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Open source hardware
Open source hardware
1. What is open source hardware?
2. Licensing.
3. How does it help the individual?
4. How can it help companies?
5. How can countries benefit from it?
6. Vision
7. Join the community
1.What is open source hardware?
Open source hardware refers to the free release of information about the hardware design, such as logic designs (using hardware description language), schematics, bill of materials and printed circuit board (PCB) layout data, often with the use of free open source software to drive the hardware.
Now lets explain some terms we've used in this definition :
- hardware description language (HDL) is any language from a class of computer languages and/or programming languages for formal description of electronic circuits. It can describe the circuit's operation, its design and organization, and tests to verify its operation by means of simulation.
- printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).
There are a lot of licenses used for open source hardware most of them being borrowed from the software world, some of them especially for hardware like TAPR Open Hardware License, and some of them created solely for a single project like the Balloon Open Hardware License for the Balloon Project.
3. How does it help the individual?
By offering free access to resources and information one individual is empowered to build, replicate, modify and improve projects according to the project’s license.
Building your own hardware results in lower costs, a more extensive use of the project and the pleasure of knowing that it came from your own hands. It is indeed more time consuming than buying the finished project but sometimes the geographical position, the costs or simply the passion and the need to invent will drive individuals to build open hardware.
- by providing a market for parts, kits, tools and technical support
- by virally spreading new products as open source projects
Can it be considered a business model?
- YES, because there is a demand and your company can be the offer, because you can benefit and make profit with this
(just take a look at Bug Labs, Adafruit or BeagleBoard)
- and the best part is that the individual is in control improving and having full access to the product (as the world of open source demonstrated thru linux distributions (like Red Hat, Ubuntu and others), Firefox, Apache to mention just a few that became leading products in their niche by being open source minded.
5. How can countries benefit from it?
- promoting open hardware in the educational system provides a great source of projects for students and teachers
- provides a great hobby for the young ones, a social networking activity that promotes clean tech, alternative sources of energy and a greener future
If you are representing a governmental organization and want to collaborate with us we are open to suggestions Contact us.
For the humanity to evolve one step is for every member to have free access to knowledge, another step is to provide methods for individuals to store what they accomplish and discover so that the we do not make the same mistakes or reinvent same things, yet another step is to provide them with tools and means to collaborate and help one another.
Harkopen.com respects the licenses that the passionate technological people choose for their projects and promotes open source hardware as permissive as can be, if a project is here we want you the user to be able to reproduce it as accurately as possible and to be able to use it as you wish, to improve it, extend it and share it back with the community.
Given the society that we live in, with the earth's current problems and limitation the humanity needs to overcome the current obstacles thru technology, sustainable , generally available, green technology. And open source hardware provides that platform to help change the world and make it a better place.
Harkopen.com was created with these premises and will try to provide the tools to offer access to information, provide storage of progress and new information, and become a collaborative tool for the human race, thru the Internet to evolve technological.
- if you are a user you can submit projects, take part is others, join discussion groups and submit news and tutorials;
- if you a company you can promote your project (open source hardware), get precious user feedback, access a market of electronics targeted audience.