[Discuss] the significance of oshw

Fri Nov 15 06:38:58 UTC 2013

This for me this is a very interesting subject, because I think open
hardware design means a regression to times where design was an organic
process. Hardware designers were a) people who created things because they
thought they were useful and needed, and b) people who really desired an
improvement in the quality of life of people. No marketing, no price
bloating, no surplus. This is where it all made sense. Communities didn't
necessarily revere makers as they do with Steve Jobs nor was knowledge on a
trade seen as an esoteric endeavor. People just created because they felt
like it, or needed, or loved to do it. That's the way collaborative
cultures thrived and developed in the beginning.

For me, the open creation of hardware pieces reminds me of the way
civilization came to grow and develop. It means to regard knowledge as
something to be seen with eyes of opportunity and to admire through work
itself. It also means to open opportunities for culturally open communities
(that is, those who haven't yet been fully infused with marketing and the
legal threats of the current IP world) so that they can also be part of the
world in terms of technology. It means social innovation, cultural
inclusion and personal opportunities, all within the scope of science and
technology.

Open Source Hardware isn't 'like' or 'analog to' software or other types of
open knowledge, since it follows the same ideal. That's all it matters. It
believes in a set of core values and it brings an interesting debate to
societies through a declaration for humanity and the way things should be.
It becomes a mirror on which modern trades and economies can embarrass
themselves over their lack of abilities to actually create value for
societies. It shows marketers the shallowness of their mot,ives it
convinces ip lawyers about how meaninglessness of their mindsets. It opens
paths for people to find out what they're missing to shape their
environment, and it also empowers communities and networks to redesign
their world through their own hands. All of that through sharing.

You can check this article I wrote on the subject of primitive design.
Original (Portuguese): http://designlivre.org/design-livre-primitivo/
English translation:
http://www.snipedia.net/2013/02/primitive-free-design.html

On 9 November 2013 05:41, Catarina Mota <catarina at openmaterials.org> wrote:

> Thanks everyone. I added Gabby's talk to the talks<http://www.oshwa.org/talks/>page, and Joshua's and Tiberius' testimonials to the
> testimonials page.
>
> Please keep them coming!
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 2:09 PM, Mario Gómez <mxgxw.alpha at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Tiberius!
>>
>> I was reading your testimonial and I'm really interested on hearing more
>> about your experciences with Universities. Here in El Salvador many
>> education centers have started to work with OSHW solutions, specifically
>> Arduino. But in most of the cases what I have saw is that they miss the
>> whole picture of collaborate and distribute their projects and results.
>>
>> In our country the universities doesn't monetize their investigations, as
>> I wrote in my previous message many projects are doomed to collect dust in
>> their libraries. But at the same time they don't want to embrace the "open"
>> concept. I think that Emilio Velis has a funny history about how they
>> convinced a local University to publish their student's thesis works with
>> CC licences and then they stopped using it when they figured what they
>> really meant.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Mario
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Tiberius Brastaviceanu <
>> tiberius.brastaviceanu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I added my testimonials in the Google doc
>>>
>>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K0JyOKWbldWtXXpqhAOTsGQ23NmEtQit6bDlLLTbFhs/edit#heading=h.vdhbp2m90ajl
>>>
>>> I can contribute with more if anyone has specific questions!
>>>
>>> Thanks! I like the initiative!
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM, gabriella levine <
>>> gabriella.levine at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> 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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>>>>
>>>>
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>>>> ---------------------------------
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> t!b! <http://www.google.com/profiles/tiberius.brastaviceanu>
>>> co-founder of SENSORICA <http://www.sensorica.co>,
>>> an open, decentralized and self-organizing
>>> value network (an open enterprise)
>>>
>>> founder of Multitude Project<https://sites.google.com/site/multitude2008/>
>>>
>>> Google Profile <https://plus.google.com/117593809719446924575/about>
>>> Facebook Tiberius Brastaviceanu<http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000279944184>
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>>>
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>>
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