[Discuss] OSHW manufacturing, was Re: the significance of oshw

Cameron Adamez cameron at suspectdevices.com
Fri Nov 8 03:03:17 UTC 2013


On Nov 6, 2013, at 9:43 PM, Tux Lab wrote:
> 
> Should there be a standard in oshw manufacturing?   In the open source spirit we can't exclude anyone, but is there anyway to formulate a voluntary guideline on how oshw are manufactured.

At the women's dinner at this year's summit, there were some people talking about this. Labor in certain countries can be problematic, but (from an American perspective) there are two problems taking place:
 1) the NIMBY phenomena (not in my backyard) where no one wants to deal with any pollution/environmental costs to manufacturing
 2) laborers being paid a fair/living wage 
 3) scarcity of materials (or problems in gathering materials)

Understanding how production of different things works is a good first step in assessing the problem. Another issue I see is that the environmental factors directly impact the health of the same people who are being paid to manufacture products. Oil refinery cities like Richmond, California -- where the major employer is also a major polluter -- are good examples of how we need to examine the production cycle.

>   Every country has different labor laws but I think at the very least, the workers should know that they are working on oshw products and know about the open source concept.

I know that Sunstone Circuits in Oregon gives tours. I think it would be awesome to organize an informal meeting with your favorite fab house. You could poll the employees to see if anyone is interested. It's also important to show support the other way as well -- if a production facility that you use has people going on strike, you should help them while they are on strike.

Cameron


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