[Discuss] the significance of oshw

gabriella levine gabriella.levine at gmail.com
Fri Nov 8 15:24:18 UTC 2013


hey catarina - here's a link to a recent talk i gave on open hw -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm_nd_7RneI

it was to a quite laymen audience so it's really simplistic but I guess it
is sort of my testimonial in a sense.


On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 7:19 AM, Catarina Mota <catarina at openmaterials.org>wrote:

> Thanks Matt, I added your comment to the testimonials<http://www.oshwa.org/testimonials/>
> .
>
> Michael Shiloh, it would be awesome to hear your take on the educational
> side.
>
> Anyone else has testimonials about the significance of OSHW they'd like to
> contribute?
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 11:58 AM, Matt Maier <blueback09 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "How much would a prostetic hand cost?"
>> "10,000 dollars."
>> "How much did your own design cost?"
>> "I dunno, like, ten bucks."
>>
>>
>> http://olimex.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/open-source-hardware-allow-casual-people-to-make-innovations/
>>
>> This is the kind of improvement that's possible in technology when you
>> don't keep secrets. 3D printers have been around for decades, which means a
>> simple, writs-activated prosthetic hand could have been manufactured on 3D
>> printers and sold for $50 a long time ago. But nobody did that because it
>> was more profitable to just keep everything a secret and make people pay
>> through the nose for a proprietary solution.
>>
>> Open hardware allows the actual lowest-cost solution to be widely shared.
>> It means that the people who actually NEED the lowest-cost solutions can
>> just provide for themselves instead of waiting for the market to maybe
>> deliver it, eventually...for a price that takes advantage of their need.
>>
>> All of those zeros in the price of commercial prosthetic hands have
>> nothing to do with the inherent technology. They're a reflection of how
>> much people are willing to pay when they need a new hand. Open hardware
>> removes those zeros, reduces prices by orders of magnitude, simply by
>> negating the price that can be charged for secrets.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 1:08 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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