[Discuss] the significance of oshw

[alicia]

I think OSHWA's a great spot for testimonials - we can put it under the
Research tab?

*[I'm really nervous I might sound like a jerk with this next statement,
but I'm going to say it anyway] *As an American, I think I've been around
capitalistic thinking for so long, it's hard for me to think outside of the
standard reasons you listed. But I would very much like to hear Eric Pan's
thoughts on this, or other people coming from different cultures, but
especially China, because as I've had more and more conversations with Eric
and other folks too, it strikes me that (possibly due to not having patent
law until 1984) Chinese folks have a default mindset on sharing rather than
the default mindset American's have on protecting. And apologies for making
broad statements, there are people in both nations that have opposite views
too. But I've started to go on a bit of a soapbox when I hear the mindset
American's have of "China ripping stuff off" and I think its a vast
misunderstanding of cultural norms, and that China has been more closely
tied to doing things in an open source fashion for a greater part of
history, and that American's get taught to stop sharing after kindergarten.
(I have slides on oshw and kindergarten
too<http://www.slideshare.net/aliciagibb/alicia-gibb>.
There's a talk on it as well, but you can't see the pictures in the video.)

Getting back to your question though, I love to see and hear about people
using things differently than I would have (very much linked to the hacker
mindset) - discovering how people use hardware differently than oneself is
extremely powerful education and mind-opening. I think kids are great at
this, a one year old who hasn't had a cupcake before, thinks of eating a
cupcake very differently that you or I, scale that up to building with
Legos, using electronics, ignoring physics, etc. <-- That's also not
specific to oshw, but oshw helps when you can make the way YOU want to use
hardware a reality rather than conforming to a business / culture's way of
using hardware.

Alicia


On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 1:19 PM, Catarina Mota <catarina at openmaterials.org>wrote:

> Awesome!
>
> Michael: you can either just post your testimonial on this thread, or
> email it directly to me if you prefer.
>
> Gabby: that's a great idea! Same thing: either send to the list or to me
> and I'll start a page on oshwa.org (if no one has objections to that).
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 3:14 PM, gabriella levine <
> gabriella.levine at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I know also there have been a number of amazing and inspirational talks
>> about the importance of OSHW, none of which are archived in one spot -
>> would this be such a place for this , also?
>>
>> Yes I agree that this could be cool and I'm definitely interested. I can
>> get you a few lines of text, video, and photos if that would work.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Catarina Mota <catarinamfmota at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I've been thinking about the real significance of open source hardware.
>>> We spend a lot time discussing how to do OSHW right. We usually explain its
>>> advantages by saying that it allows people to copy, modify, and transform
>>> hardware, which leads to faster development and better technologies. But I
>>> think there is more to it than that. In some recent conversations, a few
>>> people mentioned the sense of empowerment and liberation that comes from
>>> creating and modifying technologies, which makes me think that there are
>>> deeper cultural implications here.
>>>
>>> So I was thinking that it would be nice to compile a series of
>>> testimonials about what people perceive as the personal, practical,
>>> political, cultural, social or economic advantages and disadvantages of
>>> open source hardware.
>>>
>>> If OSHWA agrees, we can create a page for these testimonials/opinions on
>>> oshwa.org. Or, if for any reason, that is problematic, I can find
>>> another place to publish them. I just think that it's important to put a
>>> more human face on our outreach efforts (rather than just publishing
>>> technical and legal information).
>>>
>>> Does anyone want to contribute? There's no structure, just whatever you
>>> want to say about this topic. If you post your opinions on this list I can
>>> collect, compile and publish them (on oshwa.org or somewhere else).
>>> Hopefully this can also trigger an interesting discussion :)
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Catarina
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> discuss mailing list
>>> discuss at lists.oshwa.org
>>> http://lists.oshwa.org/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
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