[Discuss] Ideal government support for open hardware businesses

[Joshua]

Hi All

It is nice to see all the progress we have made as a community. Rather than
settle for open hardware simply gaining traction organically, I have been
working on projects to help accelerate the uptake (e.g. see this issue of
the National Academy of Engineering's magazine
<https://www.nae.edu/19582/Bridge/174695.aspx>). My current project is
specifically looking at mechanisms to leverage government support to grow
libre businesses.

For that I could use some help from you with established businesses with a
few questions. Please feel respond to me directly or to the whole list:
1. Have you taken advantage of any existing programs at the federal, state
or local level e.g. SBIR/STTR etc?
2. For development of future OS products what would be your ideal type of
government program?
3. Have you had any unique challenges as an OS company that you would like
to see fixed (either for yourself or those companies that come after you)?
4. If you are successful - and if your open to it I would love to use
whatever financial information you would be comfortable sharing (e.g. price
comparison between your products and the closest proprietary competitors
and # of sales to estimate the cost savings for the overall economy)

All the best,
Joshua

-- 
Joshua M. Pearce, Ph.D.
Fulbright-Aalto University Distinguished Chair

Professor
Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Lab
<http://www.appropedia.org/Category:MOST>
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Michigan Technological University
601 M&M Building
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295

*Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs
<http://www.appropedia.org/Open-source_Lab>*
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