https://medium.com/@objectguerilla/the-open-source-object-8ceac1c8ef55
Open source software, which broke into the public conversation in 1998, was conceived as a way to circumvent these issues by releasing source code for people to tinker with on their own. Netscape was the first company to do this profitably; many have followed, including some of the heavies like Google’s Android. Generally, open source projects adhere to four basic principles: openness, transparency, iteration, and community. Source code should be open; operations, edits, and defects should be transparent; drafts should be released early and iterated frequently; and it should all operate on a community basis that coalesces around project challenges. On top of these four principles, the Open Source Initiative has (critically) built up a legal regime around open software by establishing standards and licenses. Now, these principles are coming to hardware.
Phonebloks started 2 years ago as a viral video about a reconfigurable phone that one could upgrade easily by switching out brick-like modules. RepRaphas taken these ideas further, developing an open-source 3D printer that one can use to print parts for more 3D printers, ad infinitum. Open Source Ecology, based on a farm in Missouri, is developing a toolkit of 50 machines (many of which can make other machines) with crowd-sourced design, prototyping, and assembly instructions. Hacking Households, a project that came out of the 24th Slovenian Design Biennial last summer, aims to combine 3D printing and simple wooden parts to make easy-to-comprehend household objects. OpenDesk, a company out of London, releases CAD files of furniture so you can cut your own on a CNC. They are also working on the WikiHouse, a similarly crowd-sourced project to produce low-cost, snap-together structures from CNC-routed plywood….
