infrastructure improvements.
Mach 30 has already put Open Design Engine to use extensively in its own open source hardware projects, including the Shepard Test Stand (https://opendesignengine.net/projects/shepard-ts) and and open source ground station (https://opendesignengine.net/projects/gs-001). Other notable projects hosted on Open Design Engine include a Scanning Tunneling Microscope (https://opendesignengine.net/projects/stm-ajstarr) and an open source high altitude balloon (https://opendesignengine.net/projects/spacechiles).
Mach 30 has also done some preliminary work in the arena of development tools for open source hardware projects. This work is centered around the Openeering Wiki (http://openeering.wikispaces.com/). The Openeering Wiki is an online catalog and a companion forum discussing free and open source software, books, websites, licenses, and hardware systems for use in designing and manufacturing openly licensed hardware. More info on the Openeering Wiki can be found here (http://openeering.wikispaces.com/About+the+Openeering+Concept).
Moving forward, we would love to work with other like minded individuals and organizations to develop improved tools for hosting/sharing/collaborating on open source hardware projects. We have had many discussions about the need to connect with a larger portion of the open source hardware community when it comes to shaping the direction of tools like Open Design Engine and the Openeering Wiki. Clearly, we would be interested in participating in the Open Source Hardware Documentation Jam (either in person or through online tools such as video conferencing). We would also welcome feedback on our tools from the participants of the Jam and the larger open source hardware community. And of course we would be very grateful for more direct support (financial or code contributions for example). I believe we could also make positive contributions to the discussions at the Jam based on our work to date and the background of our project leaders (including systems engineering, software development, and consensus based decision making).
Thank you again to the team for organizing the event and to Eric for sharing it with us,
jrs at mach30 dot org
