Open Hardware: How & Why It Works

Shameless self promotion: I just published a new article about open hardware. The article, Open Hardware: How & Why It Works, includes an introduction to open hardware concepts, overviews of some popular projects including the Arduino and BeagleBoard, a brief overview of some of the legal issues, and a trip report from the Open Hardware Summit in New York last month.

Please visit & vote — both on the article, and in the elections if you are based in the US.

Open Hardware Definition Bumped

Phillip Torrone (also see braincraft.com), open hardware evangelist bon vivant, recently posted these excellent links on the Open Hardware Summit mailing lists covering the draft Open Hardware definition and statement of principles. If you are at all interested in open hardware, please go take a look and participate in this seminal discussion.

• new overview on FreedomDefined.org
• Overview and discussion on the Open Hardware Summit discussion forum
• MAKE blog post
• adafruit blog post
• sparkfun blog post

While you’re nosing around about open hardware, check out this article on lwn.net about John Wilbanks’ excellent presentation at the Open Hardware Summit.

Open Source Hardware defined by industry leaders

Linux Pro Magazine this morning posted an article on a new definition of “open source hardware” (version 0.3) by several industry leaders. There are 11 basic tenets that are defined in the article and in the official document on freedomdefined.org, which also takes cues from the TAPR Open Hardware License. Here are the tenets:

1. Documentation
2. Necessary Software
3. Derived Works
4. Free redistribution
5. Attribution
6. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
7. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
8. Distribution of License
9. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
10. License Must Not Restrict Other Hardware or Software
11. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

I think it is fantastic that open-source hardware is being taken so seriously. In fact, it is taken seriously to the point of a summit, the first Open Hardware Summit Sept. 23 in Queens, NY. If you’re in the area for ESC Boston, definitely stop by.